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Coloring rum with caramel


bradocaster

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Is anyone using caramel to color rum? We had planned to do this but we are having trouble getting a dark enough color without the caramel tasting bad. We are looking for a good way to color a spiced rum. Thanks for any help.

Brad

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Not personally but I know some some like Lost Spirits are. It's typically mixed 50/50 with new make and left to settle for a couple weeks before use. Obviously it's a strong flavor so overpowering your spices could be a concern. Might be worth a test bottle or two though.

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Are you using commercial coloring (like DD Williamson 570? http://www.ddwcolor.com/select-your-class-class-i-caramel/) or are you trying to make it yourself from sugar? I don't have any practical experience with caramel, but it is easy to imagine that trying to make your own would give something with an acrid, bitter taste. I doubt Lost Spirits colors their rum with dunder, as dunder (stillage which is left to bacterially re-ferment) is not palatable in the slightest. It is mixed with the wash in different ratios for consistency, pH, or microflora reasons, and mixed with low wines prior to spirit distillation to create heavier, more estery rums.

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I read his book on whiskey, I didn't know he had a book on rum. I am positive he uses dunder, I just don't think he is coloring rum with it as my experiences with dunder make me think that would taste really bad and I've never heard of another distillery doing that. If you know a link where he talks about that I'd love to read it.

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My source is 3rd hand so I don't want to be misleading. Bryan's done a number of interviews were he discusses his dunder management, but he gets a bit secretive about his aging / coloring processes. It is considerably more controlled than tossing it in a pit to fester and hoping for the best for a year or two. I've also seen on the various home distilling forums where fresh dunder has been used for coloring with great success. Personally, I think fresh out of the still and cooled it has a pleasant taste, but I'm weird that way.

http://spiritsjournal.klwines.com/klwinescom-spirits-blog/2014/2/5/rum-super-geekdom.html

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I cant imagine anyone would mix rum backset with something a human would consume. It's a vile tasting liquid fit for niether man nor beast (yes I know, the beast thing isn't accurate). Now.. don't get me wrong. It does wonders as a pH buffer and flavor deepening in the ferment.

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Define "tasting bad". I hand make the caramel that we use in our rum for color, and it gives the rum really good depth of flavor. It definitely has a burnt sugar taste to it (which is what you'd expect from a caramel), but in our spiced rum it really works well.

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I also can't imagine that dunder would be used to color finished product. I use it in my rum and sorghum fermentations, but no way I'd put it in finished spirit.

That being said, I am interested in production of caramel for coloring. If anyone with experience could share any tips on that I'm all ears.

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