Post by PUGIDOGS » Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:57 am

I have only cut and pasted from another forum. There are two different posts here, Hope you dont mind Harry and thank you, watch for cut...Pugi















How to make Rum out of Molasses and Brown sugar.



Take 4 gals molasses and 10 lbs sugar. Mix these together in 16

gals water. Now you commence setting mash in large wooden casks

(not in any tin vessels) - only a wooden cask for good results.

Put the above in cask the 1st day then when nearly cool add 1 ale

bottle full of yeast (which is to start mask working).

Remember when you put in the 4 gals molasses and the 10 lbs sugar

into cask - have a little paddle made for stirring and stir

constantly for fully 1/4 of an hour to blend things together, these

will be mixed in hot water (not boiling) but just so as you can put

your fingers in it without getting scalded.

The hot water will melt the sugar and molasses splendidly and will

give you more spirits and better rum.

After you're finished stirring the 1st days lot also boil 8 lbs of

old potatoes in muslin bag and put into the mash with yeast.

And also with the yeast and 8 lbs potatoes you boil about 3/4 of a

milk bucket of old maize in a sugar bag tied like a pudding and dont

forget to drop this in the 1st days mash with the potatoes and yeast

and again stirr well.

This finishes the 1st days mash and dont take them out till the mash

is fit to go into the boiler on the fire for distilling.



Second days setting.

Put another 4 gals molasses and 10 lbs sugar into cask on top of the

1st days setting and stir well for fully ten minutes. This finishes

the 2nd days setting.



Third days setting.

Add another 4 gals molasses and 16 gallons water (no sugar) and

again stir well (this finishes the setting of the mash).



To know when this is fit to put through you will see a little scum

of bubbles will come to the top now and again. This will continue

for two days sometimes three days then when scum is at its highest

and starts to drop (Brew it). Don't forget when you finish the 3rd

days setting to put a bag over the top of the cask then the lid

belonging to cask on top of bag and a weight on top of it to keep

warm and airtight. Have an occasional look at the cask when you

finish setting the 3rd day because it works sometimes in 36 hours

according to the hot or cold weather. In summer time it works a lot

quicker than winter so a good idea is to brew in the summer time and

stow away to get a bit of age so as it will not be too new to the

taste, then sell in winter time when rum is more freely drank.



Now to make good rum to sell you want to know when distilling when

to cut off the good rum from the second class stuff and the only way

to do this is to get a hydrometer. (High means good spirits, low

means poor spirits). You place this under the end of the worm in

whatever you are catching the spirits in and as this vessel starts

to get more than 1/2 full this hydrometer will start to float and

register whatever proof the spirits is that you are making.



Now you always want two vessels one to catch the good 1st class

spirits and immediately the hydrometer begins to register too low a

reading pull the 1st class vessel away and pop the 2nd vessel under

in its place to catch the 2nd class spirits. After a good while

just have a teaspoon with you and dip same into the the 2nd class

and throw a spoon full now and again into the fire and if it flares

up like kero or meths that would be thrown in keep on as this is a

sign there is still good 2nd hand spirits in the brew but after a

while when what you throw in fire quenches the fire like water stop

as this is the sign that you have taken all the spirits out of the

mash. Anyhow you can taste it and if it has an alumny taste draw

the charge from boiler and fill up again for another boil up.



Now the 2nd's have to be stowed away to themselves in a vessel and

all the good 1st class stuff put to themselves as this 1st class

brew is ready for sale without further distilling but in order to

bring the 2nd class stuff to 1st class you have to put it through

the still the 2nd time then it is 1st class and can now be stowed

away with the other 1st class brew.



Now the next thing to know is how to do up your white spirits and

tone it up for sale. Here is the rinkle. Aways put your spirits

away in a large cask, or a wine cask is the best as rum and wine

taste alike. Never put rum in a cask that beer has been in or you

will spoil its taste. When you put it in the wine cask leave the

bung hole open for 24 hours and as soon as you put it in the cask

make a small curtain bag and put about a match box full of cloves in

it and let down the bung hole tied with long piece of string so as

you can lift it out. Then get a good well ripened pineapple and

peel it and cut it in narrow strips about the length of a cigar and

twice as thick and poke these down the bung hole, then get about 3/4

of an ordinary teacup full of seeded raisins and put these down the

bung of cask into the spirits with the others, then put the bung

back in cask and stow it away. Then when you are ready to sell your

rum it is in its natural white state. Now you have to colour it for

sale. Now to properly colour rum use white sugar not brown because

it will make the rum too cloudy and dull and dark looking.



So in order to have a good clear clean bright looking spirit in a

glass for drinking always use white sugar for colouring purposes.

Buy a small frying pan for this purpose and dont use it for any

other means \because any greasy sediment will show in the coloured

spirit. To colour say 5 gals rum put about 1/2 teacup of white

sugar to start with in the pan, not over a blazing fire but on red

hot coals; these should not be too strong to overburn the sugar or

your rum will have a bad burnt taste so be careful and burn sugar to

a good clean dark brown bubble. Keep moving the sugar in the pan

with a long stirrer so as to evenly brown every grain then pour a

cup of cold water in the pan on top of sugar at the same time

stirring. When sufficiently stirred pour into a good clean bright

quart bottle for colouring with. Of course you keep on burning

sugar making bottles of the colouring till you have sufficient to

colour your rum as it will keep in a bottle for a long time. The

best guide is to buy a few shillings worth of good rum in a bright

bottle and have this alongside of yours when you are colouring and

you can compare the two so as you will not overdo things in the

colouring or not give it enough colour.



