Still Smarter

Just reading through, and where there's mention of large wash batches etc, and the mention of 205 ltr blue barrels, it reminded me of when I bought some DJ's via eBay.

The seller was a small scale, commercial cider maker. He showed me his fermenting set up, a line of 1000 litre IBC's in a barn.

A novel approach IMO, but it worked. The seller is a grower of organic cider apples, so had the kit for storage, fruit washing/hygiene, crushing/juicing etc.

Hence if this approach was adopted for sugar wash (larger quantities), the biggest issue sounds like it would be purchase/storage of sugar i.e. it would need to be bought in pallet multiples - at 1000 litre batches, 240kg per batch (using the oft quoted 6kg in 25 litres) and given that sugar is sold in 1000kg pallet quantities, that's IRO 4 batches per pallet - so not only storage and handling issues but big £'s as well.........

There is a valid reason to standardise your fermentation. You tweak a recipe to fit your equipment, or you modify your equipment to fit your recipe.

For rum I ferment in a 160 litre drum.

I dump in 10 litres of hot dunder to sanitise the yeast bed in the fermenter - it is a nutrient source.
Then I add a whole 25 kg drum of molasses and rinse out the drum with another 20 litres of hot dunder.
In a separate container, I add 12.5 kg of demerara sugar to another 20 litres of hot dunder.
To the fermenter, I add 70 litres of either water or water and dunder, depending on the temperature in the fermentation room.

I ferment the molasses first. When it has dropped to below SG 1.010 I add the demerara sugar syrup and top up to 130 litres.

For me, 25 kg molasses, 12.5 kg demerara and a total volume of 130 litres works in a 160 litre fermenter.

Molasses is too sticky to mess about with partial containers.

Sometimes this forum is deep. Not necessarily meaningful,but deep. Some of us could drown in the suggested volumes. I commend Myles for his knowledge and experience.

I will return to my safer depth of 4 and 25 litres, AS and SRS respectively.

I believe my wife would become violent if I contemplated anything larger. I would like a larger wife too, however, after 4 and 28 years with this one, not an option.