StillDragon® Community Forum

Welcome!

Be part of our community & join our international next generation forum now!

In this Discussion

Do you make the same cuts for white/dark rum?

edited April 2015 in General

Hi Guys

Just a quick easy question.......hopefully!

Do you make the same cuts for rum, regardless of if its eventually going to be white rum or aged on oak for dark rum?

Or, another way

Does dark rum start its life as white rum or does it benefit from a deeper cut during the spirit run so it has some early tails to interact and mellow out on the oak?

Comments

  • Hi Anavrin, Both methods are likely used ( but certainly not requisite) as well as other techniques like blending product from two separate stills.

    For instance:

    Blending a relatively strict center cut from the pot still with the product rendered from the column.....and all manner of other combinations that remain a secret.

    There is just no wrong way until the product is un drinkable...imo.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • All spirit's start out white as you probably already know. Oak and age adds a huge amount of the flavor to the brown spirits that we drink. What you ferment will dictate a fair bit to weather its a good white Rum or not. Most commercial white Rums I have tried have much less of a Molasses flavour than what a Navy Rum or brown Rum has. In short..if I was to try and make a white Rum Id use a lot less molasses and more white or brown sugar in the ferment. Its one of those trial and error things ..until you come up with something you like.

  • All spirit's start out white as you probably already know. Oak and age adds a huge amount of the flavor to the brown spirits that we drink. What you ferment will dictate a fair bit to weather its a good white Rum or not. Most commercial white Rums I have tried have much less of a Molasses flavour than what a Navy Rum or brown Rum has. In short..if I was to try and make a white Rum Id use a lot less molasses and more white or brown sugar in the ferment. Its one of those trial and error things ..until you come up with something you like.

  • I make them very differently.

    White rum no dunder in the ferment, five plates distill it in the low 90%. Use your bubbler to compress the heads, add a small tails cut from the later tails fraction. Leave for a month or two for the smell to disappear.

    Baccardi use a combo to make white rum, oak the rum to brown then carbon filter out the colour.

    Brown I use 3 or 4 plates for ABV 90-80%. Add a generous tails cut and air out. Oak in a charred barrel or sticks.

    BTW my brown rum and SBBs are very close, with his probably taking the nod. Interestingly I recon I can pick spirits the difference between gas and electric boilers.

  • I use the same wash for both white & dark, but as I am not a huge fan of heavy rum, I don't bother with dunder.

    I make my white by running 4 plates + a 510mm packed section to get 90+%. As it still has a strong rum flavour / aroma even when cut back to 40%. I "stretch" the 40% white by diluting it with 40% neutral. I use equal parts white & neutral. Great on a hot day to make mojito's with!

  • I use a different wash same as Rossco. No backset/dunder and then refluxed at 95+. I add back a tiny bit of very late 'sweet heads' transition and sometimes some very early tails to give a bit of character.

    I use a more robust wash fro brown rum and use backset. It's stripped and spirit run in a potstill (long time since i made rum) for a bundy style rum that was barrel aged for over a year..

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

  • Do you age it with a new barrel/oak or a used one? Also what would you figure is the best way to "re-use" oak sticks? Mine are roughly 1x1x6" former barrel staves that I recharr using a torch.

  • I make my white by running 4 plates + a 510mm packed section to get 90+%.

    Wow interesting, wouldn't have thought of that.

    Do you age it with a new barrel/oak or a used one? Also what would you figure is the best way to "re-use" oak sticks? Mine are roughly 1x1x6" former barrel staves that I recharr using a torch.

    Barrels need to be properly charred to work properly. IMO better to buy oak staves from the lads rather than making them yourself, the outcome is just way better.

  • Interesting about Bacardi @rossco, have you got any further details about how they mix the filtered dark and white rum?

    I've just put down another molasses wash tonight, so many options to consider for my spirit run, can't wait to have enough strip for it :-)

  • edited April 2015

    This Utube clip is all about Bacardi, maybe you can get a few hints from it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KsJYILsS30

Sign In or Register to comment.