Ok, so I"m not quite done with my rum obsession yet ;,

My latest batch of double distilled rum aged very well and came out a wonderful drink.
So I figured I"ll try my hand at fractioned refluxed rum with blended cuts. Did the usual base of dark brown sugar and a couple of jars of molasses, fermented to 19% and distilled with a full 4" column packed with slightly loose copper. Collected all my cuts till 90c, yield was great, had almost a gallon of uncut after blending at about 84% and a full 6L after cutting.

Catch was that my uncut stuff had a strong sharp ammonia like smell. After cutting it was much less apparent and smelled more like the double distilled rum before it was aged ,so I"m hoping aging will solve this,.

I discussed this with a friend of mine that used to work for a rum distillery and he told me it might be a side effect of the yeast nutrients ,I used turbo48,, and that one solution would be to carbon filter 1/3 - 1/2 and remix it with the rest, yet it will compromise the final heaviness of my rum after it matures.

Elricko: I remember you tired a very similar method with your rum using rashing rings and ended up z-filtering it. Did you get any off smells pre filtering?

Thank you all for your patience with my obsessiveness! ;,

Elricko:

Yup, I got it all the way through. At first I thought it was the methanol coming through that way with the rum, but it stayed very noticeable thought the entire process.
I used grandma"s original unsulphured molasses and there was so much copper contact that sulfur should not have been the problem. I used mostly completely fresh copper packing.
The ones that were reused were boiled in vinegar and then re-boiled in clean water. Both parts of my fractioning column were thoroughly washed and clean.
I can"t imagine where it could be coming from.

Barring that ammonia like smell, even as I reached the tails it smelled really tasty in that heavy kind of way ,I prefer sipping rum, using hand made alcohol for mixing kind of breaks my heart ;, ,. I set 5L of it to age in oak ,using the "economy" barrels from brewhaus,, and another L is being spiced in glass.

I recall that the stripping tails run of my pot stilled batch had a slightly similar smell to them and after a couple for weeks actually started smelling sweet and chocolate like.

I hear mile-hi being mentioned a lot. Is this a physical store? I couldn"t find a mention of it in reference to brewing online. The turbo48 I used was from brewhaus.


I"ll keep you posted as this batch ages.

Thanks for the help!

Rick:

Brilliant, thanks! I was treating the brown sugar/ molasses wash as a straight sugar wash. Had no idea they had any nutrition component.

Would I need any nutrient additive to the pot distillers yeast?

No, there is no need to add anything to the Pot Distiller's Turbo for your molasses wash.

There are usually only two ways to lower the acidity in a wash. The most commonly used method is simple dilution- add water and sugar to the wash ,the former for reducing acidity, the latter for bringing the SG back up,. Some suggest the use of precipitated chalk, while others say that it, at best, makes only a marginal difference. Honestly, I would suggest dilution, as I have done this very successfully in the past.

Very interesting. I have been using turbo and haven't had the problem that Alex had with my rum however I will try the Pot Distillers yeast next time and see what difference it makes.

Elricko:

Looks like I"m dealing with a group of rebellious microorganisms that are trying to keep my life interesting ;,
Which turbo yeast did you end up using for your rum?

Elricko:

I was just curious as to the exact turbo yeast you were using ,they each have a bit of a different nutrient make up, so I figured if you were not getting the ammonia like smell I was, it might have been due to a different turbo being used. Having said that, it"s the same exact yeast I used.

No worries Rick, my loyalties are not so easily swayed ;,

I"m going to use the pot distillers yeast on my next batch as well, if it really will bring out more of the base flavor of the wash, it should really improve the rum"s aroma.

I"m also planning to try it on a small batch of mead. I hear it might shorten the time to get the mead "drinkable" unlike champagne or wine yeasts.

I"ll post if anything interesting comes of it.

Alex,

I'm going to give this a try as well. I bought some pot distillers yeast a while back to make some brandies with, but haven't got there yet. I've used a lot of Rick's turbo 48- got the 50 pack discount, and never had any off's. Several different batches and mixtures of rums. Only one problem, was when I once tried ec1118, and after several days, and with only an occasional bubble, I added turbo 48, and had to pull the airlock off and set it into the bathtub. I once added a jar of extra mollasses to a batch, when it was slowing down, and even that wasn't as violent.

If you ever do any of the grains, try the whiskey yeast with AG. I've had some great result from that.

Alex,

Being a turbo, at least if its like the others, it will contain a ph buffer, just right for that particular yeast. But I will be trying it out, and will let you know the result.