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Reflections on the SBB Rum Recipe: Insights from the Fifth Generation
Another Mistake, Another Lesson Learned – Rum Recipe Reflections (SBB 5th Generation)I’m on my 5th generation of my SBB rum recipe and had an interesting (and slightly frustrating) lesson recently. I’ve stopped checking FG, as with the dunder and molasses, it’s a bit tricky to estimate a reasonable FG. I’ve been letting the washes ferment for 2+ weeks, just waiting for activity to stop before running them. However, for this last batch, I was out of town for the last 10 day.When I started the run, I noticed something wasn’t right. The ABV was below 20% before I even collected half a gallon. I immediately suspected that the wash hadn’t finished fermenting, and sure enough, after tasting the dunder, it was still sweet!Lesson 1: Take the time to calculate the anticipated FG or at least taste the wash to make sure it’s not still sweet. It’s easy to assume a stuck wash has finished fermenting everything, it all your doing is checking by activity. Lesson 2: Always check and manage the pH on rum/sugar washes, especially after a few generations. The dunder pH can drop over time/generations, which can slow or even stop fermentation.I considered just correcting the pH in the dunder (I had about 4.5 gallons left) and trying to referment it. But instead, I decided to go ahead and make my first panela wash (4 gallons of water with 8lbs of panela) and add it to the sweet dunder. After correcting the pH, adding some yeast nutrients, and pitching bakers’ yeast, it’s already bubbling away.I’ve read about others doing panela washes with dunder, so I expect it to taste fine. I haven’t seen many examples of people refermenting sweet dunder, but I’m hopeful it will work out.
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4 Replies
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Uncanny timing, I’m also on gen 5 of SBB with a few other variations slotted in between, I finished the spirit run just before Xmas. Are you sticking to Bills recommendation of Dunder additions on each batch? My experience has been, that as long as you don’t go over 10% then the molasses has enough buffering capacity to handle it without issue.I’ve only used CC to buffer when I have deviated from the recipe and used less molasses.And I always taste test the wash when I think it should be finished, there’s no mistaking a fermented out all Molly rum!Definitely keep and re-ferment every bit of that dunder, it’s probably still got most of it’s initial sugar left.Make Booze, not War!
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I find that all very strange . I’ve been doing Saltys Rum for nearly 8 years now and never had a problem . As Mooseman said , so long as you stick to the 10% of total wash volume as Dunder , you won’t have problems . pH is not the problem . Dunder actually helps keep the pH in range . The biggest problem with exceeding Dunder proportions is that the “thickness “ of the Dunder ….. its specific gravity ….. can start to get so high that the Osmotic pressure effects the yeasts ability to do its job . IE ….. the wash is so thick that the poor little buggers can’t breathe .So here is my amendment to the above .For at least the first 6 or so years of the 8 I mentioned , I was in New South Wales Aussie living pretty close to Saltbush . We got our Molasses from sugar mills that were in a similar region ( within several hundred km ) I now live in Queensland Aussie . I’m using Molasses from a different area and processed in different mills . I have noticed that my Start Gravity has dropped from what it used to be down in NSW . So far this has been an observation and not one that had caused me any problems .My take on this is that my new local Molasses has a lower Gravity . IE , there is less non fermentable crap in it compared to the stuff I was getting in NSW The buildup per fermentation is lower . What this means is , that maybe I can add more Dunder per cycle .The other point is this . Maybe the Mollases you are using has a higher level of crap in it than what SBBs and mine used to have . And you need to reduce the amount of Dunder per cycle ….. maybe 7-8% instead of 10% .After all . Me and Salty figured this all out the hard way by trial and error . Maybe you need to tweak yours depending on your local source of Mollases My recommended goto .wiki/index.ph … ion_Theory
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Thanks. Certainly could be variance in molasses from jug to jug.I have been following the process in SBB original post. It calls for 1 gallon hot dunder to melt the 2.2 gallons of molasses plus an additional water to get to 6.6 gallons. That would put it just over 15% dunder. I’ll back off the 1 gallon to ensure I keep it under 10%.My post was not meant to question SBB time tested process. Really more about just sharing my experience and how mistakes can be learning lessons and even opportunities to test new things (refermenting sweet dunder).
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I’ll definitely at least taste test everything moving forward. I assumed refermenting the sweet dunder would work but I’ve assumed wrong before. . Kind of wish I would have tried to do it with out adding the panela wash, but was conflicted if it would be a waste of time.
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