White Rum Discussion

[rumsponge]

I dont believe that redistilling an already aged product will retain many of the nice flavours and have never heard any of the big guys doing it. But love to be proven wrong.
Charcoal clearing is the way to go imho and I will do some experimenting in the next months.
I think this is the charcoal Doc recommended:

https://www.clarencewaterfilters.com.au/product/coconut-carbon-gac-granules-2-kg-activated-carbon/

Does anyone know what the advantages of a dedicated charcoal filter unit are ? I was thinking of just doing a batch activated charcoal treatment (without SS column). Add powdered charcoal to spirit and give it a good stir, then filter. Would think that this approach will give me more fine control over amount of charcoal per liter of product and can be more easily tuned to remove colour but retain more of the flavours ?

cheers, RS

[EziTasting]

Ok, I don't get that... my logic says the opposite - but I've not filtered anything so don't actually know!

My logic tells me that pouring the alcohol into a filter, allowing gravity to pull it thru the carbon works vastly different to suspending carbon in the liquid... like making mud... again, I have no experience, but your way doesn't make sense to me.

Have a go and let us know...

[Dyno]

Ok, I don't get that... my logic says the opposite - but I've not filtered anything so don't actually know!

My logic tells me that pouring the alcohol into a filter, allowing gravity to pull it thru the carbon works vastly different to suspending carbon in the liquid... like making mud... again, I have no experience, but your way doesn't make sense to me.

Have a go and let us know...

Your right Ezi...it makes black mud....Ive added activated charcoal to some over oaked bourbon and I could never get it to clear. I think the main problem is that is was too warm where i was storing it. The second lot I tried was through one of those carbon filters thats compressed into a cylinder and hangs off those cheap filter units. Worked great for about 1L then clogged up real bad. Ended getting pissed off and dumping the stuff. That 1L was good though. About 30% flavor loss and about 90% colour loss. I cant see why rum would be much different, but getting the right micron filter would be the challenge

[rumsponge]

hmm... ezy - I dont agree. the reason why the charcoal removes nasties has nothing to do with 'filtration', technically it is an adsorption process (binding of the molecules to the activated carbon surface). the filtration merely separates the charcoal from the liquid. if you can do it in a filter, then why not in batch mode (after the adsorption is done) ?
anyhow thanks for your input - i will give it go

[EziTasting]

hmm... ezy - I dont agree. the reason why the charcoal removes nasties has nothing to do with 'filtration', technically it is an adsorption process (binding of the molecules to the activated carbon surface). the filtration merely separates the charcoal from the liquid. if you can do it in a filter, then why not in batch mode (after the adsorption is done) ?
anyhow thanks for your input - i will give it go

Yes, pls do! I would have done it like dyno but even he had issues... may have been because of particle size (fine = clogging up), only way to find out is to trial it!
I guess if you have both, a filter set up and loose carbon, you could split your rum batch in half and do both methods side-by-side. That way you would see which works better!

From everything I've seen and read, no commercial distiller blends in their charcoal into the drink... perhaps it's an efficiency thing, perhaps not... I'd like to know, tho!

[chaos]

hey, Ive been pretty happy with my version of 'white rum' I dubbed it My-cardi as an attempt to make a bacardi type drink for summer cocktails.

proceed as follows :-D around 200gms molasses, 25 lts boiled rain water, 4kg sugar and lowans yeast. I made two batches like this and ran them slowly through my pot still, discard fores , combine the lot and run again slowly, I made fairly tight cuts and put the lot on about 200grm of activated charcoal at 65 ABV for two weeks. Think I had about 3.5 lts at this stage
Filtered through coffee paper and diluted to 40ABV with distilled water..hey presto, smooth,,slight rumminess, no off flavours. I guess you'd have to say not the most complex of spirits but made perfect mango cocktails .. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[EziTasting]

I am currently aging feints from my first spirit run on 20gm/l oak.

my plan is to leave it for a month and then run it through the boka and see what I get.

Just read this and wondering what you get out of this process? Stripping (making low wines), makes an uninished product! Putting it on oak seems ... unusual and, to me, a waste of time and good oak.
Oaking is for maturing your finished product! To polish it, to add extra flavours to be kept IN the spirit... how have you gone with this? How does that compare to spirit made the traditional way?

[bluc]

Ed be interested in your results have been wondering the same oaking then distilling to clear rather than filtering..

[ed9362]

my feints are still aging. I will probably run it next week and see what I get.

there is no science behind what I am doing, I was just looking for something to do with my feints.

my theory is white dog rum needs to go on oak to make it the tasty product it is, once it has been oaked maybe the reflux still will strip some of the flavour and all of the colour leaving something drinkable.

maybe it will be shit, maybe not either way I will report back with my findings in a week or so.

[ed9362]

ok, so i ran my aged feints (only 2 months) and what i have got is quite drinkable with a mixer or without.

so far im not sure whether i would call it a white rum or a flavoured vodka, i think i will buy a small bottle of bacardi to compare it to and then i will make a decision what to call it.

interestingly it is a lot smoother to drink than any vodka i have made. i have about 2.5 litres of the stuff so i will bottle it and drink it quite happily.

i think in the future, when i do spirit runs on rum i will run alot deeper into the tails and age longer on oak in an attempt to carry over more flavor into the white version of the product.

cheers,

[EziTasting]

ok, so i ran my aged feints (only 2 months) and what i have got is quite drinkable with a mixer or without.

so far im not sure whether i would call it a white rum or a flavoured vodka, i think i will buy a small bottle of bacardi to compare it to and then i will make a decision what to call it.

interestingly it is a lot smoother to drink than any vodka i have made. i have about 2.5 litres of the stuff so i will bottle it and drink it quite happily.

i think in the future, when i do spirit runs on rum i will run alot deeper into the tails and age longer on oak in an attempt to carry over more flavor into the white version of the product.

cheers,

From what I've been told, 6 month as a minimum is what you should aim for to get the best flavour/smoothness, long if you can. I've got some Gen3 Rum on my pantry that is now 6 months old and it is slowly becoming a rum :laughing-rolling: despite my best efforts :music-deathmetal:

[ed9362]

yeah, i treated this one as more a proof of concept.

the dark rum i made while acquiring my feints are still ageing

[vqstatesman]

Anyone know of a filter that will strip colour from aged rum? Have asked a few times about different filters but have been told at best they will remove tails not affect colour. Bacardi do it so must be possible.Would love a full bodied aged rum with no colour for mixing in cocktails.. Thoughts

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7648

[EziTasting]

Nice work!