Elricko,

I gave my sister one exactly like yours for Christmas, with rashig rings. She made her mash, and pretty nice job, washed everything, rings and all, and bought an underpowered hot plate ,900 W,. After 15 hours of full blast, and 5 qts. of the worst smelling stuff ever, she shut it down ,constant cycling probably,. So she wouldn't get totally frustrated, I took my propane burner, and 6 gal. of stripped sugar wash ,56%,, and we ran that, good cuts, and 94+ for the hearts, and saved tails seperately. Very clean, no off flavor or smell at all. But, it also, took over 3 hours longer to run that 6 gal. than it takes me to run 14 gal. in my beer keg with the 3 X 54' ,with the reducer inc., Oh, and I also gave her and used enough cu. mesh to pack around the condeser tubes. I like your setup for flavor, and have bought some rashig rings to fill part of the column, and part cu. for sulfates, but all cu for neutral ,about 4 times the surface area.

I have been wondering why I was missing a lot of posts, but just found out Yahoo has been tossing about half into the spam box. grrrr!

BTW, regular, hard cheeses are quite safe!

well what would be the best for makeing dark rum what is the 1st,2nd,3rd best packing meteriasl I can use in the 4ft colum and what would be the best temp for some residual flavor. I would love to know

John:

3 hours longer to run than your 14 gal batch! Okay now you're just bragging. Hey, I don't blame you. Of course it ain't bragging if you can back it up huh.

Alex:

Yes I set it up exactly the same way, just put tighter packing with my copper.

Brenden:

Alex is correct, it all comes out clear. You have to wood it to get color. To max out the flavor you can of course run as a pot still and get the max, or what I do is run with loose copper and at a faster drip rate than I do for netural. Instead of trying to get 94% run it to pull 85% but with flavor.

While dark rum is an essence of the Gods, white rum is eminately drinkable.

ok I am so glad today .......I went to big lots and I got a good deal on a stainless steel stock 12 quart pot for $6.00 was one hell of a deal and was the last I wanted to go bigger but that was the biggest one that had so now all I need to do is bet my still finished up wait for the rum to ferment, wait for my oder from brewhaus to come in, then buy a keg and I guess I will be all set huh

idk I decided that I will go with a stainless pot because I can use it with the still and with makeing beer and what not......... I am just so ancious to get started but I dont have all the copper fittings for the still...... and some time this week I am going to go to a feed store and buy mabe 55-110 lbs of flaked corn some rye and barely along with some mollasus

I forgot, 'Cross Creek' is also out in DVD movie rental. The book form is always better, but the movie is quite good also.

John:

When you say you were flabbergasted by the quality, I hope that means you were pleased.

It looks like you have at least 12 quarts of pretty excellent rum there. That would equate out to about 6 to 7 gallons of finished 80 Proof. That's what I cut mine to, some folks go up to 151, but people get crazy drinking that stuff, so I stick with 80. You say you like a smooth mild drink, you may want to run it through a z-carbon filter. Okay I know some of you out there are screaming your heads off right about now, but trust me, you will still retain a lot of the flavor and aroma with your rum, and that will give you a much smoother drink if that is your desire. Try filtering a quart of it and see what you think. Remember, experimentation produces perfection.

As far as the breakoffs relating to degrees, I use my nose more than degree scales. Take a good smell of your higher end cuts, those 84 deg and above and compare it to the mid cuts. Let your nose tell you. Does it smell as sweet and/or clean? Does it make you want to drink it? If so mix it in and you will show more yield. If not you haven't lost it just set aside and toss it into the next batch.

Now the next thing I would do were I you is get three quart jars and put 1/4 to 3/8 cup of your woods in each. The sheery stuff sounds very interesting. Fill with rum and let them sit for a week, shaking daily. At the end of the week taste them and see which one you like the best. I guarentee that your friends will pick a different one. They always do. That's because it's all good. Anyway, pick the one you like the most and use that for the majority in your carboy. You may want to bottle up a few bottles of white also. They comes in handy for making mixed drinks. Especially mixed with a diet cheery coke. Ummm. Me, I like it in the dark wood with a bit of molasses and a dash of vanilla tossed in for an extra kick. Macerating with raisons, cloves, cinimmon,dried apricots etc. will give you a spiced rum should that be your pleasure. Let me know which recipe you prefered.

Sorry about the weather. We had ice rain yesterday and it snowed last night so the ice has set down for a long winters nap. It has snowed off and on all day today. Oh well, since I'm retired and don't have to take my car out I guess I'll just throw a log on the fire, and put my big ass in my lazy boy, turn on my 55' High Def Sony and sip a little rum. Writing this has made me mighty thirsty. Hey, my mother was a Bookout making me half Irish. My Grandfather came over on the boat as they say. Hopefully I'll be in better weather this time next year.

As soon as I can dig out of the snow I will go to the library and look up those books. Thanks.

Cheers!

John:

One more thing you might want to consider with the cut off of your cuts.
At around 84-90C you"re going to be getting a relatively large amount of aldehydes which smell like garbage and taste even worse. Catch is that with time and oxidation these aldehydes break down into esters which gives the rum that sweet and subtle musky vanilla flavor, though this can take a few months.
Not all of us have the iron patience of Elriko to wait for this type of aging, but its something to consider.

Ageing in oak ,unlike glass, will speed things up a bit, it lets in just enough air through its pores to allow for the oxidation process to happen and the chemical bonds made with the wood itself actually aid in breaking down the "heavies" and the aldehydes.

Chemically Elriko is defiantly right. Polishing with carbon will remove these elements and leave you with a lighter, drinkable rum without having to wait for chemical maturation.

Hope this helps any!



-Alex

Hoping to be joining the rum club this evening ;,

What else are you making if I may ask?


-Alex