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Giving Rum a Shot...

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  • edited October 2017

    I started off my working life in sugar refineries workshops and Demerara, light brown and dark brown sugar all started life as centrifuged basically white sugar and they were browned back with molasses of varying amounts. This is not necessarily the case in all sugar refineries. Next to us was the CSR Inner Circle rum plant at Pyrmont ,Sydney. My belief it was all molasses but can't remember much about that place. I know we used to get a bottle of Inner Circle Directors Special op rum at Christmas which was good especially at 18 for an apprentice.

    Yes panella etc generally costs as it is mostly made in small artisan factories. I quite agree with using it but can't see the $ benefit if is going to be drowned in molasses and white would do the same job.

  • So would it be safe to assume if it's priced higher than white sugar, it's likely just doctored?

  • edited October 2017

    I've also heard some evaporated cane juice isn't really ECJ, but first strike molasses that has been run through filtration, carbon, and centrifugation to remove the color and particulate, to yield a lighter colored and flavored syrup.

  • its hard to say just going by price as white sugar is a world commodity knocked out by the mega ton.. I would guess this is definitely the case with brown and dark brown sugar ( definately doctored ) but raw and demerara could be anything. Raw sugar - as in the light brown stuff you buy next to white - is more expensive so one would assume it has been thru more work but this could also be economies of scale with the white. Which ever way using raw sugar vs white is 99.8 vs 99.9 so i really am suspicious on different results between them and if there was a shot of molasses would equate them.

  • I've buy raw sugar directly from a sugar mill. As little or as much as you like for $.30 per lb. By the end of grinding they can have up to 600-700 thousand tons on hand when they begin trucking it out. Just an FYI.

  • @grim said: I've also heard some evaporated cane juice isn't really ECJ, but first strike molasses that has been run through filtration, carbon, and centrifugation to remove the color and particulate, to yield a lighter colored and flavored syrup.

    Yeah the big player has been accused of that. SugarDaddy's is done authentically btw. You've seen the video I took, yes?

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  • That was a good vid and proper panella is good stuff. Thats real sugar.

  • While cooling and still soft enough to have the consistency of cookie dough,,,,it's amazing and has a light chocolate flavor.

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  • edited December 2017

    I'm following suit and giving Rum a shot. I picked up 1000lbs of raw sugar, and 3000lbs of molasses today. Here are the before and after shots of my beast of a truck taking the weight.

    image

    image

    1.jpg
    800 x 450 - 51K
    2.jpg
    800 x 450 - 54K
  • Mmm mmm good!

    Good thing you’ve got a duallie.

  • yeah it was a min order of 3000lbs. Now I have to figure out how to get it out. Got it from the sugar mill in Louisiana for $300

  • Damn that is cheap

  • edited December 2017

    @LocalGoat said: yeah it was a min order of 3000lbs. Now I have to figure out how to get it out. Got it from the sugar mill in Louisiana for $300

    Which one?

  • edited December 2017

    Most of the mills will sell their raw materials. Some are not able to pump molasses into smaller containers. One mill told me I would need a container that could be pumped into from a 10" hose. Another could pump into anything. Raw sugar can be bought in a 5 gal bucket if you like. I paid $.30/lb.

  • It was Lula Westfield

    Rufus Savoie

    Distillery Sales

    Lula-Westfield, LLC

    P.O. Box 69 / 351 Hwy. 999

    Belle Rose, LA 70341

    O: 225-473-9293, Ext. 2117

    rsavoie@luwest.com

    The actual price was $375 plus freight for the tote, The Raw sugar was $.40 a pound with a min order of half ton.

  • Can you define what they are calling raw sugar? Pics?

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  • Turbinado is what he said. Ill take a pic tonight

  • The raw sugar I buy is the direct product from the mill you see stored in the very large buildings around the mills awaiting transport to refineries by truck, barge, train, etc... It is unrefined brown sugar basically.

