Q: Making RUM with a Smart Still.

[beerbaron]

I have seen some recipes online for making rum. Basically you use molasses instead of sugar for your was.
Ma question is. Has any body ever tried distilling a wash with molasses with a smart still?

[HangOver]

First I\'d say I have never tried it but as the airstill removes all, (well, most) flavours I doubt you will be able to make rum without post flavours.
I think the best you\'ll do is use the plain spirit and soak with chuncks of rum barrel from your local HB shop and rum flavour.

Ask for recomendations for flavours though they vary from bloody awful to nearly the real thing.
GL

[foRUM warrior]

i was under the impression it was the carbon filtering that removed the flavours/off flavours.
i do intend to give it ago at some point, i just havnt found a reasonably priced supplier of molasses yet.

[phlogiston]

I agree, I don\'t think the air still removes flavours -- it\'s basically a pot still. Try double distilling -- on your first run, keep much more than they advise, say 1200-1300ml or about one-third of the total. This will be full of heads and tails and almost certainly more flavours than you want.
On the second run, aim to keep about half of what you put into the still, but collect it into about 20 small jars. Leave the jars to air for a day or two, then spend a happy few hours blending. There\'s advice on homedistillers.org about cuts and blending, but I can\'t find the link just at the moment.

[Opus 27]

I\'ve not tried what your suggesting with an air still but I would of thought the problem would be knowing what temperatures your using to produce the correct components without all the nasty stuff. I assume the air stills are manufactured to operate at a specific temperature to produce the normal vodka type spirit you would flavour.

Just my thoughts on the subject, I know when I tried producing whisky from malt with an air still the results were at best disappointing.
Opus 27

[phlogiston]

Yeah, the air still does lack a bit of fine control :-(
I don\'t have enough experience to know if you can get round this by judicious cutting and blending. Worth an experiment or two!

[beerbaron]

This RUM Recipes calls for Molasses, sugar and Bakers yeast and some di-ammonium phosphate (Yeast nutrients) . I guest that when you use bakers yeast, it makes a very clean wash with very little off smell and flavours. The Turbo yeast is ok but you have to filter it with carbon. Supposedly, when you use bakers yeast, you don’t have to Carbon filter your wash after putting it thru the still. The down side to Bakers yeast is that it only produces 10 to 12 % wash.
I’m just wondering if the stuff coming out of the still will be rum? Will it be white rum or dark rum?

[foRUM warrior]

depends on what you collect and what you add to it. myself i always dump the first 50ml then collect away
gunna try a bakers yeast wash next my final goal being a rum wash
oooh and as to white/dark rum This wiki might explane it(see the bit on grades or production). but in short its all to do with the filteration/ageing process

[phlogiston]

Hi beerbaron
What comes off the still will be clear and colourless. That\'s true for all spirits -- rum, whisky, brandy, etc. The colour (and a lot of the flavour) in whisky and brandy comes from barrel aging.
Don\'t get too concerned about a high alcohol content in your wash. 10-12% is more than enough, especially if you are double distilling. Commercial whisky washes are often in single figure percentages. According to those over on artisan distillers and homedistillers, aiming for high alcohol washes stresses the yeast and you get more off-flavours.
Cheers
phlogiston

[marc83]

fully agree with Phlogiston.I aim for the 12%abv mark in each wash,no probs yet.
If you are wanting to try making a good ol real rum,whiskey or bourbon i am thinking a pot still is the way to go.I have de-tuned my reflux still to strip a few washes,but havent tried out making rum etc with it.
Surely you can replicate a good rum/whiskey through your airstill using essences?
With my 25L reflux i have made some pretty good neutral that i have flavoured into all sorts since i have started making me own.most with some pretty good reviews/feedback.

