Cachaca - cane spirit

[Mr Four Square]

Just selected the cuts for my first Cachaca rum with another distiller. Lovely lovely rum.
He convinced me to keep a few more jars than I normally would.
Kept 2 litres @72 which I'll dilute down to @64 for a bit of time on oak.
In the end that will give me 3,6 litres of the good stuff @40 and 3 litres of feints for later use.
Happy Daze. Thanks RJ for kicking off and supporting this thread.

[RumJohn]

@ Mr. Four Square: Your welcome. Just for general info., I age at 40% ABV. Higher ABV tends to pull off some harsher notes. I only use a light toast for cachaca. America classifies cachaca as a rum. I do not. Brazil does not. And let it breath for a while.

Cheers.

[RumJohn]

@ Packapoo: You wrote and I missed it.
Looking back on my notes for stripping runs I find that some are still pulling 30% @ 98.5 while others are @ 25% at the same point.
Because I have it set up I run to 99 and toss the product into feints jar for reflux.

For cachaca: No packing, no reflux, don't take it above 80%. What your creating is a neutral. If you want a neutral do it with a cheaper wash rather than GS which is used to create flavor that you want to retain. Going to 98.5 is stripping the flavor out.

Configure your still for what you want to arrive at. You have the flexibility. I anticipate, were you to try it, that you would be pleasantly surprised.

[Mr Four Square]

@ Mr. Four Square: Your welcome. Just for general info., I age at 40% ABV. Higher ABV tends to pull off some harsher notes. I only use a light toast for cachaca. America classifies cachaca as a rum. I do not. Brazil does not. And let it breath for a while.

Cheers.

Thanks RJ I will follow that. I was planning on a light oak any ways.
"Let it breathe for a while" as in let the cuts sit without lids? Same thing with the 40% ?

Then how long do you leave it on oak?

[packapoo]

@RJ All good thank you.

The rum wash and result was a very interesting learning experience.

[RumJohn]

@ Mr. Four Square: How long do you leave it on Oak??

A good question - and a hell of a lot of answers.

I have been doing this long enough where I have been able to get ahead of myself. I have some rum still on oak at 5 years. Most is between 2-3 years.

With predominately an end grain exposure, you might get away with as little as six weeks. Minimum 9 months to a year with side grain exposure.

I leave mine on oak until the container is empty.

Its something you will need to play with. Just don't get anxious. Make sufficient so you can put some away to age.

[Mr Four Square]

Anxious to drink it you mean ! Too late. I'll put down another couple of washes on the weekend as part of my plan to have enough put aside for aging.

Do you ever use backset? I think you answered no ...

[RumJohn]

@ Mr Four Square: That's why I ferment 450L to pull off at least 100L of final product.

Was it worth the effort to you??

One way it gets consumed around here is my by the bucket. Of caipirinha.

[Mr Four Square]

Was it worth the effort to you??

Sure is RJ. Just put down another 50 litre wash today. Looking forward to mixing up my first caiprinhana.

Do you add backset?

[RumJohn]

@ Mr Four Square: "NO" on the backset.

[Mr Four Square]

Thanks RJ. Most peoples frame of reference for this will be rum making but cachaca is a subtly different drink. There is now at least 2 of us making this in Wellington. The wholesalers must be scratching their heads. The bucket I first saw sat on its lonesome for a year and now they are selling 2 a month.

[packapoo]

Heh, heh.
I'm working on a cunning plan to get a little closer so maybe we can lift that count....

I do recall tho, on my only visit their premises recently, they were OOS.
(Can't win them all. Go the All Blacks). :-)

[Mr Four Square]

Yeh that was Gee he's got a drinking problem ...

[Mr Four Square]

I have put down another 50 litre cachaca wash as per the usual recipe. 6 days of happy popping airlock now at rest. Probably leave it in the garage till next weekend. Then another strip and run as per my understanding of RJs usual.

Meanwhile I took last my last cachaca batch and tried a technique explained on this thread http://forum.moderndistiller.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1883

I put about a litre a time in the microwave in what we call an Agee (home preserving) jar, heated it up for 4 minutes. Dropped in a piece of toasted oak. On with the lid and screwed down tight. The heat then causes a vacuum and that in turn draws the flavour out of the oak.

There are a lot of experienced distillers on the Aussie site talking this method up. I've got nothing to compare it to but the cachaca I'm already drinking (1 month old) and 1 week after micro ageing is green but far too good !

As RJ says the trick is to have plenty in stock so you can leave it alone to mellow and age.

[Easydrinker]

Some of us have been doing this a while,this link is to our own aging and flavour section.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2034

Robert.