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The Big Rum Thread

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  • @nvnovrts said: On the pastorianus (saflager) The directions say to "sprinkle directly into wort". You have action almost immediately. One of my concerns with this last ferment was the that I had a pretty high temp (79-81F) and was worried that the pastorianus was killed off. I know a sales rep for Llemand and will be asking him about temps.

    I had the same concerns after reading the instructions, I am not sure if I can ferment at 60F. I know I can do 70F and I might have to try some sort of tub, water bath with ice but this will probably cost me a fortune depending on ferment time.

  • I've got an eye peeled looking for an old refrigerator... The guy at the brew shop said it would be fine for this type of an application. but really wont know until the weather cools down and I can redux with a cooler ferment. My ferment is just about done, as soon as the new boiler arrives i'll run and compare to the non pastorianus batch.

  • I'm in tropics just outside of Big Sugar. Don't know how any traditional rum making outfit in the Caribbean can ferment at those low temps?

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  • edited June 2013

    @Smaug said: I'm in tropics just outside of Big Sugar. Don't know how any traditional rum making outfit in the Caribbean can ferment at those low temps?

    Those temps were for the lagger yeast (pastorianus) bottom fermenter I'm playing around with.

  • Ah,,,thanks

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  • edited June 2013

    @Smaug said: Ah,,,thanks

    loL, and you are the whole reason this rum obsession started.... :D

  • @nvnovrts said: I know a sales rep for Llemand and will be asking him about temps.

    Any word yet? Or how about some tips for the cool temps?

  • edited June 2013

    That temperature range should be fine. As with all yeasts... the warmer (<90f) the happier they are... higher metabolism rates.

    straight from the man.

    With wine, and doing a "cold soak" pre ferm lets you get more extraction out of the skins, and a cool ferment will produce a completely differnt wine than a hot ferment. If I had a old refrigerator i'd be doing differnt ferm temps. Just one more tool you can use in finding "The perfect recipe".

  • Just cut some cane here and measured the brix on top and bottom. Bottom from 17,5 to 19,1 Top from 10.5 to 12. It was already obvious by tasting. From what I read is this normal, and only in the harvest season these measurments should come together. They say that the cane is ripe as the top and bottom measument are the same. Will test this next year in the harvest time (feb.-march)

    M.

  • Yes 18 Brix + or - is the happy middle . And it seems the yeast performs optimally at about the same measurement. A gift from God really.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • @nvnovrts said: With wine, and doing a "cold soak" pre ferm lets you get more extraction out of the skins, and a cool ferment will produce a completely differnt wine than a hot ferment. If I had a old refrigerator i'd be doing differnt ferm temps. Just one more tool you can use in finding "The perfect recipe". <

    Thanks for the info... Now I can add a refrigerator to my wish list of supplies :))

  • @FullySilenced said: OK no dunder pit for me.... that fukn looks really really like puke...

    agree. I just cant bring myself to intentionally make a "buggy" ferment. Everything they teach in school is about "clean winemaking and a clean fermentation". But you could send a sample to one of the labs (Scott, ETS) and get the infection analyzed. Talking with some of the lab guys and they do get pathogens growing on agar sent in for analysis.... There was a post in here some where about a BAD ferment/dunder pit and some seriously noxious fumes that almost cooled one of the brothers. I just want to understand the science before I go charging in.
    "Safety first boys!"

  • Just finished 'airing out' the last run of panella. The thing with this was that it sat around for an extra 10 days or so as I was waiting for the new boiler and couldn't run it. Started to grow some enococcus or pediococcus (white filmy bubbles) on top. This is by far the best batch I have produced. two plates and a copper scrubby, ran real slow.

  • @nvnovrts said: Just finished 'airing out' the last run of panella. The thing with this was that it sat around for an extra 10 days or so as I was waiting for the new boiler and couldn't run it. Started to grow some enococcus or pediococcus (white filmy bubbles) on top. This is by far the best batch I have produced. two plates and a copper scrubby, ran real slow.

    Same thing on top of my last ferment,do not know what the finished product taste like yet,as it is still airing!

    It is what you make it!

  • edited June 2013

    Today I checked my dunder pit I had outside with the lid loosly on it. The same happened as with my first attemp. WORMS all over. I still have two in my shed and they are good ( no worms ) and smelling really good. It seems I can´t get the flies out, will toss it. Lucky my wife didn´t see it. Have to come up with something that it still can breath but keeps the flies out.

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    It seems that in the dunder pit with a piece of cane there is more action on top

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  • that is just plain nasty.

  • edited June 2013

    @bentstick said: Same thing on top of my last ferment,do not know what the finished product taste like yet,as it is still airing!

    Really Really good. The last batch was the best so far. more carmel/cane flavor, I ran it pretty slow too. I might have to go for the "extended maceration" on the rum wash from now on. If you want a light rum, run it as soon as primary fermentation is finished, you definitely get more of the "brown" flavor with a rest before you run.

