Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Thanks for your assistance kind sir...

No problemo :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hi guys
I've done my 1st rum strip, I thought it went well until I emptied the boiler and found a scorched bottom. I did a 50l mac rum, sg was 1.093 fg was 1.041, I thought it was a little high the fg reading but left it to settle for over a week. There is still half left to go. Would stripping the 2nd half with a power controller help prevent scorching or is the high fg going to be the problem? ta

I just thought i'd better post a picture in case I've got my terminology wrong
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=30

teitan wrote:Hi guys
I've done my 1st rum strip, I thought it went well until I emptied the boiler and found a scorched bottom. I did a 50l mac rum, sg was 1.093 fg was 1.041, I thought it was a little high the fg reading but left it to settle for over a week. There is still half left to go. Would stripping the 2nd half with a power controller help prevent scorching or is the high fg going to be the problem? ta

Looks a bit discoloured but I wouldn't say scorched :think:

The first thing to get scorched will be your elements, not the base of the still.

A good clean and scrub should bring it up :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yeah that looks like the "scorching" in my coffee kettle, must be alot of suspended solids in my filtered tap water.
(I'm trying to be funny)

That is just heat discolouration.

I'm having an issue with my pure molasses rum. After 2 100lt generations I decided to put down a spirit run. Went to plan as usual, but the resulting rum was lacking the mouth feel and sweetness that is indicative of rum. Tbh, I've never done more than 2 generations. Could further generations produce the characteristics I'm after?

How old is it and whats the recipe ultra?

26kg molasses, pinch of epsom salts and a shit tonne of the finest lowans bread yeast money can buy per 100lt. It's been on 25g p/ltr of French, American oak both roasted and toasted for a couple of weeks with a couple of stints in a sous vide set to 68c to kick start the ageing

I have found mouthfeel to come and go. One day it is real thick clings to glass and then week later, and that syrupy feel has gone. Sweetness is similar. Do you taste at set intervals or often/random? Maybe you just havnt got it at a good point in its cycle?

Anyone know why a second gen won't start. Followed instructions to a tee and even added some more yeast which seemed to bubble up and has left a foam layer on top but no fizzing? 3L molasses and 3kg sugar, 10L from the boiler which was cool when added to the leftovers in the fermenter. Got an aquarium heater sitting on 26 deg so the temp should be right???

What was your final volume?
Guessing around 25 to 30 liters with that amount of sugar.
10 liters of dunder is a lot and ph may have stalled it.

Yep about 30 litres. Might try new batch with less Dundee. Don't have anything to read ph

Got it started. Emptied several litres and put fresh water in to dilute it and she is fizzing away now. Prob not as much distillate this time but hopefully still creating more flavour

Having very similar issues to mattyb.
Just cannot get the next generation ferment to kick off.
Using Macrum recipe. 25L washes.
When fermentation has finished, I cold crash to 2deg for a couple of days before the stripping run. After that, dissolve the 3L molasses (Fremantle brand)+3kg sugar in 10L hot dunder. Add tsp Epsom salts. Chill to 30deg. Add to lees. Airate the bejesus out of it. Leave overnight in the fermentation chamber set at 36deg.
Next morning? Zero fermentation activity. Add some fresh, hydrated lowans yeast, and by that evening it’s fermenting happily. This happened on both the 2nd & 3rd generations.
Done my research, and tested the pH of the 3rd generation using test strips (0-14type). Now, dunno if they worked correctly (cause the colours didn’t really change, just took on a rum wash hue) but if they did work correctly, my best interpretation means pH should have been about 5. So pH is not the issue?
(I tried the test strips on Bakers soldering flux and my own saliva, and got the expected results, so I suppose they are working)

I’ve got at least 2 more gens left in this bucket of molasses.
Any ideas what’s causing the apparent stall in fermentation?

That is an odd one :think: PH seems ok although those strips may not be great for rum because of the dark colour of rum. In any case if the new yeast your pitching in the same wash work ok then shouldn't be ph.

My only thought is that the yeast are dying for some reason. Do you put some cold water on the yeast after you've siphoned the wash off while your doing your run? This also helps for when you put the hot backset sugar mix in later.

Any one ever experienced a dirty and tailsy flavour come over in their rum throughout the entire run?

I've been puzzling over a handful of different ferments with one type of molasses that has fermented fine. However when run through the still comes out like dogs balls. I picked it up early this year and its been sitting in 10L totes which I've had to crack the lid on as they were pressurising and expanding.

I've made a molasses and sugar (mcrum) with it that I ran through 3 plates at 2.5L/hr.
Molasses and golden syrup that ran through 4 plates at 2.5l/hr.
All molasses that I tried to pot still and still turned out like crap.

Any one else had issues with this?

I have done plenty funky rum. Only rum I have liked without ageing is when its collected at 92% from a bubbler.
Is yours funky before or after ageing? :-B From a pot still ageing in glass I found 6mnths is when it became nice. There was nice flavours early on but lots of funk :handgestures-thumbdown:

bluc wrote:I have done plenty funky rum. Only rum I have liked without ageing is when its collected at 92% from a bubbler.
Is yours funky before or after ageing? :-B From a pot still ageing in glass I found 6mnths is when it became nice. There was nice flavours early on but lots of funk :handgestures-thumbdown:

Funky before aging (am yet to try aging these), right off the still and after 24 hours of airing. Wasn't something I was used too. All rums I've ever made before were on the bubbler with either 4 plates or 7L inline thumper with 3 plates. These were delicious straight off the still.

The latest ones are either funked up (which I'm not used to) or heading towards neutral territory.

My tastebuds are definitely not tuned into pot stilling flavours.

crow wrote:Looks like I may have found a good source of molasses in Ballarat so what this space, I'm back in the rum game baby :dance:

Hey mate

Old thread i know but is this still the case, need to find a supplier in this area :handgestures-thumbupleft: