Home Distiller

I'm new to distilling and this is my first time trying to make rum. I warmed up 4 gallons of filtered water to 125, mixed in

10 lbs. Light Brown Sugar
2 lbs. Raw Cane Sugar
1 gallon unsulferized Molasses
2 cups of Natural Apple Sauce (just for
sh!ts and giggles, as grandma would say)

Made a starter using the mash and 1 packet of Red Star bread yeast and some Red Star DADY, plus yeast nutrients. Waited an hour for it to start working. Then added 2 gallons of cold filtered water, to bring temperature down to 92 and pitched in the starter. It seems like it's working well. Just need some guidance on how to get the best flavors.

My big questions are:

1. What is the best temperature to ferment at? I can do 72 degrees inside at room temperature or 92 degrees in a closet wrapped with blankets. Currently at 72 degrees. Or maybe get in-between 72 and 92 by leaving inside at room temp., but wrapped in blankets?

2. What is the best way to run it when it's ready? Fast? Or low and slow?

*Just a little background my last run (not rum) was super low and slow, took over 16 hours to get 4 jars plus 2 smaller jars of tails. But I did get 160, 145, 132, 120 and tails at 90 and 60. I used an 8 gallon Vevor still with thumper (had apple sauce in thumper, was hoping for flavor). Also had ice in the pump bucket to keep worm cold, distillate came out at around 65ish degrees (if I remember correctly).*

3. For best flavor is it better to run no thumper or thumper with Molasses/Dark Brown Sugar water? Again trying for a tasty flavor at a drinkable proof, say 100ish. Or thumper with banana or coconut or Pecans or whatever other suggestions y'all might have?

Again I'm a newbie And still learning, so please keep that in mind.

Welcome to the wheel of rum madness!

1. I'd ferment it hot to get the most tasty by products from the yeast.

2. When it's done, strip it as fast as you can, and use the hot water from the condenser and 10% of the dunder left in the still, to set the same thing up again to ferment. Repeat again. Then run all of that low and slow.

3. If you want maximum rum flavour, use more molasses.

Last bit of advice, do more reading in the run threads and you'll start to get more idea of how to make good rum.

Ferment your rum hot, like upper 80’s F. You’ve got a bunch of sugar, but not deep brown like panella or turbinado. You’re also light on molasses for a deep flavor. I would have shot the thump with a bit of molasses for a richer flavor. Just a thought.

Perhaps off-topic but apparently the thumper on (some?) Vevor stills is not really a thumper because the inlet pipe is to short - making it effectively a puke box. It should be sufficiently long to be covered with whatever you put in it.

Either double distil using the pot only, or one run and done using the thumper. Don’t confuse a thumper with a slobber box, they don’t behave the same way.

Don’t expect huge flavor as the brown and raw sugars don’t add much.

Study how to do the cuts before you run it.

1: depends on what kind of rum you want, and what you're shooting for. If you want something with more esters ferment hotter.

2: depends on what you want if you want cleaner rum like bacardi, triple distill or use plates, if you want something more like a funky Jamaican rum pot and 2 retorts (thumpers). A 1.5 run is a nice happy medium for a good flavorable rum.

3: This is going to be highly subjective, it all depends on what you want. Generally speaking an all molasses with dunder (stillage) is going to get you a pretty flavorable rum check out SBBs rum in t&t. There are a lot of threads with a lot of recipes you can try. Personally I like what Hampden does (10% molasses, 30% skimmings (basiclly sugar wash), 40% dunder (stillage), 10% cane acid, 10% muck) but I'd not recommend this for a beginner, there are too many challenges that you just don't know how to overcome yet)

This whole low and slow thing was meant to try to produce a drinkable product in a single pass. I'm my opinion not only does it fall short of producing a flavorable spirit it also takes too damn long lol. If you look at the pro industry there isn't anyone doing it this way...

