Silk City Distillers

Great point, agree.

I still don't really understand the point of Aspergillus for rum production. It's a necessary component of lots of asian spirit types due to the fact that their starch sources generally aren't malted - sweet potato, rice, etc. Without Aspergillus, there would be no sugar for yeast to ferment - absolutely ingenious - absolutely necessary (as in, no other choice). What's the goal for rum? Many of the flavor compounds produced by Aspergillus aren't volatile (acids for example), not to mention the high potential for funky off-flavor and aroma of koji ferments. Shochus a good reference point for typical koji profiles, bad shochu a really good example of atypical off flavors that would ruin rum (bitter pickles). Keep in mind cultural expectations of spirit types. Sure, there are some interesting compounds in there, get that, but there are also flavor profiles that are pretty foreign to western palates. Also keep in mind koji production, generally using sterile steamed rice. With cane, you aren't really going to be sterilizing it with heat for koji production. You are going to get a host of bacterial and fungal components growing, likely good and bad. You could grow some really nasty fungus here. I suppose you could chop some cane, roast it to sterilize, use it as a koji starter base without the massive microbial impacts, but go back to my original point, why? Imagine the brown sugar base would make for a very rum-like profile, probably far milder in flavor than typical Shochu - less koji, less rice. Interesting history on that, but has more to do with access to sugar as a result of sugar production, and taking advantage of it. This is more like an interesting cultural mashup than some sort of symbiotic fermentation product though. You could argue, kind of similar to home distillers goosing their product yield by adding sugar to simple grain fermentations. Played around with this a bit, as we have a big local Korean population - who always ask about soju. I felt you could get a far milder (aka western acceptable) flavor profile using all enzyme vs. koji. Yeah I know, purists rolling in their graves.

Red sugarcane fungus - https://www.longdom.org/open-access/a-review-on-red-rot-the-cancer-of-sugarcane-2157-7471-1000S1-003.pdf

Citrus oils at low proof might do it - like lemoncello. There will be a flavor impact.

CFR for GRAS botanicals specifically mentions communis. None of the others. If you are using something else, do you have an approved formula that indicates you are using another species?

What are you distilling?

Taste and experience. Batch consistency is what makes the distillation cut point temperatures differ. Unless you are controlling for batch consistency very accurately - through mashing and fermentation - you are going to have a very hard time using temperature for anything other than a rough indicator or where you are in the run. If you can get starting gravity, final gravity, and fermentation temp under very tight control - you'll start to see consistency in the temp cut points for a given type of spirit. Change anything along the way, yeast type, mash bill, mash protocol, and your cut points will likely change.

Skal can I call you regarding cupcakes? No, seriously.

Trying to find an old quote from Vincent - I remember the little 4” unit costing like $12-15k.

Post distillation?

Talk to Larry at Stilldragon, they have a new dewatering unit that is a better option than Vincent. The smaller/attainable Vincent CP units are great, but they are still very spendy and, well, small.

Not uncommon when talking about flavor and aroma compounds, where an increase in concentration can take a taste or smell from pleasant to awful, or worse. That creates a whole other level of complexity where it simply isn't about creation of a specific compound as part of the process, but the creation of that compound at a specific concentration.

There are plenty of other plant based sources of long-chain fatty acids and waxes that are fairly similar, depending on what your target is. Depending on what you want to target, it's fairly easy to find a plant-based match. You can even engineer a specific profile using GRAS ingredients. For example, if I want to target C12-C16, I might use a refined coconut oil (no, you don't get any coconut flavor or aroma in the distillate). If I want a high percentage of C16 - Rice Bran Oil. If I want to target C18 - Almond Oil. C16-C18 - Peanut Oil. If I want a higher percentage of waxes - Beeswax, or heck, just go with cane waxes as well. Folks who mash corn high in fatty acids see similar oil-slicks - corn oil high in C10 and C16. Probably more interesting are the long-chain wax esters, meaning you'd probably need two components to match. Like Peanut Oil and Beeswax. Which one of these makes the delicious rum oil? Which one of these tastes terrible?

Wasn't Vegemite historically just spent brewers yeast extracts?

Direct from Lallemand. While they have run out in the past, it’s pretty rare.

This isn't necessary and is going to likely be counterproductive, resulting in greater levels of evaporation in an open tank.

This is correct, a homogenous mixture of water and ethanol will not separate or stratify. Realize that underlying this is constant Brownian motion in the tank, which means in order to stratify, it needs to overcome that. What you are likely seeing is the impact of small temperature differences at the top and bottom of the tank. Mixing ethanol and water generates heat, the tank will be warmer at the top, even after some time. If when gauging you only correct for one temperature, and assume the other liquid is the same, you’ll read slightly higher proof at the top. For unmixed, non-homogeneous mixtures: Very cold water and poor mixing might see warmer ethanol floating on top. Cold sugar syrup would see this amplified.

Anything you can mix with a pneumatic hand mixer you can mix equally as well with a paddle. If you already have a pump, why not just use the pump? A tank of mixed ethanol and water will not stratify.

Fining in spirits? As opposed to straight filtration? The only filtration aid I've ever seen in wide use was diatomaceous earth (DE) used with larger plate and frame setups. 0.2 or 0.1 micron and done, it sparkles like diamonds.

EC-1118 is a Lalvin strain, and Lalvin is owned by Lallemand. LS is bayanus and EC-1118 is bayanus, both are champagne isolates. LS is made in Canada, EC-1118 is made in Canada. There are other common bayanus strains in the market, but they are sold by other companies (Red Star, etc). Lallemand does have a history of marketing the same strains differently, and not making that known to the market, likely due to market price differences, or cross competition between sales teams. Same or different?

We had good luck getting a 36” rtd off eBay and using one of the top triclamp ports to get the business end down near the bottom of the tank. It’s near the mixing agitator so we get what we think is a pretty representative measurement. Ive seen plenty of them longer and shorter, so you should be able to find something.

12" stainless butterfly? She's a rare animal and might cost as much as the still, totally unnecessary too. You don't need a fancy lyne on a stripping still, you need a port and piping to safely take vapor to the product condenser. What I mean by safely is that there should be no risk that you would foam, puke, and plug the vapor piping or product condenser - so taking from the highest point, and if there isn't one, making a highest point (8" spool, 10" spool, welded ferrule on the tun). If you have a vapor tight tank, you are good to go, if not, it's probably cheaper to covert a dairy tank like the captain says.

Glucoamylase is cheap insurance if you have some concern about mash protocol issues. Dosing Alpha amylase and mashing in hot - you’ll create a lot of dextrins, not so much sugar. Distillers typically mash in cooler than brewers. We don’t care about mouthfeel or residual sugar. Cooler mash in results in higher wort fermentability. This is due to creating more favorable conditions for beta amylase. Glucoamylase will chop up any dextrin that remains. Ensuring high levels of saccharification. It will also hydrolyze some of the remaining starch if you are fermenting on grain.

PVC no bueno

Working with a commercial cream base and adding alcohol is likely the easiest option. Signature Spirits has a base, and if you are looking for the experts, it’s creamy-creation.com.