Making Rum

[Jonathan Forester]

It's hard to find info out there sometimes. So anyone want to throw around some thoughts?

What types of molasses work best for what styles?

What types of yeasts?

What brix should it be lowered to for fermentation?

What acidity?

How to sterilize the molasses wash before pitching the yeast?

Should it be filtered, fined, etc. before pitching to get rid of unfermentable solids?

What temperatures for fermentation?

How long should the fermented wash be stored for before distillation. Fresh vs. aged?

Pot still versus reflux?

Aging the final spirits? Types of barrels? used vs. new? barrel size?

How to speed up the aging processs and develop the best flavor profile?

[Charles@AEppelTreow]

Jon,

Rum (or rather, sweet sorghum cane syrup spirits) is something I'm also interested in, and similarly ignorant about. But I'm going to toss in two bits from a mead makers perspective.

Sterilizing the must. I see two answers. A. The easiest way, mechanically, to reduce the brix of the molasses is by adding hot water. If you make the water hot enough, the must will be sterilized when you're done. B. Don't bother. Small mead makers (using similarly thick honey) are moving away from sterilizing (with heat) their must in the above fashion, since it likely does some damage to the aroma and wild flora (if any). Second reason not to bother. Distillers seem to like fast fermentations. Doug mentioned 72 hours in another thread. Contrast that with real minimalist/traditionalist cider makers who are likely to aim for 72 _days_, just for the primary ferment. I doubt there are many wild yeasts that can compete with that kind of activity.

Removing unfermentable solids. I might be wrong, but I doubt they are a type amenable to easy removal. I bet you don't worry about them (except for the mess they make of your pot)

[Rich Morgan]

It's hard to find info out there sometimes. So anyone want to throw around some thoughts?

You MUST get yourself a copy of the Alcohol Textbook. The late John E. Murtagh was the renowned for his work on Rum. The book has several articles on handling, fermentation management etc.

What molasses to use, simple... whatever is cheap, but get an assay before you buy, as the truth is in the detail.

[Rich Morgan]

It's hard to find info out there sometimes. So anyone want to throw around some thoughts?

Firstly I am assuming that you want to make a good Dark, Golden or OP (Naval) style rum. Not that white lighter fluid in a bottle.....

• What types of molasses work best for what styles?
  • Blackstrap is what most Rum distilleries use, but the definition is varaible worldwide. Some use a mixture of blackstrap, and High Test Molasses (better food grade)
    

  [*]What types of yeasts?

  • There are seveal molasses yeasts available, but any yeast that works well with Sucrose (i.e has high sucrase activity) will work. I have found the best are from Lallemand, specifically the Danstill CM and CR1
    

  [*]What brix should it be lowered to for fermentation?

  • You really should trial this, but most molasses yeasts loose it above 22Bx, but temperature and pH have a big factor
    
  • We run ours at 20Bx
    

  [*]What acidity?

  • Bring it down to about 3.3-3.5, I have found Citric Acid rather than Phosphoric to work well, as the last thing you want to add to molasses is more phosphorous.
    

  [*]How to sterilize the molasses wash before pitching the yeast?

  • It has been my experience that this is a waste of time (major debate starts here <----). It is better to bring on a rapid fermentation rather than muck around with sterilisation. Most spoilage microbes do not survive well at 20Bx and pH less than 3.5.
    

  [*]Should it be filtered, fined, etc. before pitching to get rid of unfermentable solids?

  • Screen out the mice and snakes, dilute (hot water to bring it up to pitch temperature)
    

  [*]What temperatures for fermentation?

  • Again this is a function of your chosen yeast. Some of the Carribean strains like +30C, and produce some interesting esters. My preference is to pitch at 30C, get the ferement started, and then bring it down to 28C. This is very much about the style you are wanting and is the secret of the great Rums.
    

  [*]How long should the fermented wash be stored for before distillation. Fresh vs. aged?

  • Never store rum wash, its unstable as hell, and in a warm climate (where it all started) the wash is turned straight into the stills as soon as it has settled.
    
  • If you do not want to distill off the lees, then fine the wash with some bentonite.
    

  [*]Pot still versus reflux?

  • Rum is tradditionally made in a double pot configuration, similiar to Scotch. But a lot of the West Indies use a large pot, driving a short (<8 plate) column. Its important to know that a lot of rum pots use direct steam to assist with the reduction of some of the unfermentable sugars. There is a big flavour difference between direct steam, coils, and direct fired.
    

  [*]Aging the final spirits? Types of barrels? used vs. new? barrel size?

  • Dare not comment on this as US oak is vastly different to what is used elsewhere. But tradditionally they were 400L (US 100Gal ?) barrels, unless it was Naval Rum, which was allways in 100L casks.
    

