Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

So my second rum wash fermented out ok and I've stripped it down now.

I've now got two stripped runs which would total about 22L @ 40% if I were to set it up for a spirit run.

My only concern is the position of the element in my boiler. Normally I think it would take about 10L to cover it. Is there any disadvantage or change in the methodology of a spirit run if I were to add another 10L of water or so to ensure I keep the element covered by run end? It would then mean my starting volume would be 32L at about 27.5%.

Oh and a lovely Ph meter that arrived by mail should ensure that I can keep eye on most of the variables for subsequent washes. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

After trying Macs rum recipe, thought I’d write up my experience. The only deviation I made was to use Tate & Lyle black treacle (boy was it expensive!) instead of horse feed molasses. I have since sourced some ‘oss molasses and have fermented my first batch.
Because of impatience, I only stripped 3 washes of approx. 23 litres each. On reflection I think I should have at least gone for a fourth, as the flavours develop with the inclusion of the dunder in subsequent ferments.
The spirit run yielded 3.91 litres @ 77% once I’d taken the cuts after airing. A very tricky practice to the inexperienced, but one that I feel will get better with practice. The strength of the cuts was approx. 83% - 62%.
I diluted this down to 4.6 litres @ 68% and added 16g light toasted, slightly charred American oak and 26g charred ex whiskey barrel stave. It’s been ageing for 2 months now.
It smells great and it tastes smooth, but tastes more like a scotch whiskey than rum. I reckon this could be because of the barrel stave which I am considering removing.
Any opinions welcome!

Hull brew wrote:It smells great and it tastes smooth, but tastes more like a scotch whiskey than rum. I reckon this could be because of the barrel stave which I am considering removing.
Any opinions welcome!

It is really up to you and your taste... there isn't a right or wrong answer.
Perhaps the 26gms should of been the American Oak and the 16gms the ex Whiskey barrel stave. :think:
As far as the rummy flavour goes, there really isn't a substitute for time on oak... many do run quite deep into tails when doing their cuts in order to find them also.

dans.brew wrote:

Hull brew wrote:It smells great and it tastes smooth, but tastes more like a scotch whiskey than rum. I reckon this could be because of the barrel stave which I am considering removing.
Any opinions welcome!

It is really up to you and your taste... there isn't a right or wrong answer.
Perhaps the 26gms should of been the American Oak and the 16gms the ex Whiskey barrel stave. :think:
As far as the rummy flavour goes, there really isn't a substitute for time on oak... many do run quite deep into tails when doing their cuts in order to find them also.

Cheers Dan
I removed the whiskey stave, now comes the wait.
Another lesson learned I hope.
Still drinkable so nothing lost.

Guys, I have a question:

I read the following after starting a rum batch:

What temperature is best to ferment at?
Mac- The warmer & quicker (4 - 5 days @ around 30ish C) it ferments the more I enjoy my rum, the long slow ferments seem to lack complexity IMHO….
A conversation occurs later where Mac later says “38c is my preferred ferment temp for rum”
pochine- “38*C! Really? Would this not kill the yeast?”
Zak- I do my Rum around that too. its actually quite hard to keep it up to temp but if you do you get some nice Rummyness… 24 deg is too low for Rum .Around 35 deg is good .
SBB- Try and get some heat into it somehow 35C-38c is good for a quick ferment


Now I'm worried. I have had the fermenter inside for the entire week its been bubbling, but temperatures in our house have been between 5-20C the entire time. I now know this is too cold for rum, so what should I expect at the other end? Fermentation is progressing fine as far as I can see, so is it a flavour issue? or an incomplete conversion? or just a slow ferment?

Cheers,

Gaffa.

The higher temps stress the yeast into producing esters that would be undesirable if you were making a neutral, but the rummies love the extra flavours they bring
You can wrap the fermenter in some blankets, add heating etc, but if your sg has already dropped most of the way, its possibly a bit late for this batch

Clever brewers (im getting there lols) do rum in summer and "speciality" washes that want an exotic low temp yeast in the winter
I just suck it up in winter and wait the month for the wash to finish

A slight hijack... But is there a difference between rum (Bundy etc) and white rum (bacardi)

Because of the rules in many countries, rum has to be in a barrel for X years to be called rum
White Bacardi rum has been through a filter (coconut carbon) after said time

:text-+1: too remove colour

RC Al wrote:Because of the rules in many countries, rum has to be in a barrel for X years to be called rum
White Bacardi rum has been through a filter (coconut carbon) after said time

Has anyone tried this method? Or made their own coconutesc filter.

