rumby wrote:
McStill, I have run a mollasses run through my controlled reflux still, with 96 % of the packing removed, however as I am using an element, I cant get the temperature down, and it stills comes off at 80 %. I did seperate some cuts, but wasnt really happy with the taste, still really caney & sweet. I had been discussing this with Spud, who said I probably need gas, so I can turn the temperature down after it takes off. but my boiler has a built in element (an old molloy boiler with legs)I just put down a mollasses wash on the weekend, 12l Mollasses, 4 kg raw sugar. Not sure if I run it at full reflux, which still gives off a tiny molasses smell in the neutral.
I want to get into the molasses wash, but I haven't been having any luck.
Building a good rum takes a while to get right, but it is a fairly simple process.
I use a plated column to distill rum now but used to just use a simple pot still with pretty good results, when I was using a proper pot still I would strip the wash and add the hot dunder back to the next. Adding dunder back at about 25% of the total wash volume gave me the results I was looking for but this can be adjusted to suit your taste.
So, you keep stripping wash and adding dunder back for about 5 generations using the same yeast bed in the fermenter, using the hot dunder each time to invert your sugar, then once you get enough low wines you do a spirit run.... to make it taste a bit more like a bundy rum if that's what you want (a bit of sting) you just probably dont have to be so tight on cuts, when I taste bundy rum I get a very obvious heads and tails taste.
All bundy rum is distilled twice without re using dunder, they strip the wash @ 53% then run the low wines again at about 80% and watered back to 67% for aging for two years. The color of bundy is adjusted with caramel to achieve the final product for bottling. Bundy rum does not re use any dunder at all, they send it off to be processed as fertilizer.
So if your after a really headsy rum like bundy I'd probably look at making a cheap pot still head for your boiler, and be fairly liberal with your cuts. ;)