Still Smarter

Ok, so getting a bit low on neutral stocks, so time to start running the last batch of wash, and get another batch started.

As I still had about 14kg of the palm sugar I posted about a while back, I figured why not.

So it was 4kg of the palm sugar and 2 kg of cane sugar.

The bag of "distillers" yeast was still sitting in the cupboard waiting for some work. So 1 cup (US) of that (guessing from the usual weight of a bag of vodka star), and because I figured that the palm sugar may have enough nutrition, I only augmented with a tablespoon of some nutravit I've had hanging around.

Sugars and water hot mixed after Sunday lunch, which had cooled enough by early evening, so yeast and nutrients blitzed in with leccy balloon whisk.

Up at stupid o'clock Monday for work and it was already bubbling away like a Trojan......


The previous batch done with the palm sugar came out fine. Yes, I did do my usual i.e. double distill and carbon filter etc, and couldn't taste any discernable difference between that and normal sugar wash, so result

Probably do the rest of the Palm Sugar as 5kg+2kg cane (X 2). Then it just depends on other table sugar batches, as I reckon I can always blend if I do notice any flavour issue (or just mix it as rum).

Glad that a change from your usual wash seems to be going well.
Chop and change brings,..well. a change.

Robert.

Can you taste the difference in palm sugar?
If it has a noticeable flavour are you wasting it by making neutral with it?

I have never brewed with it (or tasted it) so I don't know - just curious.

myles wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 9:38 pm Can you taste the difference in palm sugar?
If it has a noticeable flavour are you wasting it by making neutral with it?

I have never brewed with it (or tasted it) so I don't know - just curious.

No. I did it entirely separately to start, but once I had the first batch completed, the side by side taste showed that I couldn't.

Perhaps someone with a better palate than me could ? but I'm happy with it as neutral for essence flavours......

Curious.
I would have expected a taste difference.
Given the price difference.
But I have not tried it, so what do I know?

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 12:14 am Curious.
I would have expected a taste difference.
Given the price difference.
But I have not tried it, so what do I know?

Robert.

Price doesn't really count as it was a freebie accepted on the idea that as an industrial type sweetener, it should be fermentable (it is) and despite its colour (medium brown when dry) any alcohol would come out clear (which it does) and that if there was some sort of background flavour that came through with the spirit, I could always use it as screen wash (or hand sanitizer).

I've not bothered to taste is after strip, but my double distill and carbon filter seem to do the trick.

Perfectly drinkable neutral, with no sign of flavour that could affect essence flavours........

So 20 kg worth of spirit that's only cost me the yeast, nutrients and time.

As for price? no idea as I've not seen it sold publicly as an ingredient etc. So no idea whether it's used for a specific natural flavour thing, or just as a lower sweetness sweetener. Or whether it has any other properties that make it useful for whatever (elasticity, emolient, deacidification, etc etc)

Cost?
Try nearly £13 a kilo!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palm-sugar-450 ... 5684&psc=1

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 11:14 pm Cost?
Try nearly £13 a kilo!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palm-sugar-450 ... 5684&psc=1

Robert.

Palm sugar?? the Jaggery I've used in the past I think was Palm sugar. I still have 3 or 4 blocks leftover, when the bucket is empty from the GS wash I may as well throw that in and start it off.

Ice.

I may be having a brain fart, but understand Jaggery to be Cane sugar, with, or without the addition of date and/or palm sugar?
Always happy to be corrected.

Robert

Easydrinker wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:26 am I may be having a brain fart, but understand Jaggery to be Cane sugar, with, or without the addition of date and/or palm sugar?
Always happy to be corrected.

Robert

That's my understanding as well.

Saw a prog about lesser known ingredients, and it showed the bloke both crushing the cane, just also him boiling the cane juice down to reduce it so the sugar crystals could develop etc.....

I don't wanna start a fight, but I thought, jaggery was date sugar (palm fruit)? no?

I think jaggery refers more to how it is made, rather than from what it is made. Jaggery made from cane juice seems to be the most common, but it is also made from date palm and coconut sap. I've seen varying opinions on which is the best.

Oooo I thought it was the ingredients not the process. Reading required. Cheers.

wormwood wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 3:08 pm I think jaggery refers more to how it is made, rather than from what it is made. Jaggery made from cane juice seems to be the most common, but it is also made from date palm and coconut sap. I've seen varying opinions on which is the best.

This comment makes sense, and may sort any confusion.

Quick internet search,Jaggery is natural brown sugar made either from palm sap (from coconut, date, sago, or toddy palms) or from sugar cane juice. The sap or cane juice can be boiled and reduced to a crystalline syrup before being poured into molds to harden, or vigorously mixed and scraped so it becomes granulated.

Robert.

Are we are probably looking for a clean tight definition that just isn't there.

It reads almost more regional and generic term for "unrefined sugar"

Regional and generic are probably a succcinct description here.

Robert.