white rum question

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white rum question

Postby ed9362 » Wed Feb 01, 2017 4:53 pm

I have done a few generations of mac rum and now have enough low wines for a sprit run.

if I take the feints and run it through my reflux still, will I get a white rum (similar to bicardi) or will I get plain old neutral
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Re: white rum question

Postby bluc » Wed Feb 01, 2017 4:54 pm

Yes a few on here do just that. Hard to get the rum taste out of rum :D
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Re: white rum question

Postby EziTasting » Wed Feb 01, 2017 6:24 pm

ed9362 wrote:I have done a few generations of mac rum and now have enough low wines for a sprit run.

if I take the feints and run it through my reflux still, will I get a white rum (similar to bicardi) or will I get plain old neutral


Don't quote me, but from what I've heard white rum is aged and mellowed same as standard rum is but the product is then filtered (carbon filters) before being bottled. So the maturing process happens as with any rum, on oak, but the colour is stripped away thru the carbon filtering process, if that makes sense... :teasing-tease:
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Re: white rum question

Postby dogbreath vodka » Wed Feb 01, 2017 6:26 pm

:text-yeahthat:
Well said EziTasting

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacardi
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Re: white rum question

Postby Zak Griffin » Wed Feb 01, 2017 6:41 pm

That is the case for Bacardi, but plenty of hobby distillers are happy with the white rum they make running rum wash or feints through a reflux :handgestures-thumbupleft: worst case scenario you water it down and chuck it on oak!
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Re: white rum question

Postby ed9362 » Wed Feb 01, 2017 7:41 pm

That's interesting, maybe I will age some and try it trough the carbon filter things that came with with the still.
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Re: white rum question

Postby Dig Brinker » Thu Feb 02, 2017 12:55 am

As above for how they make white Bacardi rum. I've never refluxed rum or rum feints but from my reading they will retain rum flavour. From aging rum I have found it to taste like absolute ass for quite a while before it comes around... not sure if running as a neutral will remove all that ass.
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Re: white rum question

Postby 620rossco » Thu Feb 02, 2017 3:39 am

Yeah you can make it both ways.
You can also make a sugar wash with raw sugar and use 4 plates. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: white rum question

Postby Clickeral » Thu Feb 02, 2017 9:48 am

When I make white rum I run it the same way I make aged rum except I don't age it :p
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Re: white rum question

Postby JayTee » Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:39 pm

Hi - I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to make a nice white rum straight off the Still for a while. I basically use a similar fermentation to my dark rum - using good quality molasses. A number of posts talk about using reflux to produce this rum (effectively a white dog) because "it's difficult to remove the rummy flavour". I'm just not finding that.

I've tried 6 then 8 bubble tees and finally 10. It seems that if the abv drops to about 88% I can start to taste "other flavours" which I can't exactly call strong tails but don't give a clean white spirit with bags of rumminess. So 10 bubble tees allow me to maintain a take off at about 90% abv, but especially when this is diluted back to 40%, it's more like a "vodka plus". I can't exactly say it tastes like white rum. It is ok with coke but it isn't the full flavoured drink I was expecting.

I don't really want to go down the route of making a dark rum, oaking and carbon filtering, so I'm starting to question if it's possible to make a white rum with reflux straight off the Still.

Thanks in advance for any pointers. :-)
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Re: white rum question

Postby Tesla101 » Tue Sep 01, 2020 7:54 am

JayTee, not sure where you heard you need to reflux to make a rum. Reflux = stripping flavour. The more you reflux, the more flavour you strip. Great for making a neutral, or vodka but not for a flavoured spirit.

I'm not a rum guy and I don't run a bubbler, but my understanding is that your spirit run should be done more like a pot still. I think with a bubbler that's like medium power with 3 to 4 plates. I'm sure the rum guys here that run a bubbler will correct me if I'm wrong.
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Re: white rum question

Postby gad » Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:59 am

I have a mate who is / was a devout Barcardi drinker.
Long story but I don't much like rum but do make some now & then for my mate. He loves the stuff & has even compared it to Bacardi gold, with the rum I make for him winning hands down.
For him I make Macrum run's through a pot still until I have enough for a spirit run. I do not use backset, sludge, slops etc at all.
The spirit run is also run through the pot still. I do use one piece of copper coil to reduce sulphur in both the stripping & spirit runs.
Some heads are cut & most of the tails are cut but I'm not too fussed with this.
I do not oak (for him).
After the spirit run the whole lot gets put through a large active carbon filter.
I'm not much of a rum drinker but this still has strong rum flavour (IMHO).
My friend loves this.
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Re: white rum question

Postby JayTee » Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:22 am

Thanks for the info gad - much appreciated.

When you're making the pot Still cuts, any idea what abv you're making them on please? When I make dark rum (with oaking), I'm typically making the heads cut around 87% (so I get some very late heads for oaking) down to about 50%. I'm not too worried about some tails because I know they'll oak out nicely.

I don't have any experience with carbon filtering though. Will carbon filtering smooth out the distillate for a similar range of cuts, or do the cuts need to be much tighter please?
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Re: white rum question

Postby gad » Wed Sep 02, 2020 8:34 am

Hi JayTee
Usually when doing cuts it is done by taste not abv, in this case, because it's going to be carbon filtered, I don't even do the cuts by taste as carbon filtering is going to remove a good deal of any heads & tails compounds left after the run so on a 45L spirit run I remove the first 250ml of foreshots, 1L of heads & then stop the run at 40% to cut out the tails. Carbon Filtering does the rest.
Normally carbon filtering will remove a lot of the taste & smooth out (polish) the end product but I have found that with the rum there is still plenty of flavour left. IMHO you can be a little slack on your cuts if you are going to carbon filter, others may disagree.
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Re: white rum question

Postby bluc » Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:42 am

Carbon does not remove heads only tails. Heads are thinner/lighter then hearts and just pass through the carbon :handgestures-thumbdown:
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Re: white rum question

Postby gad » Wed Sep 02, 2020 4:24 pm

Thank you bluc.
Then I may need to remove more heads in future though my mate Luv's this as is, so we'll see.
Very much appreciate the correction.
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