by JayTee » Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:05 am
Hi - I'm making some lovely dark rum (with just a few tees), and going through the oaking process. I had read (on this forum too) that it's possible to make good white rum straight off the Still if high amounts of reflux is used. I've heard some people have used 20 or 30 tees to get a decent speed out and 95% abv for example. One example of a white rum made in this way, is Wray and Nephew's Overproof rum. It is not oaked at all.
I've tried making it using 10 tees, but this is only sufficient for 90% abv. I found that a large amount of flavour got stripped out. I think paradoxically, a higher abv will retain more flavour because I will get rid of the worst heads in a much smaller cut, therefore leaving more of a hearts cut and keeping flavour in what would normally be the late heads?
My question is whether using reflux generated by a packed column is any different to the same amount of reflux generated by bubble tees. I don't have the ceiling room (or the budget) for 20 or 30 tees, but I'm wondering about buying a packed section. I just wondered what the real "experience" difference is between an equivalent amount of reflux provided by bubble tees versus a packed section. If the result is the same, that would be great! ...