Stepping up my rum game.

[Blinky]

Hey nuddy thanks for that. Yea barrels and time are the way to.

So a little update.
A 5l starter was made and yeast/bacteria slurry was decanted. 50ml of slurry was put into the fridge for storage, 100ml of slurry was put into a flask and back on the stir plate to re culture and remaining slurry was pitched into 45l of 1.075 sg rum wash.

That started fermenting in about 8 hours and took of really well and finished at 1.015. I let it settle until it started to clear and kept the yeast cake and stripped the wash in a pot still.

30l of the hot backset was added to a 90l fermenter to dissolve the molasses and DAP. It was then topped up with water to about 80l in total and yeast slurry as added.

I will distill this in my double retort pot still and charge the retorts with finished rum from the 45l batch

[Blinky]

And a few pics of the cane. Night time temp’s are dropping right down so I think the growth will slow a lot in the coming weeks. I think I have done well considering the bloody temperatures this summer, the fertiliser and water they needed was more then my other location.

Bout 14 month’s to go I think. :happy-partydance:

[Blinky]

Morning everyone!
Haven’t given an update in a while so here we go.
Not much to report on then cane growth as it’s slowed right down in winter. I bought a few cubes of chicken manure to put on them soon as we get a change in the weather at the end of the month. This organic growing business is a lot of extra work!

As for the wild yeast culture from the sugarcane it is still going strong.
I have fermented about 600l of wash over the past few months, all through the double retort.

If I keep the temp around 27 it will ferment away steadily for just over a week, 30-32 degrees and its all over in a few days. But Ph also plays a part in this.
As the generations of backset build up the rum is getting better and developing a wider range of flavours.
I am using about 60% backset in the ferments. Any more and I’m having to use more lime then I like to bring the ph up to about 5.

Can’t wait for spring time!

[Blinky]

Helllllo everyone!

After 1 year 7 months I have started harvesting my cane and things are coming together very nicely!

I cut about 50kgs of cane this morning and ended up this about 37 litres of juice at 1.072, added some DAP, fermexcel and about 2 litres of juice I crushed about 4 day’s ago that was wild fermented as a little starter.

When this wash has finished fermenting I will pitch the yeast and bacteria slurry into another batch.

[bluc]

How are you crushing the cane?

[Blinky]

Hey bluc

Got a smallish, but overly engineered cane mill made up. Puts out about 5-6 litres a minute, all 304 stainless, electric and should last a lifetime.

I’m in the fruit and veg bizo so the invoice is going straight to the taxman in a few weeks time :laughing-rolling:

Spit’s out the spent cane super dry and fluffy!

[BigRig]

Sugar cane mulch for the waste ?

[]Ned[]

Great work! Looking forward to see how the rum turns out

[harold01]

Blinky
Better to be over engineered than under, what an awesome job it done on the cane, make sure the old fella doesn't get caught in it

[LikkerSheWillLoveIt]

I installed and commissioned a sugar mill at a rum distillery last year. Damn messy work crushing cane on a commercial scale.

[Blinky]

Sugar cane mulch for the waste ?

Yea mate straight back under the plants as mulch, can’t do any harm.

Great work! Looking forward to see how the rum turns out

The wash should be ready to run next week so I will definitely have some info on results.

Blinky
Better to be over engineered than under, what an awesome job it done on the cane, make sure the old fella doesn't get caught in it

Hahah :laughing-rolling: thanks for the safety tip mate, I better start wearing pants when I’m in the shed!

I installed and commissioned a sugar mill at a rum distillery last year. Damn messy work crushing cane on a commercial scale.

Nice!I’d love to see a big mill in action. Are they crushing long lengths or billet’s?

[LikkerSheWillLoveIt]

Sorry mate, I haven’t been on here for a while. 300mm billets, they did do full stick in the first mill, but that didn’t last long. This is the 3rd mill that have had and it will be the last. It was imported from Brazil. I stopped in the other day to buy a few bottles of what I crushed last year, and they are about to start this years crush.