Rum Recipe Discussion

[The Stig]

Half the fun of the hobby is drinking mistakes and finding they are great :laughing-rolling:

[indenial]

Half the fun of the hobby is drinking mistakes and finding they are great :laughing-rolling:

regarding that...

somewhere a few pages back in this thread I had a rum wash with probably a brett infection. I almost tipped it out. Ended up stripping it and then spirit running it (thanks to bluc and clickeraal for the advice) along with first 2 generations. It's the best rum I've made so far.

Many factors changed in subsequent batches (yeast type, fermentation temp, molasses source/ratio etc), but I suspect that "disastrous infection" was ultimately the cause of my unwitting success. Dunder/muck additions to the boiler for spirit run haven't produced the same quality of fruity esters.

[Puk]

So i was worried that my third generation had not "taken off", ie that yeast hadn't started again, as there is no "froth" on the surface, and it just looks the colour of coca-cola. But on putting my ear to it and having a listen, it is fizzing away, and when i look closely, i can see that there are larger bubbles coming up and breaking as they hit the surface, compared to the first and second generation.

Is there any reason for this?
Also, i tasted the low wines from my second generation, and already they taste WAY more flavourful (and a lot more like rum) than the all-first-generation spirit run that i did when i had an air still, and that has been on oak for 6 weeks already.

Can't wait to see how much character it has when i get to the 5th gen. :dance:
Puk

[BigRig]

The ferments will become less violent and take longer as you progress through the generations. If its fizzing then you are fine leaving it.

[WoodyD40]

Howdy all

Started my first attempt at this recipe, and put down my first fermentation last friday. I used about 10 litre of Dundee from my still which was a wbab wash. I have made up about 40 litre total wash in a 60 litre fermenter.
I didn’t take an initial SG reading, but this morning it’s sitting virtually at 1000 even.
It stopped bubbling 2 days ago.
Just wondering if it’s ready for me to do first stripping run on Saturday, or should i hurry up and be patient and wait another week.
Any thoughts?

[The Stig]

If you run over plates you only do the single run , you don’t need to strip them spirit .
But if you plan to remove the plates and packed section and make it a basic pot then yes you will need to strip

[WoodyD40]

Stig
More worried if I’m rushing doing generations weekly (by keeping heating belt on the ferment) or be patient and do generations every fortnight?
I think the fermentation has finished after only 5 days.

This is very different to the WBABs that I’ve been doing for past 3 months

[The Stig]

Molly finish’s very quickly :handgestures-thumbupleft:
But , requires time to age

[marls]

Howdy all

Started my first attempt at this recipe, and put down my first fermentation last friday. I used about 10 litre of Dundee from my still which was a wbab wash. I have made up about 40 litre total wash in a 60 litre fermenter.
I didn’t take an initial SG reading, but this morning it’s sitting virtually at 1000 even.
It stopped bubbling 2 days ago.
Just wondering if it’s ready for me to do first stripping run on Saturday, or should i hurry up and be patient and wait another week.
Any thoughts?

Would just remove the packed section, 4 plates for cleaner 3 plates for less cleaner that type of thing, then hurry up and wait to oak it. Also from what I've seen most will let it sit for a couple of days, let the yeast drop out (it does have a term just forgot it) then go for the next.

I've got some aging away, haven't tasted it in a month or so, so that will be a tonight thing to do. Will be bit over 6 months on oak, It'll either be pulled off oak now or I'll wait till spring.

[Shano592]

So many years in, and I'm still loving how well this rum comes out.

My only tip is to not add bananas. They only get drunk, and don't really share their flavour.

On that, I made a tutti frutti with a batch of this rum last year. Getting ready to bust it open soon...

[Jimmy656]

Hey guys im hoping someone still reads this. Ive been trying to read as much as i can on this forum but 125 pages is a lot to get through haha.
I was just wondering in regards to dunder. It seems like in this recipe its putting it in straight into the next ferment after each run. Does anyone run a "dunder pit or bucket" and use some of that ? or should i just stick to this recipe for now. Im a bit of a noob , Only ever done weetbix washes and gin

Thanks in advance

[BigRig]

I don't bother with a dunder pit.

If you do generations, use fresh dunder, increase the molly ratio and take wider cuts you will get all the funk you need.

I just did a rum with vinegar added to the boiler for the spirit run and it also added something a little different to my regular rum runs.

[chipboy]

Sounds good, I am planning on this, batch no 1 is ready to distill

[Jimmy656]

I don't bother with a dunder pit.

If you do generations, use fresh dunder, increase the molly ratio and take wider cuts you will get all the funk you need.

I just did a rum with vinegar added to the boiler for the spirit run and it also added something a little different to my regular rum runs.

Awesome thankyou will run as is for now. just one other question not sure if people are familiar with the brew Zilla/alco engine setup but do I need a sight glass or extension tube or anything or can I just run it how it is? I've read a lot of posts that talk about puking.

[murrumfatboy]

I've read a lot of posts that talk about puking.

I use a tablespoon of coconut oil as a surfactant, and just be aware of your power output at the time when condensation starts. I find that once I have the coolant water flowing, and temps are increasing in the column by 2s and 3s, I reduce the power to about 500W, get it going then gradually increase the power to 2400W for a stripping run, or leave it about 700W max for spirit run (drip drip spurt). Only time I have experienced puking is when I was distracted and DIDN'T do this.

[TheRealMrMessy]

Gen 8 of my bulk rum run started its first batch today :clap:. I should have just enough molasses left over for a cheeky gen 9 30L ferment, maybe 25L. This'll actually work out well, as I've kept the marginal heads jars and bottom end tails from gens 4 through 6 (yet to do gen 7 spirit run), and got heaps of rum oils floating around I've been cycling though that I'll chuck into the last run. Without knowing how much good stuff I can drag out of them, I'm anticipating a final total of around 55-58 litres at 90% from this years generations. Since it'll be a couple years until I can reap the rewards of all this effort, next bulk is some wheat vodka to have ready for summer! Not looking forward to all the constant cleaning and mashing though! :handgestures-thumbdown:

To save the effort of building up complexity for the next rum run, I've got 10L of the gen 4 dunder frozen and I'm intending to keep the cloudiest looking 5L of rum oils aside too. The latter after I finish the spirit run of whatever gen 9 looks like and turn off the reflux condenser to pull the oils. Anyone interested in the recipe, it was just macstill rum but I used 10L of dunder (to 60L total) for gens 1-4, and halved it after that so the unfermentable stuff stayed under control. Doing it this way has had no issues with attenuation/final gravity, ph hasn't required any adjusting at the start of the next ferments etc.

Now to go barrel shopping again (always such a chore!). Time to try more spiced rum recipes too :D

[Jimmy656]

Hey guys I've finally completed 4 stripping runs of MACstill rum and have enough low wines to do a spirit run. Should have about 30L (maybe a bit over) once diluted to 40%. Using the brewzilla 35L and alco engine pot still.
Pretty excited to finally do the spirit run. As its my first time with the spirit run what should i expect?

I was planning on running the 500W element only (will this be enough) or should i run SCR controller and use the 1900w and turn it down?
Also i know its all smell and taste etc but any recommendations of how much heads to sort of expect. Like where should i be looking for the hearts?

Probably will do the spirit run sometime this week , i hope all my hard work will pay off. Bought a 5l oak barrel too so fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks guys :D

[TheRealMrMessy]

Heya Jimmy! No experience with the alcoengine head, but I've got a brewzilla too (individual elements... guessing yours is a Gen 3?). Do suggest running power control on the 1900, as 500 probably won't be enough - and you have more adjustment available to you then also. I've also never used a pot still for anything more than stripping runs, preferring to run at least a couple plates in a bubbler to vaguely clean up what I'm distilling, but you will want to run it slow for your fores and heads, and power on into hearts later making good cuts.

Good luck with the run! :dance:

Edit:
At least 2L heads, will smear a bit more from a pot. I pull 2.5-3L from a 60L batch with plates to help me compress it. For sure the first litre will be horrible and shouldn't have any illusions about keeping it for anything other than cleaning/starting fires.

Should see around 5-7.5L hearts, again smearing might affect things here, but you will pull at a lower ABV so overall volume will be higher. Unskilled with the pot still I'll say again...

Tails, as much as you want. At least run down to 20ish %. Somewhere around 30 down to about 25% might look cloudy. If you plan to make more rum in future, keep this and add it to future spirit runs. The cloudy part is rum oils that add flavour.

[Jimmy656]

Heya Jimmy! No experience with the alcoengine head, but I've got a brewzilla too (individual elements... guessing yours is a Gen 3?). Do suggest running power control on the 1900, as 500 probably won't be enough - and you have more adjustment available to you then also. I've also never used a pot still for anything more than stripping runs, preferring to run at least a couple plates in a bubbler to vaguely clean up what I'm distilling, but you will want to run it slow for your fores and heads, and power on into hearts later making good cuts.

Good luck with the run! :dance:

Edit:
At least 2L heads, will smear a bit more from a pot. I pull 2.5-3L from a 60L batch with plates to help me compress it. For sure the first litre will be horrible and shouldn't have any illusions about keeping it for anything other than cleaning/starting fires.

Should see around 5-7.5L hearts, again smearing might affect things here, but you will pull at a lower ABV so overall volume will be higher. Unskilled with the pot still I'll say again...

Tails, as much as you want. At least run down to 20ish %. Somewhere around 30 down to about 25% might look cloudy. If you plan to make more rum in future, keep this and add it to future spirit runs. The cloudy part is rum oils that add flavour.

Thanks heaps for the info, the display on my power controller shorted but it still works so ill just dial it in by the amount it drips coming out of the still i guess haha

[TheRealMrMessy]

Let us know how you get on bloke - by the way on the tails, I don't necessarily mean collecting to drink, they may well be horrible!!! More about having interesting flavours to blend with the hearts if you want them (interesting doesn't = good but you do you!), and getting the rum oils if you want em.

No run for me this weekend, keen to have one off haha. Still gotta transfer a couple things into the fridges to crash and clean what they come out of... but that's an hours work tops. Next weekend more rum runs :handgestures-thumbupleft: