Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Great post Mcstill, and hats off to Hookline for going to the trouble at putting all of the info in. This will save me alot of stupid questions over the next few weeks. :)

This thread has been started for any one wishing to discuss the making of Hook Rum. The original Tried and Proven recipe can be found in the Tried and Proven section of the forum or by clicking HERE

This is my go to recipe that I use for my own rum, never had a failure yet.

Get it down pat and then you can tweak it here n there to end up with an exceptional product ;)

Hopefully Hook finds us here one day.

Hey I put started this recipe about the same time this thread went up. This is my first wash not aiming for neutral so it's a bit different. My ferment started of real fast but is still bubbling 5 days after starting it, should I expect much longer? And I started another wash today but without adding the finder from the first batch. Is it bad practice to start a ferment and add the Dundee later? Is it there just simply for flavor or nutrients? Very new to this, cheers fellas.

Dunder* not finder.

Mollasses washes can be slow, specially with feed mollasses and specially this time of year. Just let it ferment until it's done.

Rum can be run with or without dunder, you can always strip both washes and add some dunder (10-20%) to the spirit run.

TJM wrote:Is it bad practice to start a ferment and add the Dundee later?

TJM wrote:Dunder* not finder.

lol, typed this on your phone eh? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Yeah I don't own a computer so the phone it is. Do many of you make rum often? Would like to know how to age it.

TJM wrote: Do many of you make rum often?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: errrr maybe I might errrrr :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oaking rum is somewhat of a personal thing, it depends on what your tastes/ideas of what a rum should be ;)

Some like Bundy (yuk) others like spiced (hmmm) and some like just aged on oak (yay) :mrgreen: ))

Rum is such a complex thing if you want it to be, or you can have a real crap drink like a Bundy.... it's upto you ;)

Rum in my opinion is funny among spirits.

You can do a whie rum at 95+ and drink it in a month.

But a full oak aged rum wants 8-12 months to mature before it stops tasting like bourbon from the oak. ;)

Yeah 5Star young rum is pretty rank, I'll be aging this new lot white @ 90% to see how that goes.

I'm running this through my reflux still at the moment on a stripping run (with the packing removed and cooling tubes re-routed to act as much as possible as a pot still) and the resulting alcohol stinks like apple pie. Is this normal? This is my first molasses wash.

Raw rum straight from the still can smell fruity, it needs a couple of months at least aging to be a nice drink ;)

McStill wrote:Raw rum straight from the still can smell fruity, it needs a couple of months at least aging to be a nice drink ;)

Cheers, good to know. Well I collected about 3L after the spirit run, so after letting them air overnight, I might stick them on oak and a few other bits and pieces and let them be for a while!

I also collected the dunder and added 10L of it to a fermenter and put another 25L batch on. Although I'm starting to think I should get myself a 60L fermenter.. My brew room is pretty full at the moment though (I also brew all-grain beer).

Off to go find some good ageing recipes.. any suggestions other than what's in the original Hook Rum post?

I've found my best rum is simply 65% aged on oak.... nothing else ;)

Just water down to 40% once it's ready and into it :lol:

Yep, oak is the only ingredient you need for a good aussie rum in the bundaberg style.

5Star wrote:Yep, oak is the only ingredient you need for a good aussie rum in the bundaberg style.

If my rum tasted like Bundy I'd use it for weed killer :lol: :lol:

in the bundaberg style.

Can you add neutral to wash and would it take on flavor or would it dilute flavor.

Do you mean add neutral to distilate/spirit?

It would dilute the flavour (assuming you have neutral)

No to the wash .