[Ancient1]

I have made my own rum using a Smart Still.
I used Alcotech 48 yeast, 5x450g molasses, 6lb. Sugar.
I boiled molasses and sugar together to get total dissolution and then topped up to 23 litres with cold water. When temperature was right I threw the yeast.
Fermenting time is little different to a plain sugar wash.
Clearing is difficult and I don\'t bother too much although I do use fining and leave for about a week.
I use a double portion of the ceramic beads to spread the boil and also only fill to approximately 3.5 litres.
I don\'t use a carbon filter.
On such run, I discard the first 25ml (although in commercial distilling, certainly whisky, this is not discarded but returned to the wash.)
I would also mention here that though many speak of bad smell at this stage, methanol has a sweeter smell then ethanol and most bad odours will come from unused yeast nutrients I think.
I stop the run when what is in the collection jug shows me a reading of 55% a.b.v.,
The distillation is of course, as mentioned, entirely colourless, so one had a white rum of 55% a.b.v.
Depending on your own tastes, this can be re-diluted to original wash volume then run through again, though doing such will reduce flavour.
Myself I simply dilute down to 40% a.b.v. If by any chance there is any cloudiness in dilution then I do re-run it.

If attempting to age it for a Dark Rum, I leave it at 55% a.b.v. Add oak chips and 450g \'Black strap Molasses\' as these have less sugar.
Agitate and leave for about 3 months at least.
Taste.
If satisfied, siphon off sediment and filter.
As with any distillation, you will not produce an imitation of a commercial product but rather your own personal product based on your ingredients, local water, type of still and ageing method. Just as with Commercial Distillers, no two are the same.
A similar method, using malt extract or spray malt will give you a whisky. I tend to about 5 gallons of 40% a.b.v. Then add 5 packets of Oak Chips and leave for at least three months.
I find producing my own \'brand\' of both whisky and rum, extremely satisfying. I haven\'t gone blind, neither have I suffered from poisoning.
All of my friends who have tried it have been most impressed.
I appreciate that this isn\'t everybody\'s way of doing things, but it works for me.

[Phantom]

well I haven\'t done Rum, but I\'ve distilled both cider and a number of home made wines and meads.
I\'ve just been making them in the usual way (except if the cider is gonna be made with distilling in mind - I do add extra sugar), then when they\'re clear I just put 3 litres in the still instead of 4, I still add some conditioner and rashig rings to prevent over boiling, then I bin the first 50mls, and then just run the still until it\'s showing a distillate of abut 25% ABV.
The whole point being that I want both the clean 60 or so % spirit but also plenty of the other esters etc to retain some of the original flavour, albeit apples from the cider, the fruit (mainly hedgerow fruit) or the honey from meads.
It\'s then just chucked into a corked carboy, that has some packets of oak chips in it and left to mash.......
So far, the one I\'ve got finished is showing medium colour, with some distinct \"brandy-like\" qualities. I\'ve quite pleased with it.
If worse comes to the worst, I can just re-distill it..... Oh and it\'s working out about 45% ABV

[Jimmy]

I did a cornflake \'whiskey\' once, the point being to just use the still rather than carbon filtering and see how clean I could get the final product. I ran everything through as a stripping run and then split the spirit run into jars as everyone recommends. It came out really well, no off tastes and it was easily as clean as carbon filtered stuff - the downside being that it was a pain to do all those runs with the small SmartStill. I aged it on oak and it was a decent drink but I wouldn\'t have said it was a long way above simple neutral spirit aged on whiskey barrel chunks, so I haven\'t bothered since. Certainly was a simple \'next step\' type experiment if anyone is looking to move on from plain sugar washes.

[Opus 27]

I ran a spray malt wash some time ago to see if I could achieve anything near to a whisky, basicaly a long the same lines as Jimmy. The result was drinkable but not brilliant. I\'ve since come to the conclusion that producing a good clean neutral spirit and adding essences is far more reliable and once you\'ve found an essence you like you can pretty much guarantee the results. I moved onto the Super reflux and with a few tweaks now get consistant 92% ABV when it\'s cut filterd and flavoured I know exactly what it will taste like. My other thought is that if it was that simple to achieve a good whisky from malted grains I don\'t think Master Distillers would of spent years perfecting their skill, but thats just my pensioners musings the main thing is to have fun doing what we do.
Opus 27

[beerbaron]

Cool... Thanks for all of your input. Also, thanks to Ancient1 for the recipe.