Whitestar D497 Caribbean Rum Yeast

[Florida Cracker]

Anyone have any experience with this yeast? Just got some and was perplexed to see that the ideal fermentation temp is 68-77F. Seems awful cool for a Caribbean style rum ferment. 

 

 

 

[Florida Cracker]

As an update, I fermented with this yeast at 86-91F and it took longer than my typical Red Star yeast but the ABV is north of 11%. I have stripped it but nothing more yet. 

I'll report on how that goes. So far I have gotten some interesting aromas.

 

FC

[Shinenorth]

Please update with your results after distillation. I looked into this stuff a few months ago, but we ultimately went a different way. The fermentation temp is what turned me away from this product. I like to ferment my rum hot and your results might have made my decision more concrete. You can't beat the price though when compared to lallemand RM.

[Florida Cracker]

OK, here's what I know at this point:

 

This yeast definitely ferments a LOT slower than what I am used to with Red Star. Even at 86-91F it takes 5-6 days VS 2-3. The end product is very nice if you have the time to wait. I've done 3 runs so far and I got quite a bit of aroma during the stripping and spirit runs. Fresh off of the still produced an extremely small amount of heads after an hour of reflux in the column. From there the hearts were very tasty and pretty far into the tails.

Took my cuts according to Arroyo's "Heavy and light rums" advice. The light rum was very drinkable after about 3 weeks of slow proofing down to 40% and the heavy part went into a 5 gallon barrel for aging at 55%. 

As a note, I do a 1.5X distilling process where I add the strip from first run directly into the wash of the second and then run it.

 

Hope this helps.

 

FC

[Florida Cracker]

5 runs in and I am going a different direction from here on. The new make is good and very drinkable but the fermentation time is a deal killer. I have one barrel full for aging and I think it will turn out nice. 

Anyone have a suggestion for a "Caribbean or Jamaican" style yeast? Gonna try a few more before I settle in on a workhorse.

 

FC

[Silk City Distillers]

Lallemand RM ticks the boxes for me...

[kelbor]

Lallemand RM and Red Star 50/50 blend is what I'm running. 

[Florida Cracker]

Thanks guys.