Honey Rum

[PJB]

Hey Guys and Galls

Anybody tried making honey rum using ss dark rum essence...i followed the instructions off honey bourbon...its for a friend so not sure if it will work the same way.

Cheers Paul

[Myles]

To be honest with you I haven't really been happy with any essence that I have tried so far.

[chill]

My experience has been the same as Myles. If you want to make something nice, you need to make a molasses or other raw sugar rum and then flavour it with some top shelf honey.

[Easydrinker]

I'm going to climb onto this bandwagon also.
I will say that various Rum essences that I have tried have been better than most other 'flavours',but they are lacking in the convincing thing,and whilst OK for a Rum and Coke,they don't satisfy a straight Rum drinker.Or at least this one.
Robert.

[chill]

That is a very good point. Some of the essences are acceptable in mixed drinks where the flavour is masked and modified a bit. Personally, my preference is for straight spirits so the essences just never left me satisfied.

[RumJohn]

I will venture to say, that once you have made alcohol for a while, you will chuck the essence. Something like rum is so easy to make, why add essence to a neutral to get a fake.

[PJB]

Ok...

Thanks for all this....since am still relatively new to all this...how do you make rum...

[Myles]

Just make up a wash calculated to ferment out to about 10 to 12%. Don't go any higher. You can use a range of sugar sources depending on what you can find.

Personally I use Demerara which is a less purified cane sugar. You can add a bit of treacle if you wish to enhance the flavour.

Panela (evapourated cane syrup) is available but I haven't been able to justify importing a full pallet yet. Thinking about it though.

I tried the dunder route and nearly killed myself - I suspect the UK climate is wrong.

Basically ferment it out, settle it for a bit and then run it. Re-using part of the sterile contents of the boiler after the run to dissolve the next batch makes sense. Also try keeping some of it to add a bit of flavour to the finished product. There are lots of good rum posts to read through.

TOP TIP. Ferment cool and slow, use a yeast starter and consider using a real ale yeast or a larger yeast.

EDIT don't waste the honey by fermenting it to distill. Add it to the product or make mead with it instead.

[chill]

If you have Vietnamese or Chinese (or any SE Asian) groceries near you, look in their sugar section for raw cane sugar (panela). It will be in dark blocks, 400 - 600g per package. It is not Sugar Daddy's Organic Panela, but it makes a tasty rum. The price here is about 50% more than white sugar. Caveat Emptor: almost all of this is Made in China.