For a double distillation strip as fast as you can without puking and with what your condensor can knock down. Then in your spirit run, run with enough heat to have an unbroken stream until you detect tails then reduce your power by about 50% to hold back your tails. Rum tails taste like shit.

It would seem that 92* is a little high for that yeast. I have seen more people use that in the low 80's. DistilaMax RM or a kviek would be a better choice for the 90's*
Tōtō

Baker's yeast does perfectly fine at 90-92, I've even had it up to 95 with no issues, but I did find that it was throwing way more acetaldehydes than I wanted.

It seems that they advertise from 68*- to 90*. Stressing yeast with hi temps seems to just make it more difficult then running a yeast that loves the tropics more.
Tōtō

Thank y'all for all the advice. I will do more research next try. Got it wrapped up in the closet for more warmth. I'm on day 6, still bubbling every 6-8 seconds. I swapped parts around to use the copper arm that comes with the vevor still inside the thumper, it's a half inch from the bottom. I also used a different fitting on the pot lid, so I can use the airlock without having to remove the thermometer. Thinking about upgrading the stainless lines between the different connections with copper water heater lines also, costs another $100 in new connections to make it work.

D4M4G3D_G00D5 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 3:36 pmThinking about upgrading the stainless lines between the different connections with copper water heater lines also, costs another $100 in new connections to make it work.

What are these copper water heater lines ?
Sounds like an expensive way of doing things .

They're just two 12 in. 3/4 FIP x 3/4 FIP flexible copper water heater supply lines from Home Depot, $10 each. The real problem is the brass fittings you need, to go from FIP to the other connections threads (which are different size and kind of thread), you end up needing at least 2 fittings each side to reduce down to the proper connection. So you end up needing 8 total brass fittings, 4 for each line, and they're at least $10 each fitting. So it ends up costing more than I paid for the 8 gallon Vevor still we have.

IIRC other members cut the threaded brass fittings off and soldered a reducer (3/4" x 1/2"?) to each end.

Unfortunately I got rid of my torch and other soldiering tools when I moved into a much smaller place. So it would cost more to buy the proper equipment and parts to do that. I did think of something similar and priced a torch tip, can of MAP gas, solder, pipe cleaning tool, etc. and it would be even more. And unfortunately I'm not from up here and don't know anyone that would have those tools either.

Just my two cents worth here, but I’d suggest putting the money into those tools and supplies. If you stick with distilling for any length of time, you’re probably going to start building or modifying things as you figure out what you want. If you can’t make it, than as you discovered you are stuck posting a fair bit of money for it.

I would agree, buy a cheap torch and gas, (Super cheap twist cans and an Amazon tip will do, you don't need mapp to solder!) a roll of solder and some flux and you can do anything with copper.
If this hobby sticks, you'll want to make and modify stuff, I guarantee it.

First ebay search;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385974822614 ... media=COPY

I get that and I agree. But I'm a (as they say) a first generation moonshiner, so I'm learning and with no one to help guide/mentor me...I'm on my own (like many others).

I have 2 runs under my belt so far and the first got scorched because I tried to get creative with flour, second was drinkable but not as tasty as I would've hoped. So until I get the basics I will respectfully hold off on doing anything to costly and complicated. Just looking for guidance and helpful hints and tips. Unfortunately there are (as grandma would've said, to many cooks in the kitchen)...meaning there are to many different opinions/ways to do things. So I'm currently just sifting through all the knowledge and information that is out there. I appreciate any help along the way. Thank y'all

I was lucky. When I started there was no YouTube and forums to confuse me, so I had to do actual research.

Start at the end. Decide what product you want to make and in what style.
Work backwards through the equipment needed and how it needs to be run to produce what you want.
Keep everything as simple as you can.
E.g., yeast temperature, don't stray far from what the manufacturer recommends.
Ingredients, don't stray far from what the older commercial enterprises use.
Heart cuts, choose a blend that you like from the jars you collected.