Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi,

I wasn't sure whether to post under the MacRum discussion thread or Yeast. I'm using bakers yeast for the first time for rum. We can't get Lowans in the UK so I'm using Saf-Levure active dried bakers yeast (which someone told me was equivalent). I've followed the MacRum recipe - adding a pinch of epsom salts but no DAP or other nutrients. The only change is that I've got food-grade Ragus Cane Molasses, which I guess might have a little more sugar than the stock feed sort (specified in the recipe).

The Saf-Levure yeast started easy enough, although it's much slower than SS Distillers Rum yeast. I'm 10 days in for the first ferment and I'm still getting a stream of bubbles every 45 seconds or so. Is this right? Despite the cooler UK climes, I'm managing to keep the ferment around 27 deg C so I expected it to be done in a week. I'm wondering if I should have included some nutrition e.g. DAP etc. Would that have made things quicker, or do I just need to be patient?! Thanks in advance

JayTee wrote:or do I just need to be patient?! Thanks in advance

Yes this is your best bet.
Ferments will take as long as they take, some nutrients may have helped but not a lot

Temperature is the main concern for this time of year
My latest tpw is at almost 4 weeks, I think it's about done
Have a look at a few threads on heating fermenter, insulation helps too

It's possible it could be finished and it is merely CO2 being released out of solution.

Did you take any hydro reading?

Does it taste dry or sweet?

Thanks to everyone for the helpful comments. I can't help thinking something is wrong, because it's "summer" in the uk and 28 deg in the fermenter should make for a quick ferment?

I've tasted it and it's pretty dry with no stickiness. It actually tastes really nice! The hydrometer reading is 1.010 It's still fermenting but very slowly. I'm still getting a gush of bubbles every couple of minutes though. I guess I'll leave it for a bit longer (11 days so far).

I'm making some enquiries about 493EDV (Distilamax RM) yeast for rum. We don't seem to have resellers of this in the UK, but it looks like Lallemand will supply direct to me :D

You won't get below 1.000 when making rum, too many unfermentable sugars in molasses.
If it is still actually working leave it.
You could try giving it a stir to see if it settles down after that (just degassing).

Then leave it a week after that to clear as much as you can stand and run it.

I leave everything at least 14 days or longer.
11 days is nothing, give it time

This may or may not help as I don't do rums but I usually use no change in SG reading on consecutive reads a couple of days apart as a sign that the wash is done.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Nothing wrong with a long bakers yeast ferment. But my advice for a real good rum heat it to 38ish you want it to ferment fast hard and hot to produce plenty of fruity esters :handgestures-thumbupleft: in summer over here I have had it finsh in 3 days..

I run my rum at 1010... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I used Prof Green's advice (thanks) and noticed the SG didn't change (although it appeared to ferment slowly). I stripped the wash and got over 5L. Pleased with that for my first ferment with bakers yeast.

For the second generation this morning, I decided to add DAP and I've raised the temperature from 28 to 32 deg C. It's flying along! I'm not sure I can get it much higher with the UK temperatures, but I'll give it a go :-)

Thanks again to everyone

JayTee wrote: noticed the SG didn't change (although it appeared to ferment slowly).

If the gravity doesn't change then it is not fermenting.

Sam. wrote:It's possible it could be finished and it is merely CO2 being released out of solution.

Thanks Sam. I'm learning all the time :-) I'm also amazed what 6 deg of extra heat and some DAP does for this new ferment

The hotter the better for rum, I had 200 litres of rum wash finish in 4 days last summer.