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Has anyone used Panela?


CountySeat

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I use Panela.

I buy it by the pallets. It comes in 40 lb boxes and in the box is 1 lb bricks. I dump them in the fermentation tank hole in dump in hot water through the instantaneous water heater at 184°. Then I turn on the lighting mixer and let it go to town.

You don't have to want ad any nutrient to the solution because all the minerals and everything right from the cane juice is in there. It produces an excellent flavorful sweet smelling product that really is quite delicious.

You have to remember that molasses is the crap left over after all the sugarcane is refined after they take out all the good stuff. Panela is 100% pure basically dehydrated cane juice no fillers no additives just pure cane juice. It is wonderful and sweet and as I'm dumping it into the fermenter I often take a bite out of one of the blocks chew on it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I messaged you CountySeat, but wanted to post in the forum as well for others to get their thoughts. We had some advice from a current customer and friend regarding the fermentation:

My advice would be, to use about one fourth backset, yeast works best at about 5 - 5.5 PH. Also your particular yeast seems to like higher temps, around 80 - 85 F, seems to work the best for me. Also I find the quicker I can compete the fermentation cycle the better the product. When a ferment sets too long, the yeast tends to start making off flavors, esters us humans don't really like to drink, so I over pitch my yeast, at warm temps, and let it ferment out as quick as possible, I have had ferments go as quick as three - four days. If the temp was too low at pitch time one can raise the temp and the yeast will get excited, it's not too late.

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I know your going to find this hard to believe but we use just a simple distillers yeast. "DADY" ..... You find with a lot of yeast for rum that the yeast strains originate in the Caribbean area. With that being said they require temps above 80F most above 85f. So any temp less they will not work or be to slow. The DADY works across the the whole temp range, and I don't need to keep the ferm tanks heated to spark off a ferm, or heated at the end to finish a fermentation. Also, as eveyone know DADY is cheap as hell.

I do NOT keep any back set. I have never had a problem with pinching fresh yeast every time. I will use one pound per batch (500 gallons) .5lb starter and .5lb dry sprinkled over the top. The first bubbles will start within 1 hour.

Glad to help.

Take care.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Kinda depends on how much you use. I will do it two ways with my 400 fermentation tank with a lighting agitator w/ DC controller.

1. 660 lbs of panela and top the tank off to the 380 gallon mark

2. 400 lbs of panela and top off to 350 gallons and then 2 day later i will add the other 260 lbs

I have the mixer set on a programmable timer. I have it set for 2min on and 3 min off, it runs all the time. I run the rpms at half. It does a great just keeping it degassed and yeast suspended. Ph I keep around 4 +-.3 , I like 4.1-4.45, I never let it get below 3.75 because you can really tell it gets stressed when you counter the acid it really come back to life. Normal fermentation time is about 5 days or less.

It is in one pound blocks, so I dump everything in and then add a little less than half of water at 184f, then top off with cold water. The whole time the agitator is running breaking the blocks up. The tater can't get everything because it's fixed but it really wears them down and with it running on and off all the time but eventually break them up. When it's all said and done I hook the bottom of the tank up to the continuous still and run it. Nothing is left in the tank.

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  • 4 months later...

Thanks for the shout, Scrounge & Joe.

I did want to congratulate Walt & Mark @ Coppercraft Distillery in Holland, MI (current forum members) for medaling at ADI with their clear rum. They have a great setup, and would recommend you check them out if in the area.

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  • 1 month later...

Thank you for all the kind comments. I also wanted to shout out to Michael at Old Harbor Distilling in everyone's favorite city, San Diego. They received 6 medals at the San Diego Spirits & Cocktail Competition, one of which being a silver, for their white unaged rum against much larger competitors. Current customers on the ADI forum... please let us know about your success so we can share. Cheers

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  • 3 weeks later...

Jeff, sorry my ADI mailbox is/was full. I will clear it out...

Bluestar, I emailed you pricing a couple weeks back, did it not get through?

Sorry, Sugar Daddy, we didn't receive it, try again?

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  • 3 months later...

I think the Panela has a bit of a briney taste, similar to a rum agricole, at least depending on the yeast used. I find a lot of customers don't have a wide knowledge of spirits, so things either taste like tequila, whiskey, scotch, or moonshine. I like the panela, but it doesn't have the same bottom end as a molasses rum. I wonder if some folks are blending. I've had mine in barrel for 13 months, and it is getting close, but does seem hotter than my other spirits even with longer aging.

Has anyone else had issues contacting Sugardaddy recently? I've been waiting for a while on an order...

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