My Home Cousin's Process Plan

[Beerswimmer]

I have started, the boiler is heating up now. But there's a long way to go. My plan is:

Using a boiler and thumper do a spirit run with wash and old dunder in the boiler, dunder and cane vinegar in the thump. Separate the high proof and low proof spirits.
The liquid in the thumper will have lime added to get to 7 PH and be boiled down to about 20%, 10% if it doesn't take forever, stirring often with a fan blowing on it. Save this reduced slop.
Do another spirit run, keep the high proof spirits and boil down the thumper liquid and save.
Continue until I have about 5 gallons of high proof spirits, and 5 gallons of slop.
Add slop to the high proof and add sulfuric acid(I have it) to get the PH down and let sit for 2-3 days.
Strain liquid, add to thumper. Do a spirit run with new wash plus the lower proof spirits run.
Enjoy the super estery rum!



What am I doing wrong, and what do I need to do to improve this?

[Wellsy]

apologies if I have got this wrong as I am new and no idea about thumpers.
My question is about all the adjustment of PH, I thought PH only mattered if you were doing a ferment, I did not realise it made a difference to distilling as well.

[Beerswimmer]

Yeah, the high PH "locks in" the esters so that they don't boil off when you're reducing the thumper liquid, then they are "released" in the low PH high abv.

Well, that's the plan anyway.....

[bluc]

Why sulfuric acid why is dunder not enough acid?

[Beerswimmer]

It needs to be as high of an abv and as acidic as possible, the acid won't lower the proof as much as dunder and can get the PH even lower

[bluc]

I know nothing but such things, would citric be a safer product?watching with interest.

[Reedy]

I know nothing but such things, would citric be a safer product?watching with interest.

I would also question the safety of sulphuric acid. I would be curious to know if your copper goes filthy black. I'm no chemist but the battery acid will react with copper to form copper sulphate and sulphur dioxide. Two things that I go to lengths to keep out of my still.
Citric and lactic work and are cheap and safe.

[Beerswimmer]

My thumper is stainless, and if I get something similar to DOK from this then I'll gladly buy more copper :handgestures-thumbupleft: :music-deathmetal:

[Reedy]

Ya gotta love the bravery and pioneering spirit of a rum distiller.
May you survive your sulphates.
Ps: your ph theory of esters seemed to check out. Ive only used it for opposite reasons to suppress ether production in the still for vodka. Your comments got me researching chemistry papers and seems good to me.

[RC Al]

Took me a while to work out Cousins is a rum brand lols, thought Beerswimmer was passing the buck to a relative :teasing-tease:

For those looking for a few more details

https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 01&t=70947

[Reedy]

Awesome. That is some kick arse science from cousins. It does rely on either having enough thumpers or getting the dosage right so there is no left over sulphuric acid to make it to condenser but why not do the same thing with citric acid?

[bluc]

I found this and may be of interst https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... f=5&t=4244

Wondering does the dunder/backset contain same types of acid from different ingrediant mash? Or just differs from influence of direct flavour from ingrediants ? Cant say that whiskey and rum(sour mashs) throw same esters is it due to type acid. Or ingrediants...? Or yeast..

[bluc]

Yea reedy i tend to agree using sulfuric seems hardcore but I am not a chemist..

[Reedy]

I am really excited by the prospect of increasing or decreasing ester production after fermentation. Do a tpw and smell the still afterwards is like off tropical salad. have found that tpw washes throw esters in the heating of the still and lowering the ph of the wash when you pour it in the still stops that. Same principal can be used to increase esters and lock them in as beerswimmer/cousins describes.
However the risk of copper sulphate reaching the condenser is dangerous. Copper sulphate kills indiscriminately. It will reem out your digestive system like draino in a pipe. Hell I pour it on the weeds on my driveway and it kills them. Its sold in ag shops to kill fungus on hoofed animals feet and ive used the spent cleaning fluid to kill tinea instantly. Even with whiskey you taste it. But i fear with rum maybe this danger goes unnoticed.

[Reedy]

I found this and may be of interst https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... f=5&t=4244

Wondering does the dunder/backset contain same types of acid from different ingrediant mash? Or just differs from influence of direct flavour from ingrediants ? Cant say that whiskey and rum(sour mashs) throw same esters is it due to type acid. Or ingrediants...? Or yeast..

It's all of the above .Seriously good question but I don't think science has enough answers to come close to solving it. We just have to rely on our senses and tradition for now. Blows my mind how little published papers there are on these issues. In distilling tradition is still ahead of science for now.

[Sam.]

I am really excited by the prospect of increasing or decreasing ester production after fermentation. Do a tpw and smell the still afterwards is like off tropical salad. have found that tpw washes throw esters in the heating of the still and lowering the ph of the wash when you pour it in the still stops that. Same principal can be used to increase esters and lock them in as beerswimmer/cousins describes.
However the risk of copper sulphate reaching the condenser is dangerous. Copper sulphate kills indiscriminately. It will reem out your digestive system like draino in a pipe. Hell I pour it on the weeds on my driveway and it kills them. Its sold in ag shops to kill fungus on hoofed animals feet and ive used the spent cleaning fluid to kill tinea instantly. Even with whiskey you taste it. But i fear with rum maybe this danger goes unnoticed.

Wouldn’t get too carried away there, you can buy trough blocks for stock that are copper sulphate based. Not going to kill you in small doses....

[RC Al]

Probably causes loss of copper and thereby wear, I have seen that the big companies replace stuff as it wears out

Anyone out there have a ultrasonic thickness tester? on my fantasy tool list of stuff for cars, cant see me buying one anytime soon though

If you can manage to wear out your home still I dare say you have gotten your moneys worth out of it

On an entirely off tangent, the reason you should not feed cat biscuits to dogs is the fact they add sulphur to them, good for cats, bad for dogs.. If you try this, Dont feed your dunder to your dog? :think: :laughing-rolling:

Edit on that note, have a plan for your dunder and consider the chemicals in it....

[Reedy]

Yeah alright it won't kill you in small doses.
Maybe got a little carried away. It will kill the good microbes in your gut though. If you get the runs after drinking that's why.

[Sam.]

Yeah alright it won't kill you in small doses.
Maybe got a little carried away. It will kill the good microbes in your gut though. If you get the runs after drinking that's why.

At the end of the day it is a heavy metal and it will poison you :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Beerswimmer]

So I did the run. I slowly ran the first half and kept it separate(the high abv), then bumped up the heat and stripped the second half and kept the low wines. Then I emptied the thumper and began to reduce it and ran into a problem....it was barely working. Could be due to using water in the bain marie instead of oil, shape of the pot, and relative humidity. After discussing with my co-creator of the plan he suggested just mixing lime into the thumper juice and then letting it settle out. Then once settled siphon off the top half of the liquid and discard, keep the bottom half. So that is what I'n now doing instead of reducing.

So where I'm at:
Tomorrow I will rack off the top half of the liquid and discard it. Add sulfuric acid to the bottom half to release the esters and acids. Separate from the sludge, keep the acidic liquid and discard the now spent sludge. Once I have a good amount of the keeper liquid built up, mix with high abv alcohol for a few days. Then add that high proof acidic liquid to the thumper for the spirit run.

Tomorrow is run #2 of about 4-5 planned