Yeah there was a good discussion on it in the Bacardi discussion.

Hull brew wrote:After trying Macs rum recipe, thought I’d write up my experience. The only deviation I made was to use Tate & Lyle black treacle (boy was it expensive!) instead of horse feed molasses. I have since sourced some ‘oss molasses and have fermented my first batch.
Because of impatience, I only stripped 3 washes of approx. 23 litres each. On reflection I think I should have at least gone for a fourth, as the flavours develop with the inclusion of the dunder in subsequent ferments.
The spirit run yielded 3.91 litres @ 77% once I’d taken the cuts after airing. A very tricky practice to the inexperienced, but one that I feel will get better with practice. The strength of the cuts was approx. 83% - 62%.
I diluted this down to 4.6 litres @ 68% and added 16g light toasted, slightly charred American oak and 26g charred ex whiskey barrel stave. It’s been ageing for 2 months now.
It smells great and it tastes smooth, but tastes more like a scotch whiskey than rum. I reckon this could be because of the barrel stave which I am considering removing.
Any opinions welcome!

i had same experience with macrum,followed recipe,put on american oak dominos in glass demijohn.
tastes like scotch.
did blind tasting with friends who also said scotch.
only 6months,maybe needs time.

re going into tails-how do you decide where to stop for making rum-tails definitely have very unpleasant taste,hard to believe becomes rum(unless you like bundy)

American oak will make everything taste like whiskey .
Rum really needs French oak :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The Stig wrote:American oak will make everything taste like whiskey .
Rum really needs French oak :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Gah... All my rum is on American Oak. Guess it's time to put another ferment down and hit up 5 Star! x_x

The Stig wrote:American oak will make everything taste like whiskey .
Rum really needs French oak :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Stig! :handgestures-thumbupleft:
I thought I'd read all there was on the site regarding Macs rum.
French oak it is.

Personally prefer american now. Liked french early on. I dont do tails in any spirit :puke-huge:

RC Al wrote:The higher temps stress the yeast into producing esters that would be undesirable if you were making a neutral, but the rummies love the extra flavours they bring
You can wrap the fermenter in some blankets, add heating etc, but if your sg has already dropped most of the way, its possibly a bit late for this batch

Clever brewers (im getting there lols) do rum in summer and "speciality" washes that want an exotic low temp yeast in the winter
I just suck it up in winter and wait the month for the wash to finish

Thanks for that, RC,

I'm guessing then that my rum wash will be slow to stop, boring when finished, but at least if I'm patient and its awful, it will make a passable neutral?

Cheers,

Gaffa.

It won't be neutral unless you distill it as a neutral with lots of reflux

Strip it and save the low wines for the next spirit run

You could do the pre heat trick to add in some extra dimension, for once a temp controller is needed though (if you have a suitable large pot an electric stove might work a bit better). Heat the wash to 135f/57c and hold for a couple of hours, let it cool overnight and then run as normal the following day, the pre heat causes some chemical reactions to occur, making some different esters, which given some time with the wash, reacts with some existing compounds and creates a butter flavor that comes through in the spirit run

I can do that, I have a big SS pot that I can fit into a gas fired "wash copper" housing. Its a 50L wash, (Which i know is small for you blokes, but I'm still ramping up, lol) I might do half heat treated and half natural and see which one end up better, just for learning...

I am sitting here slowly running a McRum thru 4 plates. And somewhat concerned as it does not seem to be showing the molasses flavour that I got with the last run. I switched from food grade molasses to stock feed this time, and am worried I may have stuffed up. Will time in oak be the decider? Should I be tasting/smelling the molasses now, as I am struggling to do so? :angry-banghead:

Good news would be welcome!

Edit - revisited my sample, and can discern some molasses. Part of my problem is I made a huge molasses bomb the first time, and wanted a lighter rum this time, so dialed back the molasses by a litre. And used 1/2 raw and 1/2 white sugar this time. So maybe need to lower my expectations. Wanted a gentler rum, so am maybe getting what I asked for.