Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Yep... totally agree with the others. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
There are so many stories on here like yours and later down the track its turned in to some of their finest... doesnt meen this is the case here, but if you chuck it you will never know.

Thanks boys.
It can sit in a flagon for a while and I’ll see how the generations go.

A success story, I put some rum into Kilner jars back in early March with some toasted oak and some raisins then went on holiday for months. I've shaken it and opened the tops now and then but initially the taste was a bit harsh but this morning, the first time in a couple of months of tasting it, wow!! Really good, best rum we've ever tasted by a mile, we can't believe how good it turned out. We're off on holiday again in about a month so we'll bottle it after we come back and make some chocolates with the raisins

Just running our second generation of batch two today, got 2 x 25Ltrs on the go so we should be good for another year :D

Sorry if this has been asked before but couldn't find it with the search function.

Live rum Dunder straight in the fermenter is it okay or not, any experiences?

well, I put live rum dunder from my filthy smelly dunder pit into my boiler but not my fermentor...
I'd imagine you'd get all sorts of infections and poor productivity...? but when I do, I refrain from putting the boiled dunder into the fermentor as well, even though the soldier fly maggots are probably sterile ... even I have my limits...
my last run I added lots more of my live dunder to the boiler, and the first two beakers came off yellow and stinky rotten... :puke-huge:
the rest of the run still has a faint hint of ickyness...it's on oak and is drinkable, but I think I should have run it again to break the ketones down further.

The missus on sniffing the dunder pit figured we had a leaking septic...lol so maybe mine is unusually foul...
I can smell it if the wind is right (or wrong, as the case may be) 50m away...

Lots of people add it to the wash after the majority of the action has slowed and the yeast has done most of the hard work. This way the infected dunder won't eat much sugar but gets longer to interact with the acids and congeners.

coffe addict wrote:Lots of people add it to the wash after the majority of the action has slowed and the yeast has done most of the hard work. This way the infected dunder won't eat much sugar but gets longer to interact with the acids and congeners.

cool!

I’ll give that a go and see what I get...

I have a stalled 2nd gen Mac rum wash. OG was 1.070, which seems low, and FG is 1.030 with a slight sweet taste. It might actually be fully fermented but the FG seems high and the sweetness is unexpected. It's only my 3rd wash so as a learning experience I've tried a few things to get it going again with no luck. I am now considering just running it. Will the unfermented sugars cause any problems like burning or scorching? It'll be run in a 4 plate bubbler with the 1st gen low wines.

The ingredients were for 45l

• 4l trub
• 15l dunder (1st gen, stripped to 55% ABV so some residual alcohol, cooled down overnight because it was getting late)
• 5.4kg raw sugar
• 5.4l feedstock molasses (Bundabeg Refinery)
• Hot and cold water to 45l at 30C

The molasses, sugar and hot water was added to the cold dunder and mixed to 30C. This was added to the trub and topped up to 45l at 30C with unfiltered tank water. The mix was stirred with a paddle then a drill and paint stirrer to oxygenate. The lid and airlock was installed and the fermenting freezer set to 30C with no cooling. pH was 4.85.

After about 4 hours there was no activity so pitched 40g of Lowans yeast, sprinkled on top and lightly stirred in. The following day there was plenty of bubbling and the temp had risen to over 34C (temp was taken with the STC-1000 probe taped to the side of the fermenter).

Airlock activity stopped 3 days later. SG was 1.030 with a slight sweet taste. pH was 3.8 (which didn't seem extremely low) but added 1tsp of calcium carbonate and stirred it in.

There was still no activity the following morning. pH was 4.72. SG was 1.030. Added 2tsp DAP which was possibly unnecessary.

There was still no activity the following morning and the SG stayed at 1.030. pH was 4.8. I added another 40g of Lowans yeast, just in case I'd managed to kill the rest off.

Nothing happened by the next day and the SG stayed at 1.030. At that stage, I decided to just run it and see what happens. The heating was turned off on Tuesday and I'll run it on Sunday, so hopefully it'll clear a bit by then.

I'm not sure what went wrong but my suspects are:

• Too much dunder except pH was 4.85. Perhaps too much alcohol remaining?
• Unfiltered tank water
• Stuffed up the sugar & molasses measurements (possible)
• Mis-read the OG/FG but the wash still tastes sweet (confirmed by 2 others)
• Poor quality molasses but it's almost direct from the mill

I plan to use some of the dunder in the next wash but drop it back from 1/3 to 10%. I think I'll discard the trub in case there's something in there killing the yeast.

rahl wrote:I have a stalled 2nd gen Mac rum wash. OG was 1.070, which seems low, and FG is 1.030 with a slight sweet taste. It might actually be fully fermented but the FG seems high and the sweetness is unexpected. It's only my 3rd wash so as a learning experience I've tried a few things to get it going again with no luck. I am now considering just running it. Will the unfermented sugars cause any problems like burning or scorching? It'll be run in a 4 plate bubbler with the 1st gen low wines.