  • @nvnovrts said: Really Really good. The last batch was the best so far. more carmel/cane flavor, I ran it pretty slow too. I might have to go for the "extended maceration" on the rum wash from now on. If you want a light rum, run it as soon as primary fermentation is finished, you definitely get more of the "brown" flavor with a rest before you run.

    :-c good to know!

    It is what you make it!

  • A few days ago took the rum out of my 3 gallon ex bourbon barrel. Got some mixed feelings, colour mmmm.... got much better results with roasted sticks. Taste ... to much JackD for me. But that is just me ... everybody else really likes it !! So today I mixed in 3 bottles 300 ml rum with 300 ml ferment, 2nd with 300 ml dunder and last with 300 ml molasses. Will leave this 48 hours to settle and then see what taste the best and do some colouring. Don´t like the idea of colouring but I found out already that a lot of people drink with their eyes. It is just a test !

    M.

  • edited June 2013

    @moscca said: A few days ago took the rum out of my 3 gallon ex bourbon barrel. Got some mixed feelings, colour mmmm.... got much better results with roasted sticks. Taste ... to much JackD for me. But that is just me ... everybody else really likes it !! So today I mixed in 3 bottles 300 ml rum with 300 ml ferment, 2nd with 300 ml dunder and last with 300 ml molasses. Will leave this 48 hours to settle and then see what taste the best and do some colouring. Don´t like the idea of colouring but I found out already that a lot of people drink with their eyes. It is just a test !

    M.

    make sure you post some pics and results! I just tried doing the same but only with dunder, when I added enough for a dark rum (about 60ml of dunder rum mix to 1liter of rum) it went kind of cloudy... even after letting it settle and racking off three times before final mixing... maybe it needed to settle more..

  • How long had it been in the barrel Mosca. I have found with rum it needs a year to go past that bourbon taste and get the mollasses back. Probably just needs more time.

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  • edited June 2013

    @punkin : 4 months it was in the barrel. I have another for about 3 months now. Will leave this in there for one year.

    I have 1 gallon 100 % molasses on toasted american oak and 1 gallon on french toasted oak.

    I love the colour of french oak, a bit more reddish. Maybe a combination, I'll have to find out.

    This is a pic. of the essences :

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    Each 300 ml rum, from left :

    1+ ferment
    2 +molasses
    3 + dunder
    4 = straight from the barrel

    Left it settle for 3 days, them mixed 900 ml with 22 ml of each.

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    Molasses is definitaly the darkest, then the dunder, followed by the ferment essence.

    Essences by taste molasses = sweet, and the ferment one better tasting then the one with dunder.

    Will leave this for a couple of days to see how much more will settle and then do a taste test on the final product.

    Edit : Just did a smell test on the final product and the change is bigger then I imagined. The one with molasses essence smells the best.

    M.

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  • edited June 2013

    Now 48 hours later there is no sediment in the bottles and it did not became cloudy. As far as tasting, everybody goes for the molasses essence. But I have some mixed feelings in coloring, the taste changes to much. You put so much energy in making a good rum and then finally to alter it. I had some glasses standing over night with rum mixed with essence and this morning they were looking a bit milky.

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  • edited June 2013

    I left the glass with the uncoloured rum standing and after 5-6 hours it also started to cloudy. Tried with one other rum I had cut a while ago till 40 % and the same. So it had nothing to do with the colouring. I put also a glass with Flor de Caña 4 years outside overnight and no change. So it is only with my rum ! The good thing is that I can smell the heads in the Flor de Caña (which gives you a headach) and in my first rum I made I smell the tails. So my smell sense is finally improving. All the guys who drink my rum confirm that they have definately less headach with my rum.

    As far as for the colouring, after a few days now I see no sendiment on the bottom, the colour is nice but the rum in not so transparent as uncoloured. Will leave those essences for 1,5 months settle now and try again

    Here some pics of my molasses rum without colouring. Very happy with it !

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  • Have you tried refrigerating in order to drop any suspended solids?

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  • cold stabilizing, nice.

  • ? for all the rummies out there,what is the brand and type of yeast being used in your rum ferments? I have been using a clean fermenting vodka yeast(to get the taste of the panella) now I think I need to find some other type of bugs to get more profile out of the Panella,thinking of a whiskey yeast to see what happens! Any input or suggestions(besides dunder pit) would be greatly apprecaited and looked into! :)>-

    It is what you make it!

  • cold fermentation with a lager yeast Saflager S-23

  • Tails contamination will give that sort of cloudiness. Maybe cut to tails a bit sooner or run a touch slower.

    There's plenty of yeasts made specifically for rum, check out the EDV series from Llalemand, there's a couple of crackers in there.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • thanks for the suggestions! :-c

    It is what you make it!

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