StillSmart

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ok...

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

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.

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.