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ARRRRR Rumsters

Working on a brown sugar based rum... the brown sugar is 20% food grade molasses, has a great flavor and is very soft and sticky..

I made up a wash of 40 pounds of brown sugar and water to make up 25 gallon .... a 11% wash... I am using a Still Spirits rum yeast specifically for rum... nutes at one tablespoon to each 5 gallons of wash and 2 tablespoons of pickling lime added at 24 hours.

It is fermenting very well has now dropped 45 points in 2 days.

My question what configuration should i run this wash with...?

I have a 4" Dash with up to 7 plates using standard SD bubble caps...

So for you Rumsters... what would your starting set up be? How would you take the product off?

Happy stillin,

FS

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Comments

  • Have a go at white rum with your still as is.

  • edited May 2016

    I make a silver rum from dark brown sugar using four 4" procap plates that is very popular with rummies round these parts.

    Like @punkin says, it's hard to distill that rum flavor out of it.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • I make a very heavy one out of 4x4" ProCap plates. It depends a lot how you drive the rig, more so than the rig itself.

  • Stripping run with no plates then run with 4 plates. Full reflux for at least one hour . Trying to get something I liked from one run just never happened. Each wash is SO different that you will have to do some spear-a-menting. Once you find what you like it is magic. I'm on my 12th gen and it only gets better.

  • edited May 2016

    On 4 plates - I'm finding that I like stripping half the wash, then running the strip with the remainder of the unstripped wash in a single pass - then straight into oak.

  • edited May 2016

    @grim said: On 4 plates - I'm finding that I like stripping half the wash, then running the strip with the remainder of the unstripped wash in a single pass - then straight into oak.

    Pretty sure that's a page from Punkin's play book from back in the day.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • edited May 2016

    I like it, because I think it's a way to increase esterification in the still. It is absolutely different from full strip and run, and a single pass. It's not in the middle, as you would expect.

  • 100%

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • I've been doing something a bit like this for a couple of years with grain whiskeys, essentially ensuring that every run has a lot of unstripped wash in it. Ever since I started doing it, my stilling has been, well, luckier. I won't go back to spirit runs of entirely strippate.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

  • Wash was down to .997 as I left a bit ago...

    Still a slow rolling ferment...

    Happy Stillin FS

  • .994 today still working but no longer sweet. Almost done

  • Working or degassing? Id give a stir and see if it settles out.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • IF it dosen't fall any more by tonight I will stir it a bit and let it clear .

  • edited May 2016

    So a spirit run of half strip/half wash is the hot tip for tastier rum production? I've been doing 2X (strip, four plate spirit run).

    Blasting the stripping run through my pot still head (dedicated 2" copper stripping head) with my burner set on atomic-overdrive.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • I am bigtime into gin-making, but rum has been patiently whispering my name from the background. I am starting to turn my gaze in that direction.

    Gin botanicals in a silver rum base spirit?

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • edited May 2016

    I did some research and experimenting into it all a few years back.

    Calculating the Output ABV @ AD

    I was very happy with the results. I stumbled on the idea when i had a UJSM puke on the strip run and noticed that the resulting spirit run had a stack more flavour (pot still).

    I've done it ever since.

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

  • @Kapea said: I am bigtime into gin-making, but rum has been patiently whispering my name from the background. I am starting to turn my gaze in that direction.

    Gin botanicals in a silver rum base spirit?

    Every now and then over the past couple of years I have had the exact same thought! i was thinking a light gin blend low on juniper with lots of citrus and floral flavours would work really well. Maybe il get round to it this summer ...

  • My big take-away from the gin-making presentations at the ADI conferences I've attended is that the only written rule for gin is that it has juniper in it. Otherwise, pretty much anything goes... and there are those who are pushing back on the juniper rule too.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @Kapea said: My big take-away from the gin-making presentations at the ADI conferences I've attended is that the only written rule for gin is that it has juniper in it. Otherwise, pretty much anything goes... and there are those who are pushing back on the juniper rule too.

