kckadi Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 I'm ready to start on my first rum development and have been reading allot of material and lurking on the various forums. A thread on this forum recommended "The Distillers Guide to Rum" which I purchased and I think is a great read on the subject. In the opening of chapter 5 "Molasses Pretreatment" it is mentioned that a 'good practice' is to partially sterilize the molasses by heating it between 158F and 185F for 30 minutes to kill vegetative spores. But the White Labs Rum trifold pdf says that heating a molasses over 140 promotes a Maillard reaction resulting in a loss of sugar(it doesn't state how much loss). Is anyone heating their molasses to sterilize it? My mash kettle can do this but I wonder if its worth it. Which is worse, spores reducing yield or reduced yield from a Maillard Reaction reducing sugar? Also for PH reduction of molasses which is better, powdered Citric Acid or Hydrochloric Acid? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captnKB Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Im using 25% hot backset from my previous batch to dissolve my molasses and sugar. Then topped up 75% with cool filtered and UV sterilized water to achieve my target starting gravity. Im using a blend of DAP and fermaid K to adjust PH and give yeast a strong start. Ive yet to have a batch go bad, sour or get stuck with this method. My suggestion. skip wasting your time on heat to sterilize and focus on proper oxengenation and yeast pitching rates to avoid infection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebstauffer Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 We also use 25% backset and a home-grown nutrient blend including DAP and deactivated yeast in lieu of a FermaidK blend. Backset is generally acidic enough such that no pH adjustment is needed, but if it is we use phosphoric acid to lower. We've never pretreated any of our molasses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shindig Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 I use a VERY ($$) high grade of molasses and haven't even had to adjust the PH much. DAP, FermK and commercially available yeast and have had great results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabtastic Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 backset should bring you down to a healthy ph (4-4.5). wild bacteria is not necessarily an issue especially if you pitch yeast paying attention to quantity and viability. The yeast should be able to crowd out most everything. However, Rafeal Arroyo details a method of cleaning the molasses by heating to ease the removal of solids in addition to adding old school versions of fermaids in his patent on the Production of Heavy Rums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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