Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

So let me preface this with I have never enjoyed drinking rum but my whiskeys are starting to get pretty good.

I was asked by the boss to make a 'white rum' for her work buddy as a birthday present, now I'll take any excuse to play in the garage so of course I said yes. I bought a 13kg bucket of feed molasses from the local stockfeed place (Castlereagh brand), put it in my 60L fermenter and filled with water until the SG was around 1.080 and pitched bakers yeast. It will hopefully finish fermenting in the next day or two.

As this is essentially a once-off batch and I have a 50L boiler, can I just do a spirit run or should I do a strip and then spirit run after watering down the strip run?

I've read that rum (similar to whiskey) should be oaked to give it flavour, but how do you make a white rum and keep it clear? I see that some people carbon filter it before bottling but is this the only method? I have some medium toast american oak staves that I was planning to use which are uncharred so shouldn't give it too much colour.

Can I just bottle it after airing for a few days or will it not taste like rum unless I oak it for a few months?

Advice/thoughts/guidance from the hive mind?

What kind of still ?
SG will be much lower than your easing due to the amount of crap that’s floating around in a molasses wash .
I just leave it white off the still after running through a pot still

What still are you using ? your signature says brewzilla 35L.

Assuming you are able to run it without concern of an exposed element etc, I would strip 30 or 40L of wash hard and fast, keep everything.
Everything you have stripped I would add to the remaining wash then run it as your spirit run doing cuts etc. they call it a 1.5 run.

For the white rum, air it only, dilute it then air it again. Then bottle it. Don’t add it to oak and don’t filter it with carbon.

Being a 1st generation it will still have plenty of flavour but be subtle at the same time, if that makes sense.

this is my MO
after fermenting is over, i strip the wash in pot mode with full power until the collection is 40% overall (strip down to 20%)
i chuck the fores off this stripping run.
(then i usually store these low wines until i have enough for a spirit run)
then i do a spirit run in pot still mode and collect in 250ml jars down to 20%.
the best of the hearts are kept separate and oaked, fores are chucked, 40% to 20% are kept as rum oils.
the rest is run through a reflux still, collected in 250ml jars again, keeping the hearts only, to get a product i keep white as a substitute for bacardi type rum for my mojitos.
the refluxed rum is drank immediately, no aging or oaking.
i'm not too sure what i'd do in your case for a one off :think:
from a 25L pot still spirit run, i would get 5/6L for oaking & 3 x bottles of bacardi type white drinking rum from the reflux run.
a couple of options, hope this helps :smile:

Id be putting it through a reflux column

Sorry I need to update my sig block.

I run a 50L keg boiler, with a 2" 750mm riser, 2" sight glass, 2" elbow to a shotgun condenser.

2200w element on voltage controller.

Pot still only though I can pack the riser with copper scrubbies.

I was only reading bout to this last night elsewhere. Silver rum is firmly on my to do. I am adding another 4 plates will have 8 in total specifically for this.
But i reakon it will fall short of my expectations.
I am also going to look closer at filtering out colour. Consensus is run it in a reflux but most popular reasons are easier, quicker, why spend all the time oaking then lose some flavour along with the colour etc etc
But I am glass half full and reakon your gaining not losing flavour. To compare apples to apples you need to compare the filtered to a reflux "fresh" rum not to a heavy full bodied rum.
Anyhoo time will tell and when I find out how I will post up some thoughts :handgestures-thumbupleft: .

Try buccaneer bobs rum. I dont like rum but i made it for my mum and i didnt mind that one at all. Its pretty good and doesnt really need the oak.
Dont deviate from the recipe though as i have and it doesnt taste anywhere near as good.

Well the all molasses wash finished at approx 6% ABV, I did 2 x 20ish litre stripping runs and then a slow spirit run on the weekend.
I am not a fan of the molasses smell .. horrible.
I ended up with approx 2L @ 70% which I proofed down to 60% and put in a medium toast stave.
Will see how it turns out, my wife needs a bottle at the end of this week so will only have a few days on oak.
Will leave the rest for 3 months before bottling.

quidjibo wrote:Well the all molasses wash finished at approx 6% ABV, I did 2 x 20ish litre stripping runs and then a slow spirit run on the weekend.
I am not a fan of the molasses smell .. horrible.
I ended up with approx 2L @ 70% which I proofed down to 60% and put in a medium toast stave.
Will see how it turns out, my wife needs a bottle at the end of this week so will only have a few days on oak.
Will leave the rest for 3 months before bottling.

Sounds like a success. Did you try some diluted to 40% ?
How do you plan on making it white ?

If you can let the 3month rest extend to 6months it will be even better

I haven't tried it proofed down to 40% but was drinkable albiet a bit harsh at 60%
With making it white again I am not 100% sure yet, even though I only put in 1 x medium toast stave (no char) in each 2L jar there is already some colour there.

I think I have 3 options but open to suggestions:
1. Even though they wanted a white rum they get what they get
2. Buy a Brita filter jug and run it through a few times to strip out the colour. Will no doubt loose some flavour. And then there is the whole plastic debate
3. Fork out for a kegland carbon filter that I may hardly ever use (I could buy a nice bottle of bourbon for that $$$ though!)

Any thoughts/suggestions?

I'm tempted by #2 as it is only a $30 outlay, the contact time with plastic would be minimal.

Or buy some carbon and put it in a big bottle and shake it like a polaroid picture. Until the colors gone anyway. Shouldnt need too much carbon but strength needs to be below 50%.

Can you buy some cheap carbon to fill a stainless or glass vessel you already have and trickle it through?

Warra beat me to it

Thanks chaps .. just ordered a bag of carbon from kegland as I needed to order a new alcometer as well.
If I remember I'll take before and after filtering pics and tasting notes.

hmm well seems I can't even mention the land of kegs I bought the bits from.