StillSmart

Molasses Strip for Spirit Run.

26 litres @ 27% from Strip Run

35 litre Copper Pot Still

Calor Gas Burner.

A 250ml glass test jar for collection

A low burner setting used due to a wish to avoid as much 'smearing' as possible.

(I would add here that I also need to avoid overloading the cooling capacity of my copper condenser.)


Output rate started at 13.5 minutes per 250ml
A continuous flow similar to large a darning needle.
Bottom of condenser temperature reading held to 11ºC throughout.


By the time the take off was reading 73%., the needle-like flow had fined out and the flow rate per 250ml was now 18 minutes. As it turned from a needle thin flow to a fast drip (mid 18th 250 ml) I very slightly raised the burner to obtain constant flow again.

Collecting in 250ml lots, it came to:

4 @ 79%
3 @ 78&
2 @ 77%
2 @ 76%
3 @ 75%
2 @ 74%
1 @ 73%
1 @ 71%
2 @ 69%
1 @ 66%
2 @ 65%
1 @ 63%

These 4 Litres will be left overnight before I decide which to include and which goes into feints.

I also brought off another 4 litres @ 40% abv to be included in feints.

I have a another, similar, 26 litres of Molasses strip to go through the spirit run.

The combined feints, when re-diluted, should be quite enough to provide for a third spirit run I would think.

Hey, good luck with this mate.
Just realised that you are a member of the very small club in the UK using gas under a boiler.
Your numbers seem to suggest that the third run is there.
I keep telling myself that it is only time that prevents me trying a Molasses wash.
Well, it is one of the reasons.

Robert.

Like the numbers there Toper....it's good to have another set to mark your own against.

One problem I find with cutting rum is that most of the heads smell really good, and there is tonnes of flavour in there too. If you include too much, it can turn out to be a headache in a glass, something like appleton estate just kills me if I have a sesh on it.

I like to include some of the late heads, quite a bit, so that it tastes like you messed up the cut. If you leave some head space in the storage vessel, and air it out regularly giving it a good shake, after 3-4 weeks the headiness is gone leaving loads of flavour (but still a little bit of headache).

If I dont do this, I find after a few weeks it becomes too smooth, and a little disappointing due to the lack of character. I hadn't done a rum in ages, and have just made this very mistake with some I ran last month.

That is good advice. I find rum challenging to cut correctly. The character changes dramatically as it ages.

Yes. My Heads had quite a sweet bouquet. I have withheld 4 x 250ml to add to feints.

For any flavoured distillation it seems a matter of personal judgement and taste as to the cut for both Heads and Tails.

For me, I would like to replicate a Navy tot rum (57% abv) I was once invited to try whilst being a guest in the P.O's Mess aboard a Destroyer in the Red Sea many, many, many years ago.

I was little more than a youth. I was offered a glassful of the undiluted tot. I drank with the confidence of ignorance. After the fumes had passed down my nose, out of my mouth, passed my eyeballs and through my ears, I was left with a complex aftertaste which I remember to this day.

If I can hit anything approaching that richness of flavour I would be delighted.