Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I made a rum from honey panela sugar caramelized sugar raw sugar honey and molasses. So at first it tasted like brown sugar smells (if that makes sense). Then at week 2.5 it had a strong dish washing liquid taste... soapy wtf :angry-banghead: now it tastes like something from a hospital, any ideas what could have gone wrong?

bluc wrote:I made a rum from honey panela sugar caramelized sugar raw sugar honey and molasses. So at first it tasted like brown sugar smells (if that makes sense). Then at week 2.5 it had a strong dish washing liquid taste... soapy wtf :angry-banghead: now it tastes like something from a hospital, any ideas what could have gone wrong?

Your missus had a gut full of you distilling :teasing-tease: :laughing-rolling:
Sorry no idea!

Lol I just found this page http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/is-my-beer-ruined/common-off-flavors

Two things I noticed
Soapy
Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap.
And also
Medicinal
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid? like, or can be spicy like cloves. The cause are various phenols which are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors.
Although these things don't ring any bells maybe this is what went wrong.
Anyone here ferment honey do you have to do anything special?

Is it on oak. I find too much raw oak, I overdosed a barrel once, gives this exact same flavour.

Ok maybe i will re distill or water it back with some wite dog..

Warra how did you fix yours? If they are off flavours do they fade? Should I be airing it or something or is it only good to turn to neutral?

Sorry to tell you but I didn't. Redistilling just carries the flavour.
I redistilled and had to carefully carbon filter to get it tasting neutral. Back in my turbo days so I had that shit still spirits Z filter.
Using it to water down something else, for the flavour, just makes whatever you mix it with it taste soapy. Can't get rid of that taste.
This is from me having it in an oak barrel for waaaaaay too long. New barrel with 40 (not 65ish) percent spirits. I stupidly thought the longer the better but back them I don't think chat rooms\forums had even been invented.

Might be a dumb idea but rather than try to hide the medicinal/clove-y taste could you run with that flavour profile and aim for a herbal liquor?

Zipeddy wrote:Might be a dumb idea but rather than try to hide the medicinal/clove-y taste could you run with that flavour profile and aim for a herbal liquor?

Don't know about the taste but love the ingenuity :laughing-rolling: :handgestures-thumbupleft: might be "bluc's medicinal rum"
From working with timber, My theory is make a fuck up a feature

When was it ran?
Was the run a usual, standard operation for you?
Anything go wrong?
How much oak and at what ABV?
Were you confident with your cuts?

IMO, I would leave it. Rum takes a year at least, I would put the lid on, place it in a dark place and let it do it's thing by not touching it for 6 months AT LEAST, in the mean time you can head to the Tried and Proven section and make some proven quality rum to age in case it is still shit in 12 months.

Don't over think these things, time an oak does wonders...

I once made an oat whiskey, off the still I was disgusted and even gave my leftover oats to Kimbo on here but 18 months later it's up there with the best whiskies I have ever made. Have faith mate, initial senses can only take you so far, time on oak will take you to the moon and back :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Absoultley nothing unusual about volume of end product, run, cuts or oaking. Oak at 15g/l 65% abv. Adding white dog helps a bit but not much just makes it tolerable, and feel I am throwing good after bad doing so. WIll take your advice push it to the back of the cupboard and forget about it.

Have made a bit of tried and proven rum and actually like it better young at around 6-8 weeks. From 3 months on it picks up a manky flavour I dont like all that much. Keeps the nice flavour I like as an aftertaste but the initial taste I am not a fan of. I have some at 10months old now so still early days..

Zipeddy wrote:Might be a dumb idea but rather than try to hide the medicinal/clove-y taste could you run with that flavour profile and aim for a herbal liquor?

I am not sure what herb I could use to complement the taste of an elostoplast bandaid...

bluc wrote:Absoultley nothing unusual about volume of end product, run, cuts or oaking. Oak at 15g/l 65% abv. Adding white dog helps a bit but not much just makes it tolerable, and feel I am throwing good after bad doing so. WIll take your advice push it to the back of the cupboard and forget about it.

Have made a bit of tried and proven rum and actually like it better young at around 6-8 weeks. From 3 months on it picks up a manky flavour I dont like all that much. Keeps the nice flavour I like as an aftertaste but the initial taste I am not a fan of. I have some at 10months old now so still early days..

If you keep it longer than 3 months try 10g/l or less. I think 15g/l is good from 3month and under, any longer and the oak should be less although i havent done rum, just cereal washes.

Ive got some 7g/l ones i just bumped up to 12 g/l as im running out but they were meant to be left a year

Perhaps that is what I will do with my normal rum remove some oak at about 1.5 months.
Normal run I can normally pick it at 3 weeks, weather I have my cuts right and weather it's a good brew or a great brew.

This stuff is just straight out horrible. Maybe there is nothing wrong with it and I just don't like the taste of fermented honey and or panela sugar :think:

bluc wrote:Perhaps that is what I will do with my normal rum remove some oak at about 1.5 months.
Normal run I can normally pick it at 3 weeks, weather I have my cuts right and weather it's a good brew or a great brew.

This stuff is just straight out horrible. Maybe there is nothing wrong with it and I just don't like the taste of fermented honey and or panela sugar :think:

This happened with my rum
After aging for 12 months it was rather soapy and I had a bit of a cry
Next time I'll be using quite a bit less oak and testing it at 3 and 6 months

Only a newbie so I figure no good waiting 12 months then find out I don't like it :teasing-tease: so I have a nip a couple times a week and keep a close eye on things all my batchs, to me, taste good and change pretty wildly from 3 weeks to 3 months, from 3 months on rum seems to get a taste I am not that keen on which is the initial taste.the aftertaste is still really nice. With my whiskey and burboun knock offs the flavour seems to keep getting better.
Only exception is a wash I did with bran oil as an anti foamer :puke-huge: and this honey rum :puke-huge: at least with bran rum I know we're I went wrong...