Now everything is ready & OK for sale.



Finally I nearly forgot to mention when you are taking the rum out

of the cask for colouring. When you colour, strain thoroughly

before you put away for sale as the pineapple and cloves and raisins

always leave a sediment and you in order to have a real clean

article must strain real well.



Don't forget to get fully 22 feet of pure tin piping for the worm

and 1 inch which means 7/8 waterway and when the worm is made must

be coiled so as a gradual incline to lead the spirits through and no

uphill position in the making as this means a blockage in flow and

cause the mash to boil over. Get a good plumber to make the worm

for you, should you not be able to get the pure tin you will have to

get copper. But tin is more easy to clean all you have to do with

tin after you finish each brew is to pour a bucket of cold water

through it and it is always bright and clean. Understand when you

are setting worm in cask at bottom it sticks out about fully 3 or 4

inches on a slight slope through a watertight hole through cask into

catching vessel.



When distilling the 2nds in the white spirits state be careful not

to have too strong a fire as this is very inflammable and will blow

up so be carefull.



Say you have 5 gals of 2nd class brew cut off from the 1st class.

When you put this into the boiler to distil put about 1/2 gal clean

water in with it and it wont blow up, the water wont harm the brew,

it will be of benefit to it and the rum wont be so fiery to taste.



For any second treatment the putting through of white spirits a

person really wants a very much smaller boiler as the 50 gal boiler

is too big. You only really need about a 10 gal boiler and you can

have one made at the same time to just have the same size neck so as

to fit the lid & pipe & worm & all and when boiling a mash use the

50 gal boiler, you never want to fill the boiler with mash - only

slightly over 1/2 full or it will boil over in spite of you as it is

just as hard to keep from boiling over as milk.











CUT: Above was as GGGD wrote it, Below is Harrys take on it.













I've done it in a 60 lt fermenter with it scaled down by percentage

(25%, divide everything by 4), except for the yeast. You'll need a

bit more yeast than percentage-wise to do it right. Use your

judgement & knowledge of yeast being stackable or not (this works in

reverse also). I used 200gms dried baker's yeast (Lowan) for a 60

lt ferment, and I also added 1 t/sp citric acid each day as molasses

today can be a bit alkaline simetimes due to the lime used in the

sugar manufacturing process.



Another thing that will worry you is after you add the second day's

set, you'll think the available sugar/water ratio is too high.

Don't worry about it, as the yeast will already have used a lot of

the first day's sugar. Step-fermentation is a bit different to

single fermentation. It's nearly impossible to gauge what is too

much sugar, but this recipe seems to be about right, although by my

reckoning the osmotic pressure is borderline. At least I haven't

had a stuck ferment.



Reverting to scientific calculations, this is what I worked out...



Constants:



Volume...

1 cubic metre = 1,000 litres

1 imp.gal. = 4.54 litres



Density...

1 lt water = 1 kg

1 lt molasses = 1. 6 kg (1600 kg/m3 ie cubic metre)



Sugar value...

Blackstrap Molasses = 46%

................... = 3.34 kg in 4.54 lt

==========================================



GGGDad's Recipe:



1st day's set...

Molasses = 18.16 lt = 13.36 kg sugar value

Brown Sugar = 10 lbs = 4.54 kg sugar value

Total Sugar value = ~18 kg



Water = 16 gals = 72 lt



Sugar/water ratio = 1:4

------------------------



2nd day's set...

Molasses = 18.16 lt = 13.36 kg sugar value

Brown Sugar = 10 lbs = 4.54 kg sugar value

Total Sugar value = ~18 kg



Water = nil



Sugar/water ratio is now = ?:4 (unknown, but most of the 1st day's

sugar has been used.)

-------------------------



3rd day's set...

Molasses = 18.16 lt = 13.36 kg sugar value

Brown Sugar = nil

Total Sugar value = ~13 kg



Water = 16 gals = 72 lt



Sugar/water ratio is now = ?:4 (again unknown, but because the mash

is now complete, we can give a TOTAL.)



TOTAL:

Sugar = 49 kg

Water = 144 lt (or kg)

Therefore sugar/water ratio = 1:3 (rounded)



Which is about the maximum concentration that can be used, and in

fact will leave a slightly sweet finished ferment, around 1.005 SG.

However, with step-fermentation all bets are off, as the stronger

yeast cells (more alcohol & osmotic tolerant) tend to dominate and

the weaker ones get cannibalised to provide nutrients. Ain't nature

clever at this recycling thing? This process is similar to how

different strains of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae are selected for

propagation. Force-feed 'em, fine-tune 'em, just like an athlete,

then multiply the survivors.

----------------------------





So having suitably confused everyone, using the above you should be

able to build a step-fermentation of any size.



HTH

Slainte!

regards Harry