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ARRRRR Rumsters

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  • @punkin said: 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)

    Not to mention increasing your takeoff speed.

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

  • I am getting a VERY complex rum now that I am on my 12th generation without using the 1 1/2 method. I also have been using live dunder since the first generation. I did try a single run and it was kinda "dirty" tasting. During my spirit run, I keep the column in a 100% reflux for at least an hour for the esterfication ala Arroyo. For the last 2-3 runs, the rum has absolutely been drinkable off of the still. I make very tight cuts and pitch everything that doesn't taste good out of the parrot.

    See the "Big Dunder Thread" for my experiments. I did try the 1.5 version and I just don't think that it works so good with the live dunder, at least in my trials.

  • @FloridaCracker said: ... I make very tight cuts and pitch everything that doesn't taste good out of the parrot. ...

    I hear this said a lot, "tight cuts" and I'd like to ask the 'brain-trust' out there, what does that statement mean?

    Cuts @ 300mls, or 200mls, or 100mls or what???

  • By tight cuts he means he excludes anything that may be late heads or early tails.

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

  • @punkin said: By tight cuts he means he excludes anything that may be late heads or early tails.

    Thx @punkin.

    Tails I can smell/taste now fairly easily - I find they are quite different to hearts, but still struggling with heads...

  • The end of heads are signaled by a real sweetness. The heads at 96% are really sweet and i use the dissipation of the sweetness to get the end of the heads. This is the late heads inclusion that i like in a white rum.

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

  • Buy a very small quantity of Ethyl Acetate and Acetaldehyde from your local lab supply. Add a tiny amount to vodka.

    Instant heads.

  • @punkin said: The end of heads are signaled by a real sweetness. The heads at 96% are really sweet and i use the dissipation of the sweetness to get the end of the heads. This is the late heads inclusion that i like in a white rum.

    Pretty sure you'd enjoy Black Coral Rum then Punkin.

    If I was worth a shit, I should send you some.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • If you're Reeeeealy old - heads smell like a new mimeograph school test paper from back in the day.

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

  • Is that the blue ones? They used metho. I'm not that old but vic schools are cutting edge

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

  • Ok, so let me ask you areal noob question: "How often do you taste or smell the product coming off the parrot?"

  • Experience with a particular run will tell you that. If you know you are going to get a litre of skanky shit you need to throw away and then another litre and a half of harsh heads that can go in the feint jar then you won't be tasting at all for the first litre and a half.

    If you get to the stage where the dominant taste is not the acetone/paint thinner but it's starting to fade and get very sweet then you may dip your finger every minute or so if you are making cuts on the fly.

    If you are making your major cuts later then you know you need a litre jar, 2 x 500ml jars, and then maybe 3 or 4 300ml jars before a dip of the finger will tell you your definately in hearts and you can collect in gallons.

    Thats how i learnt anyway. Everyone does it differently. @stubbydrainer would rub it between his palms and clap, he got information from that

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

  • He rubbed what between his palms?! :-O

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

  • He rubbed what between his palms?!

    Better than in your eye I guess.

  • Was stubby drainer doing a test or draining his stubby

  • edited May 2016

    @grim said: Better than in your eye I guess.

    Could really take that one out of context,,,unless you're a distiller......

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Sick sick minds. I was talking about the demisting test.

  • Ok what ever you say sir :))

    Either way,,,,,seems like a slogan you could print up on a tee shirt and the vulgar would happily purchase.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • @punkin said: By tight cuts he means he excludes anything that may be late heads or early tails.

    Exactly. As far as knowing when The heads end, I know on my particular runs about what volume to start tasting on the fly. The less you have to taste, the better your taste buds will be at picking up subtle differences

  • When you have run the same recipes multiple times you know when the cuts come by the volume collected. A quick sniff & taste or two off of the still at those points for confirmation is all that's needed.
    Change the jar.

    Repeatability.

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

  • Punkin, that's exactly what I do with my grain whiskeys, and I'm happier than a pig in shit with the results. Do you also find that your hearts cut is way wider than with ordinary still runs? I do, and I'm not sure just why. All I can say is that running this way just makes me luckier.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

  • Lucky it is Bob. DA:O

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

  • edited May 2016

    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.

    Coconut oil is special, for a secret reason, it's doing something else. I hinted at it in the Big Dunder thread - but my trials with medium chain triglycerides show it to be true. All about the esters of the MCTs (and nothing to do with trying to distill coconut flavor). Distill coconut oil (or palm oil) and neutral in a glass lab still.

    Hint: look at GC analysis of aged vs unaged spirits and look at the peaks associated with the esters of the MCTs.

    Coconut oil just so happens to be the KING of MCT.

  • So I should use it instead of the anti foam drops?

  • edited May 2016

    Buddy of mine makes coconut, palm and macnut oils for the food market. He planted 100 acres in oil palms with an eye toward bio-diesel. Then he found out he could sell the oil for 4X more as gourmet cooking oil.

    I get the oils by the gallon for free. I use them to make soap. I trade soap for oil. Sometimes some of it gets diverted to the boiler (oil, not soap).

    I do not know what's in your antifoam drops FC. The antifoam I used to put in cooling towers was some pretty icky shit. Vegetable oil makes a nice alternative.

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

  • Ive got a heap of deer tallow in the fridge that I want to turn into soap. What should I blend it with? I have fractionated coconut oil in the cupboard too.

  • edited May 2016

    Start here: Soap Calculator

    This one lets you adjust ratios to dial in various qualities. Once you get a basic recipe figured out you can fine tune it. It is quite accurate: Soap Calc

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

  • @grim said: Coconut oil just so happens to be the KING of MCT

    It also makes some fine tasting popcorn.

    Soap made from 100% coconut oil will lather in salt water (saltwater soap), although it is a bit on the harsh side, on the skin.

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

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