    Indeed. Iv started distilling my gin in three batches that I later blend depending on my mood:

    "high notes" (citrus, orris, basil, raspberry, lemongrass etc...),

    "low notes" (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom etc...)

    and "gin trinity" (juniper, Angelica, coriander)

    But more often than not I find myself just drinking a glass of my high notes and wonder why it isn't already a thing commercially.

    Iv got a rum ferment going that's destined for the VM column, Il report back if I get around to making any Gin Rummy

  • The consensus at this time is 3 to 4 plates and 1 1/2 runs... for a flavored rum

  • edited May 2016

    @mark85 said: Iv got a rum ferment going that's destined for the VM column

    I guarantee you'll be very happy with that. It was my favourite of my distillations back in the day. No backset/dunder and pulled off fast on the raggedy edge of 96%. Cut with some very late heads and perhaps a hint of early tails it was my favourite mixer with juice and lemonade.

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

  • @punkin said: I guarantee you'll be very happy with that. It was my favourite of my distillations back in the day. No backset/dunder and pulled off fast on the raggedy edge of 96%. Cut with some very late heads and perhaps a hint of early tails it was my favourite mixer with juice and lemonade.

    Whenever Iv thrown away the Dunder and have to start a new cycle the first one goes through the VM. Delicious.

    @FullySilenced said: The consensus at this time is 3 to 4 plates and 1 1/2 runs... for a flavored rum

    Try it the way you have described and let us know how it goes, il want to know for when my plates are up and running.

  • Would adding the feints of previous runs have the same effect as stripping half of the wash and adding it back to the wash?

  • It will add properties for sure and is well worthwhile, but not the same properties.

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

  • @punkin said: I was very happy with the results. I stumbled on the idea when i had a UJSM puke on the strip run and noticed that the resulting spirit run had a stack more flavour (pot still).

    When I run rum wash in my stripper on atomic-overdrive she pukes ocassionally. It does not worry me because it is a dedicated stripping head (and liebig condensor) made of curved, open pipes that are easy enough to clean (Walking Wolf inspired pot still desigm). I run with the boiler only half full to keep the foaming out of the still head as much as possible. And I put a dollop of coconut oil in the boiler to help keep the foaming under control.

    When she pukes the rum does taste better. I didn't know if it was the puke or the coconut oil.

    I tried macnut oil, but it does not work as well as the coconut oil.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Please help me understand. Once the boiler is charged with the wash, half the distillate is collected. Is the rest of the wash cooled again and reheated from the start with the added distilled spirits? Is it the influence of the temperature variation (heat, cool, heat) or the higher alcohol content in the wash that produces the desired result? Will a longer time with total reflux also not enchance the esterification (exposing the wash to a high temperature for longer) and achieve the same result? Thanks.

  • What people mean is: Let's say you start with 15 gallons of wash, you would charge your boiler with 10 gallons and strip as normal. Empty out the backset and recharge the boiler with the remaining 5 gallons and the low wines from the strip. Run this mixture as your spirit run.

  • edited May 2016

    Yes mark is very close.

    Say you have a typical small 50l setup and ferment in a 200l drum.

    You charge the still with 45l and run it fast as a strip collecting every thing down to 20% on a sugar based wash or say 10% on an allgrain. You end up with say 11 litres of strip at 45%.
    You have more so you do that two more times and end up with 33 litres of strip.

    You then charge the boiler with 33l of 45% and top it up with 14l litres of the original wash at 10% giving you a charge of 58%/42% low wines to wash at an abv of 34.5%

    This will give a much more complex spirit than either straight wash runs or straight low wines runs and a different one than low wines with feints from last spirit run (although those can be added as well)

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

  • Good advice Punkin this is what I do. If you age some quickly on staves and add some older keg rum and finish it on staves proofed down to 40% it is real hard to beat.

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