  [*]How to speed up the aging processs and develop the best flavor profile?

  • You don't. Good rum takes time in wood. Have a look at all the countries that are renowned for Rum (Australia, West Indies, Carribean etc) they all have minimum bond under wood reglations of between 3 and 5 years.
    

[Jonathan Forester]

Rich- Thanks for the input, it's along the lines of what I gathered but good to hear from someone with experience. You are right I plan to make medium and dark aged rums, but have to make a light one as well to get onto the market right away. It's not what I want to do but is what I have to do. Just like making vodka. I have no interest, but if I don't, I won't make it through the first year.

The reason I had all the questions is that after reading the Alcohol Textbook (which is definitely NOT a textbook, just a collection of articles that seem to have picked almost randomly), and Rafael Arroyo's patent treatise of 1945 I had so much information that almost explained the details... but left me hanging there. I am having a similar problem after reading Inge Russell's Whiskey: Technology, Production, and Marketing.

[Rich Morgan]

... is that after reading the Alcohol Textbook (which is definitely NOT a textbook, just a collection of articles that seem to have picked almost randomly)

You are absolutly spot on regarding the textbook. It is really a collection of professional articles. But, there are some gems hidden in all that academc treatise. The hardest thing about making rum is the determining the cutting points, unlike vodka (no fusels whatsoever) its the fusels that make rum what it is. They vary depending on the batch as well. You have a lot of trial and error ahead of you...

[Paul G]

I've found that reading the Arroyo patent treatise takes a few tries to absorb the concepts. I'll admit (a little embarrassingly) that I've used it for bathroom reading more than once to try to wrap my brain around it.

Another helpful hint is to boil the diluted blackstrap and then allow it to stand overnight and decant off of the solids that settle out. It really smooths out the rough edges of the final product. It's also argued that, in keeping with GIGO [1], using light table molasses over blackstrap makes for a yet finer product in the end.

[1] Garbage In = Garbage Out

[Guest sensei]

First off, I apologize for my ignorance. However, I wanted to ask if anyone knows what makes Martinique Rhum so special over the others making the island The Rum Capital of the World. I've read that Martinique is the only place that makes Rhum.

[Jonathan Forester]

Martinique Rhum is a Rum Agricole (agricultural rum)- made from sugar cane juice

Most rums worldwide are Rum Industriale (industrial rum) - made from molasses

First off, I apologize for my ignorance. However, I wanted to ask if anyone knows what makes Martinique Rhum so special over the others making the island The Rum Capital of the World. I've read that Martinique is the only place that makes Rhum.

[Guest sensei]

Martinique Rhum is a Rum Agricole (agricultural rum)- made from sugar cane juice

Most rums worldwide are Rum Industriale (industrial rum) - made from molasses

Thank you very much for the answer.

[O.T. Distillery]

Some micro-distilleries are using C&H Yellow D (dark brown sugar), or raw sugar for making rum. Champagne yeast is generally used to produce a higher alcohol content and less off flavors. However, bread yeast can impart a fuller more complex flavor. This all depends on what you are using and how you distill. Used whiskey barrels are nice to use since they impart a slight oak flavor and are cheaper than new barrels. However, when using used whiskey barrels, be sure to rinse them thoroughly, or re-char them. I find this important to keep the rum from tasting more like whiskey and less like rum. Rogue dark rum is a good example of this. I'm not saying that it is a bad spirit, but it tastes more like a weak Jack Daniel's than it does a rum.

Just my two cents.

-Tyler

[Rum]

First off, I apologize for my ignorance. However, I wanted to ask if anyone knows what makes Martinique Rhum so special over the others making the island The Rum Capital of the World. I've read that Martinique is the only place that makes Rhum.

I think that the Martinique distilleries are happy to position themselves as the premium rum makers due to using the cane juice. Personally, I think it's a matter of taste. Juice rum has a definite flavor profile compared to molasses rum. When I sit down for a Ti punch I prefer a good aged molasses rum to an agricole. For my palate the molasses rums have more intense and intricate flavors. I think that ideally you could use a combination of juice and molasses and come up with some pretty good rum.

[Rum]

[*]How to speed up the aging processs and develop the best flavor profile?

• You don't. Good rum takes time in wood. Have a look at all the countries that are renowned for Rum (Australia, West Indies, Carribean etc) they all have minimum bond under wood reglations of between 3 and 5 years.
  

Some will disagree with this to some extent. A few things that will affect the aging are the temperature (and temp fluctuations) and the ratio of rum to wood (barrel size). If you age a rum in big barrels in Alaska it's not going to age as fast as doing it in 10 gallon barrels in an uncooled warehouse in Florida.

Of course, most of us don't have a choice on where our distillery is located at this point. We can decide if we want to cool our storage areas and what type of barrels to use though.