The ingredients were for 45l

• 4l trub
• 15l dunder (1st gen, stripped to 55% ABV so some residual alcohol, cooled down overnight because it was getting late)
• 5.4kg raw sugar
• 5.4l feedstock molasses (Bundabeg Refinery)
• Hot and cold water to 45l at 30C

The molasses, sugar and hot water was added to the cold dunder and mixed to 30C. This was added to the trub and topped up to 45l at 30C with unfiltered tank water. The mix was stirred with a paddle then a drill and paint stirrer to oxygenate. The lid and airlock was installed and the fermenting freezer set to 30C with no cooling. pH was 4.85.

After about 4 hours there was no activity so pitched 40g of Lowans yeast, sprinkled on top and lightly stirred in. The following day there was plenty of bubbling and the temp had risen to over 34C (temp was taken with the STC-1000 probe taped to the side of the fermenter).

Airlock activity stopped 3 days later. SG was 1.030 with a slight sweet taste. pH was 3.8 (which didn't seem extremely low) but added 1tsp of calcium carbonate and stirred it in.

There was still no activity the following morning. pH was 4.72. SG was 1.030. Added 2tsp DAP which was possibly unnecessary.

There was still no activity the following morning and the SG stayed at 1.030. pH was 4.8. I added another 40g of Lowans yeast, just in case I'd managed to kill the rest off.

Nothing happened by the next day and the SG stayed at 1.030. At that stage, I decided to just run it and see what happens. The heating was turned off on Tuesday and I'll run it on Sunday, so hopefully it'll clear a bit by then.

I'm not sure what went wrong but my suspects are:

• Too much dunder except pH was 4.85. Perhaps too much alcohol remaining?
• Unfiltered tank water
• Stuffed up the sugar & molasses measurements (possible)
• Mis-read the OG/FG but the wash still tastes sweet (confirmed by 2 others)
• Poor quality molasses but it's almost direct from the mill

I plan to use some of the dunder in the next wash but drop it back from 1/3 to 10%. I think I'll discard the trub in case there's something in there killing the yeast.

I know a few people who've had problems with salinity in commercial ferments from Aus molasses. A guy who worked at Bundaberg said it was always a problem and another bloke I met who'd worked at Beenleigh said similar.

Salinity affecting the yeasts performance?

BSC_Kilby wrote:I know a few people who've had problems with salinity in commercial ferments from Aus molasses. A guy who worked at Bundaberg said it was always a problem and another bloke I met who'd worked at Beenleigh said similar.

Interesting. Any way I can test for it beyond tasting?

Sam. wrote:Salinity affecting the yeasts performance?

Yeah, it becomes a hostile environment for the yeast and doesn't ferm dry. Taste is the only way I know of. It'd be pretty obvious if it was salty enough to shut em down.

I didn't notice if the raw molasses tasted salty but I will taste it again later.

So do people reckon I should just run it anyway? I plan to throw the 1st generations low wines in the boiler too.

rahl wrote:I didn't notice if the raw molasses tasted salty but I will taste it again later.

So do people reckon I should just run it anyway? I plan to throw the 1st generations low wines in the boiler too.

It's tough to taste it in the molasses, but it's in there. what you have is a trade-off, high enough brix to feed the yeast and low enough salinity to prevent it staling. If the sugar price is high, it's worth going hard and getting as much sugar out of the cane as possible which leaves you with molasses that has less fermentable sugars, when the price is low, it's cheaper to leave it in there.

Hey fellas first washes of the season been down 2 days. Took off crazy hard. Now wash tastes dry and a looks dead. Airlock stopped. Hydro reading 1.05. Can I run it already?

Go for it, leave it a few days to settle out a little first :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I have done 3 this season all got to 1.015 is it 50/50 sugar molasses? 1.050 seems high if so. If its 100% mollasses disregard..

Nathan02 wrote:Hey fellas first washes of the season been down 2 days. Took off crazy hard. Now wash tastes dry and a looks dead. Airlock stopped. Hydro reading 1.05. Can I run it already?

I'd leave it a few more days just to be sure. All of my molasses washes ferment super quick, taking off fast and usually done in under 5 days. I've started a wash on a Sunday and run it the next Sunday, but I prefer to leave it an extra week at least just to settle out. I don't always take FG readings because I am lazy...

Yeah all mollases bluc. By the way mate thoroughly enjoyed your bottle! You make a great drop! Very rounded rum. Small world hey :laughing-rolling:

Yes it is and you dont make a bad drop yourself :handgestures-thumbupleft: have heard of crazy high fg from all mollases 1.060+ i reakon run it :handgestures-thumbupleft: