StillSmart

Thank you for the recipe Rum John, I made a wash up this evening. I love how simple this is! I have to admit I didn't have any B Vits to crush so I went to the old faithful minced raisins but it's going off well, the bucket is quite warm & there's plenty of fizz going on in there. SG was about 1.07 from 7x 608g jars, made up to 23 litres...can't wait to try it!

Benoit

I'm having a glass or several of this while neglecting to cook the family dinner. As the dear wife used to say about drinking and child rearing..."if it helps me to be nicer to the children , how can it be bad thing?"

She's a lovely drop. The golden syrupy goodness is coming through !

Cheers RJ and all at SSF !

That's a nice compliment to pay your wife.....

Now what about the Cachaca....is that a lovely drop with golden syrupy goodness coming thru too?

>:D :-)

You beat me to it Packs,
Mrs F S being a "a lovely drop" was kinda messing with my head.
I suspect F S sampled one more than needed.
And why not?
We do this for fun,and because we can.

Robert.

Guilty as charged.

Pirates love her ...I feel better after I have had a couple ... she burns your tongue but makes your tummy feel nice and warm ...

She is a lovely drop alright

On to my third 50 liter wash of RJ's recipe.

Comments or advice on my latest spirit run please ...

11 hour marathon. I won't be doing it that slow again.

After a strip run I started out with 14 litres @ 30% - ran it at round 450 watts .
Collected 1-24 x 200ml jars from 85% -->70% ABV (then into the feints jar)

Last time I kept jars 4-12.

Now I've got my cuts tasters lined up from left to right 1-24 and its really hard for me to pick the smell of tails anywhere.Tasters are diluted 2/1. There is a slight bitterness that kicks in round jar 13 and intensifies as I move further along. It bites your tongue the way quinine does in tonic water but no taste of tails.

Given those numbers what do you see?

That's quite a headache you have there

Cheers Pp nah not really. Not unless I drink it all in one go.

How about coming back tomorrow and starting from another place?
Sometimes, I struggle for cuts, And try and confuse myself/have no pre-conceptions.
I like to pretend that it works.
I have been known to do this over a period of weeks, there is always something makes it to the bottling plant.

However on the spirits that I produce time after time,most cuts are taken according to a hydrometer, with a taste or sniff to confirm.

For sure RJ would not run that slow, maybe he will be along later with a comment.


Robert.

@ Mr. Four Square: 11 hours to do what??? 45L strip takes me an hour to bring up to temp. 3-3.5 hours to do the run. I collect in a 12L glass something. When the run is done, what has been collected gets transferred to a low wine container (50L milk can) until such times as I have sufficient for a spirit run. Don't complicate the process.

Easydrinker wrote:How about coming back tomorrow and starting from another place?
Sometimes, I struggle for cuts, And try and confuse myself/have no pre-conceptions.
I like to pretend that it works.I have been known to do this over a period of weeks, there is always something makes it to the bottling plant.However on the spirits that I produce time after time,most cuts are taken according to a hydrometer, with a taste or sniff to confirm.For sure RJ would not run that slow, maybe he will be along later with a comment.
Robert.

Another distiller is coming round tomorrow morning after the Rugby World Cup final so we'll give it another go then. It'll either be a victory toast or a wake !

Ultimately it comes down to taste and guess work. If you go by hydrometer ED you'd figure 70% was clear of the tails wouldn't you?

RumJohn wrote:@ Mr. Four Square: 11 hours to do what??? 45L strip takes me an hour to bring up to temp. 3-3.5 hours to do the run. I collect in a 12L glass something. When the run is done, what has been collected gets transferred to a low wine container (50L milk can) until such times as I have sufficient for a spirit run. Don't complicate the process.

Just an experiment RJ. Strip run is usually 3 hours and around 3.5 for a spirit run.

I got up at 3am that day to watch the All Blacks play France. So once that was over I had a few extra hours and figured I'd fire up the still and just for an experiment I decided to keep it at a steady drip right through to see how it turned out.

6 months after I do the cuts I'll be able to tell you.

After several hours of detailed notes and tasting - jars 5-24 went into the big
jug for keeping. That's a smidge under 4 litres worth @ average ABV over 75 % from a 50 litre wash.

Roughly double what I kept last time.

Plus I also made a sweet vodka from the rum feints of my last couple of rum runs.

That's the kind of recycling we can all get behind ...

There are ways RJs recipe differs from many rum recipes. For example he doesn't use backset or dunder. Aging at 40% not 65%.

I know cachaca is a lighter product than rum and assume that as both of these steps ( backset and oaking at higher ABV) would add more flavours to the spirit.

RJ have you or any others tried either of these methods ?

What results ?

Any comments and the experience of others would be much appreciated .