Help rum ferment

[Supercub]

Hey yall. For the life of me i cant figure out what im doing wrong. I made a 2 gal fancy molasses and 2 gal blackstrap mix w a gal of water. I pitched d47 with a spoonful of tomato paste in water for 30 min and then pitched it in molasses. Last i mixed it with a paint mixer to aerate. Its been 2 days and no ferment. Ph is 5.6. Help

[Shinenorth]

One gallon of water? I hope that’s a typo. What was the brix or gravity? Water:molasses ratio? 

[Supercub]

1 gal water and 4 gal molasses. How much should it be. Spec grav was 1.4 at 80f. Thanks for the help

[FIVE x 5 Consulting]

The mixture you have created is extremely loaded with sugar.  So much so that it is actually poisonous to the yeast that you're pitching.

I'd suggest that you add water and mix thoroughly until your specific gravity is under 1.100.  You can ferment above 1.100 but if this is a test/early run then you might as well set yourself up for success by aiming for a more reasonable starting gravity.  What you'll never be able to do is ferment a 1.4 SG wash.  That is simply too sweet, by a large margin.  Read up on Osmotic Pressure if you'd like to understand the "why".  Here's a paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.2050-0416.2003.tb00162.x

[Shinenorth]

4 hours ago, Supercub said:

1 gal water and 4 gal molasses. How much should it be. Spec grav was 1.4 at 80f. Thanks for the help

for 4 gal of molasses, the smallest amount of water I would add is 12 gallons. BSG blackstrap molasses suggests a 3.5:1 ratio molasses to water.  

[Shinenorth]

4 hours ago, Supercub said:

1 gal water and 4 gal molasses. How much should it be. Spec grav was 1.4 at 80f. Thanks for the help

Even that specific gravity seems off. Maybe the solution was too thick and threw that off. Molasses washes will be around 1.1 or higher if diluted correctly. And with molasses, there is only 50%-70% sugar depending on quality. 

[Supercub]

Minnedistiller. Youre a lifesaver. Had.no idea about osmotic pressure. Thanks i really appreciate you taking the time to help

[Bolverk]

Sounds like you got the quantities backwards.  1g molasses to 3-4g of water is what I'd recommend. 1:3 typically gives me around 1.1.