  • Yeah, molasses bought wholesale really is cheap. I was lucky enough to find a source just minutes from my house. 150 gallons was just at $200. I can only get 150 gallons at a time because that's the limit that my tractor will lift. $1.33 a gallon beats the shit out of what I was paying before ($16 a gallon for baker's molasses)

  • if you can get the whole tanker, it is even cheaper, ridiculously cheap... we are trying to justify a $$$$ pump and a couple 2500gal flat bottom tanks to get the 4000-4200 gal truck... basically if you can use the tanker load in a year, it pays for itself over the cost savings/hours to get/risk/gas/etc... that first year 2nd year and beyond is pure savings...

    The stuff @FloridaCracker helped us with is 45brix, it has been brought from the jelly-like 75-85 brix down to what normal people think of by the producer, they further pump from that tank into other tanks to use for feed, but the tank we get from is just raw molasses and water... it takes longer to gravity fill (5-10' head) a single tote of 45 than it did the tanker truck's onboard pump to drain 4000gal of the thick stuff... that is a pump!...

  • edited May 2018

    Went to a rum festival yesterday.

    Okay so everyone has different ways as to how it's done.

    But one thing that I observed is, doing rum from molasses gives a far sweeter final taste than by compared to when fresh cane juice is used.

    Personally .... fresh cane juice from crushed sugar cane is the way to go.

  • edited May 2018

    Hugely polarizing.

    My Brazil buddy brought me back some artisanal cachaca, some really nice stuff.

    But even the good stuff, holy damn that's ... uhhh.. got some real character. That grassy vegetal kerosene note common in agricole - it's a love or hate, no in between.

  • @grim said: Hugely polarizing.

    Ben at Black Coral nearly throws up in his mouth at the mention of cachaca. Seems counter intuitive to me that a rum guy would be so negative? I personally would throw all of the American made craft stuff in the ocean for some cachaca aged in Brazilian domestic barrels.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • It's like cilantro.

  • edited May 2018

    We're getting ready to bottle our first 1 year old white rum, high test molasses, fresh-dump ex-bourbon barrels, decolorized.

    It's like vanilla rum candy, sweet, rich, smooth, no bite, drinks like syrup. Big coconut, pineapple, tropical fruit, no bite, no harsh, no solvent, nothing earthy or vegetal.

    Agricole guys would hate it.

  • @grim said: It's like cilantro.

    More like coriander i think.

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  • @grim said: It's like cilantro.

    Or like Citra Hops in Beer.... ich!

  • Agricole = cachaca .... juice from sugar cane

    Cachaça is a distilled spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice. Also known as aguardente, pinga, caninha and other names, it is the most popular spirit among distilled alcoholic beverage in Brazil. Outside Brazil, cachaça is used almost exclusively as an ingredient in tropical drinks, with the caipirinha being the most

    Rhum agricole is the French term for cane juice rum, a style of rum originally distilled in the French Caribbean islands from freshly squeezed sugar cane juice rather than molasses. Rhum is the term that typically distinguishes rum made from molasses in French-speaking locales in the West Indies.

    Either way and from a personal point of view, I found rum from sugar cane juice more refined and smoother than from molasses.

  • @grim said: We're getting ready to bottle our first 1 year old white rum, high test molasses, fresh-dump ex-bourbon barrels, decolorized.

    It's like vanilla rum candy, sweet, rich, smooth, no bite, drinks like syrup. Big coconut, pineapple, tropical fruit, no bite, no harsh, no solvent, nothing earthy or vegetal.

    Agricole guys would hate it.

    So what is the benefit of taking out the color?

  • edited May 2018

    You get a crystal clear nearly water white rum with all the positive characteristics of an aged rum, but without the unappealing pale-yellow coloration.

    Same reason about the vast majority of dark rums have caramel color added, out of the barrel they are not dark enough to be visually appealing.

    Don't discount the visual aspect of it, especially in a lineup of peers.

    Our bartenders love it, because you get a smoother, more complex flavor, without having to resort to using a colored spirit, which can sometimes negatively impact the color of a cocktail. The fact that it's smoother means that they can mix less-sweet drinks without having to compensate for harshness.

    Most of the better white rums out of the Caribbean are aged in ex-bourbon and decolorized in the same way.

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