StillSmart

Hi Guys

I finally got around to running my Cachaca Rum today, I fermented 3 x 25 litre wash's using the following recipe

3 x 907gr tins of Golden Syrup (equivelent to 2.19kg of sugar)
2 x 740gr jars of Molasses (equivelent to 830gr of sugar)
Plus 2 kg of sugar

The SG was 1.080

I then stripped each one down to 30% before combining the 3 strips with 4litres of rum feints that I had from my last rum run, my boiler charge was 26lt at 30%

My equipment was a 50litre Keg boiler with a 3KW heating element, then 3 x 4" bubble plates.

Here's my run notes:

Cacacha Rum
26lt @30% power 1950w
Deflag 1/2 turn open
Product Condenser 1 turn open
Product Temp 12°c
All ABV's are un-corrected
Fores 400ml @ 81.1°c 89%
Heads 1000ml @ 81.2°c 89%
Heads 1000ml @ 81.3°c 88%
Jar 01 400ml @ 81.3°c 88%
Jar 02 400ml @ 81.4°c 88%
Jar 03 400ml @ 81.4°c 88%
Jar 04 400ml @ 81.4°c 88%
Jar 05 400ml @ 81.5°c 88%
Jar 06 400ml @ 81.5°c 87%
Jar 07 400ml @ 81.6°c 87%
Jar 08 400ml @ 81.7°c 87%
Jar 09 400ml @ 81.8°c 87%
Jar 10 400ml @ 81.9°c 87%
Jar 11 400ml @ 81.9°c 87%
Jar 12 400ml @ 82.1°c 86%
Jar 13 400ml @ 82.5°c 86%
Jar 14 400ml @ 84.9°c 84%
Tails collected 800ml until 99°c
Run Time 6 hours

It's all airing now, I'll make my cuts and put it on some SD french Oak No4, I'll also keep everything that doesn't make the cut as feints for the next run.

Blimey that looks like hard work.
But it is really good stuff.

Time will tell if it's any good or not, it certainly seems to have produced a very clean spirit, will see what a couple of months oak does to it, If it's nice un-aged I'll keep some off the oak for sipping with coke :-)

I could have pushed the still much harder with the 4" plates but it seemed to be nice and settled so I left it too it without messing too much, the only adjustments I made was to crank up the power at the end to finish off the tails collection.

Just done my cuts on this, I found Jars 06-13 acceptable for aging on oak, not as good a yield as I had hoped but it is what it is I guess, jar 14 stinks and anything before jar 6 has too much of a heads taste for my liking.

Anyway, I now have 4.3 litres @ 65% sitting in my 8 litre Kilner Jar with 100 grams of SD Fench Oak No 4 Blend, I'm going to keep it on the oak for 4-6 weeks, then remove the oak, before leaving it a few more months in the Jar.

Just a note on the SD French Oak No4, it's a blend of two types, the mix is 40/60 between the big square cornered chunks and the thin rounded chunks, so if you get some be sure to get the mix correct.
40% Big Suare Blocks
60% Thin Rounded Blocks

I'll get some photos as it progresses

After an hour or two on the oak

Looks good. Would be interested to know what the oak is a blend of. French and American presumably?

I have got to run mine through again. Over did the glycerine. Lovely spirit but I managed to make it grease. Doh.

I suspect it's 60% French Oak no1 and 40% French Oak No2 going by the shape of the blocks and the pictures of them on the SD Europe website, I did ask on the SD forum what the No4 blend consisted of but Sunshine said the manufacturers are very secretive about them and I never got a precise answer.

Anavrin wrote:.... said the manufacturers are very secretive about them and I never got a precise answer.

Hmmm. Does make one sceptical.

@ Anavrin: Two things: 1) Why do you call this cachaca rum? It is a rum, but its not cachaca.
2) If I may borrow your chart, it demonstrates a point I have repeated over and over again, but for some reason, many fail to realize the significance of temp, and the advantage of distilling a sizeable amount at any one time.

All ABV's are un-corrected
Fores 400ml @ 81.1°c 89%
Heads 1000ml @ 81.2°c 89%
Heads 1000ml @ 81.3°c 88%
Jar 01 400ml @ 81.3°c 88%
Jar 02 400ml @ 81.4°c 88%
Jar 03 400ml @ 81.4°c 88%
Jar 04 400ml @ 81.4°c 88%
Jar 05 400ml @ 81.5°c 88%
Jar 06 400ml @ 81.5°c 87%
Jar 07 400ml @ 81.6°c 87%
Jar 08 400ml @ 81.7°c 87%
Jar 09 400ml @ 81.8°c 87%
Jar 10 400ml @ 81.9°c 87%
Jar 11 400ml @ 81.9°c 87%
Jar 12 400ml @ 82.1°c 86%
Jar 13 400ml @ 82.5°c 86%
Jar 14 400ml @ 84.9°c 84%
Tails collected 800ml until 99°c
Run Time 6 hours

Note how the temp and ABV are all within a narrow range except for the first couple and the last couple of readings. That is what you should strive for. The bulk of the run maintains a straight line (hearts). Perfect. Very clean.

This can not be achieved with small volumes.

AS for your yield being a bit light, looking at the numbers, I would venture to say you could be a lot less aggressive on your fores, giving you another 1.5 - 2 L.

Thanks for the use of your chart. Is there any way you could put that into a line graph showing the relationship between temp, ABV, etc. It could clear things up for some.

Hi RumJohn

I bought the cane syrup with a plan to make some of your Cachaca Cane Spirit but I decided in the end to try something a little different by adding molasses, which does technically make it a rum, but because I used more cane syrup than molasses, I decided to call it Cachaca Rum.

I'll have a go at a Graph of I can get my head around the new version of Exel on my PC, I'm more of a neutral spirit man than flavoured spirits and if I can detect heads in a jar it doesn't make the cut, I did look at the numbers and hoped for more hearts based on them being almost flat for the majority of the Middle run, maybe in the future I can be braver and let more into my hearts and rely on the ageing process to mellow them out.

OK so heres my graph



And this one with some red lines!!!
From left to right the first red line shows where I started collecting in 400ml jars and the next two indicate my hearts collection with a little tails that I have now put on oak.

This has got me thinking, there are a couple of noticeable changes in the temp, I'm going to start routinely making graphs to aid with determining cuts, RumJohn suggested I could have got another 2 litres and there is indeed a temp change 2 litres before my heads cut, maybe I could have gone there, but there was a definate smell of heads in the first jar and a taste in the next few that I didn't use.

@Anavrin. Great job. Things start jumping out at you now. Is it possible to overlay, or at least side by side with the ABV%? You will see how they relate.

With a sugar based was you will not get the same volume or type of heads you would get with a grain mash. Minimal with the sugar.

I am glad this little exercise has got you thinking.

Ok so heres a graph with the ABV superimposed over the temperature, ive lowered the ABV by 6% to enable it to overlap the temp but the shape is still accurate.



Now showing where i made my cuts using taste / smell (only the 2nd and 3rd red line is my hearts cut)




If I was to make cuts using only the graph, this is where i might have made them




Interesting!

Good stuff. I always find it interesting looking at the data of any subject really interesting. It often tells a very different story.