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Giving Rum a Shot...

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  • edited July 2017

    Would imagine a distiller not being as particular as a brewer with regards to tilt. From what cotherman showed, looks great. It's about tracking progress and distillation timing/scheduling, not about specific/precise final gravity and abv measurements. It's only ballpark - so what's the issue?

  • None from me, it doesn't affect me one way or the other. Just passing on comments that i thought may be relevant.

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  • edited July 2017

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

  • Read the post regarding Tilt. What a pity if it wasn't the one in a million scenario.

    This Plaato unit has interest, especially with their introductory price offer.

  • Suspect the bubble device will not work on a large scale fermentation. The co2 flow rate on a 20bbl fermenter are a little higher than a carboy.

  • graph is pretty impressive now... the tilt things seem to be worth the money...

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  • @grim said: Suspect the bubble device will not work on a large scale fermentation. The co2 flow rate on a 20bbl fermenter are a little higher than a carboy.

    No ways with large FV's. I've seen extremely large fermentors roaring away

  • @punkin said:

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    I had a few problems, with the iPad version of the app, and the instructions could be clearer.. but leaking and battery life are not a problem, I would lean towards it being a 'knob-dicker' user.... that last graph I posted shows me when fermentation is starting, going, slowing, or has stopped.. I am happy... there are some units out there or coming out that go in a tri-clamp fitting and the sensor is actually in the fermenter, the brewery next door is supposed to test... but they are optical, and if those are like the optical level sensors that are on that breweries glass lauter grant, they will have issues with dark dark beers like stout... which by the way was made by them and fermented by me last week, and is being stripped now for a 5-gal barrel of stout whiskey....

  • edited July 2017

    Flowmeters generally have something like a 10-25x turndown/rangeability.

    If they sized it for 3 gal on the low end, it'll only support 50-75 gal on the high end before the gas flow meter loses the ability to measure.

  • @Raoul_Duke picking up "RumBobSquareShorts" In Miami this morning... a stainless 350 gal tote for $700.. Of course, it will be physically hand cleaned/inspected inside and then CIP'd with with hot caustic and then citric.. probably using it as a cooling water tank at first, to give it even more rinsing with fresh water for safety, but eventually will be a heating/cooling/mixing tank for molasses and sugar... until I can afford a 1000L/2000L BM-A from smaug...

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  • Make one hellova boiler. lol Nice find!

  • edited August 2017

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

  • sweet. I want some of these

  • It's a great conversation starter with questionable women at Miami gas stations!

    Dean Palmer - Director of Rum - Cotherman Distilling - Dunedin, FL

  • @Raoul_Duke said: It's a great conversation starter with questionable women at Miami gas stations!

    In for two.

  • Mike, glad the molasses supplier is working out for you. I searched high and low for a supplier trying to find one close to me and finally found these guys 5 minutes from my house.

    What's the latest on your rum exploits?

  • @FloridaCracker -

    We have a 10 and 2 5's in barrels, using the panela molasses mix.

    Doing some pure molasses runs for comparison, did a 5% 20gal in 100gal, and now a couple 100 gal fements with a whopping 40gal of molasses are finishing up... we might settle around 32-36 gal in 100 (keep in mind this is 43-44% by weight, it is watered down a bit from the stuff straight from the plant, I got to check out that stuff, at 70%+ sugar, it is like jelly...

    Coming up with a work schedule to to the settling and cleaning and fermentation of one batch cycle while the still is running on the opposite batch cycle to increase productivity... Wrote out my first ever paycheck to another person this week, so trying to keep labor costs in check!

    Got a 1000L still and monster 8" condenser on a stand on order from smaug...

    and @Raoul_Duke just spent the week in Tijuana getting all tequilad up, he says it was for work, but I don't believe him..

  • Just a fun note, we went 100% oak on all rum, including white.

  • Have you had the diplimatico blanco? They do the carbon settling thing to make it white after oaking

  • I spoke to a supplier once who sent me some carbon samples. They do them in all sorts of grades, some designed to remove flavour, some for removal of colour and some designed for other uses. It's a very specifically designed range of products.

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

  • edited October 2017

    You need specialty carbon and a way to remove the carbon. The only products that work are fine powders, and you need to add it directly to a tank (mixed slurry). It’s very expensive all said and done, because you end up throwing out expensive micron and submicron filter cartridges. Ever accidentally break a toner cartridge? That’s kinda what it’s like. This would be very difficult to do at home, unless you invest a small fortune in filtration equipment. It’s also a time sensitive process.

  • edited October 2017

    We finally have two of the rum brands finished. The Silver which is a basic white rum, and the barrel aged golden rum.

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    Dean Palmer - Director of Rum - Cotherman Distilling - Dunedin, FL

  • Looks great.

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

  • edited October 2017

    What are you liking better, molasses or panela?

    We're trying to get something going with a local Demerara importer. I've got to pull the trigger on a ton just to be able to run some test batches. He imports and rebags really small, so I'd need to take an entire 2000lb bulk bag.

  • have not done a complete 100% spirit run on molasses.. soon we will compare to our normal 1/3panela - 2/3molasses

  • edited October 2017

    @grim. Why Demerara ? Depending on source that could have been white sugar then reprocessed back to light brown. Would not the more natural panella ( and there is a dozen different names for this) be better as they have much more flavour. If Demerara why not just use white with a shot of quality molasses. But the same could be said about @CothermanDistilling as apart from the warm fuzzy feeling of using a natural product surely the panella is going to be lost in the other 2/3 molasses and cheap white would have been fine. Having said that if it works it works and who gives a rats as long as it works.

  • Looking for an unrefined sugar product mostly - as close to evaporated cane as possible (no sugar removal).

    Given my proximity to Port Newark - it means purchasing sugar with minimal direct freight costs to me. Shipping a skid of sugar costs roughly 1/2 the price of the sugar. If someone is bringing in container loads locally, that works out for me.

    Same deal going with International Molasses. I don’t need to pay freight charges since I can just pick up myself.

    Gotta watch those pennies.

  • Evaporated cane juice is mondo $$

  • a visit to there and set up an agreement to have them do the fermentation, dunder and first distillation for you, you visit the Caribbean a couple times a year to keep an eye on it...

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