My First proper SBB Molly Rum

ferrica

Thanks to all for the advice on this great forum and to SBB for the Molasses recipe. I now feel able to up my output a little and go for a 60l molly wash this coming week.
This is the perfect place to log my progress during this little venture and hopefully pick up more good guidance on my inevitable cock-ups  
I've invested in a 25l drum of NAF Horsefeed molasses, a new 60l food-grade fermenter barrel and even convinced myself I needed a cheap pressure washer lol.
Will be faithful to SBB's recipe and method  but using 10l of hot dunder, the yeast trub and feints from my previous rum effort last time around (used Lyles black treacle)  I was encouraged by the result of that and have about 2.5l (proofed to about 55%) of the Lyles produce sitting on 2 American Oak medium sticks. Looking/tasting good.

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I've ordered a small 5l medium char oak barrel and hope to fill this next week with something tasty for Christmas.
I've got the molasses sitting on a little heating pad to loosen it up a bit before I pour it tomorrow. Fk that stuff is dense! I imagined it would weigh about 30 kg but jeezus I think my arm was 3 inches longer after carting it to my shed. To gimme a rough guide on the amount when I pour I drew a scale with a sharpie on the molasses barrel......

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Busy day tomorrow.....

Yummyrum

Good luck . Incidentally Molasses usually has a specific gravity of 1.36 - 1.4 so you did well lugging it . Closer to 34kg .
Can you show a closeup of the label ingredients ?
I tried googling it but the only stuff I could find was the 5 litre NAF Molasses . Man that was between $60 and $120 depending where you bought it . Surely you didn’t pay 5x that .

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Regarding the pressure washer . Heed the advice about keeping the end well under the surface before pulling or releasing trigger .  

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…….least you be having a shower  and wiping down walls and ceilings . Don’t ask how I inow this .My recommended goto .
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_Theory

ferrica

Yummyrum you can see the label below. TBH I was a little surprised at the sugar percentage. I had expected it to be about 40%, a bit higher than what is stated (35%) I'm not sure what the original SBB Blackstrap sugar percentage was and I want to stick as close as I can to his recipe.  SBB doesn't seem to trust sg hydrometer readings here so I'm not entirely sure ATM how to calculate/adjust for my wash.
I paid £35 (+£5 delivery) from a local equestrian centre. That's about $50 US total I think. A lot cheaper than the Lyles treacle I used the other week. That worked out to roughly £4/l or about 3x the price of the NAF. BTW I've read elsewhere that the brand is unsulphured

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Hevda

Following this thread with interest. I've been looking at ordering that same brand of molasses so it will be good to see your results.

welly

Funnily enough, I've ordered the same stuff and am going to do an SBB molly run too!
I don't have a pressure washer, however, so that aeration step might have to be done manually.

Dathhu

Best of luck ferrica!
Thought I was paying too much for molasses in Australia, but that still probably works out better than popping down the offy for a bottle.  Hope it works well for you and you can keep your hands off it long enough to give it time to be better than the swill at the offy

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ferrica

TY Dathhu. Good luck Hevda and Welly!
Regarding the price for the molasses.....Here in South Wales UK we have a dirty stealth tax on booze. It's not-so-cunningly disguised as the The Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Act 2018 The price of alcohol drinks sold must conform to this whereby a minimum price per unit is set by the government (currently £0.50) and retailers risk prosecution if they charge less. So for instance, I'm quite optimistic about filling my new little barrel with about 5l of 60% proof from this run. If I had to buy a similar volume from a shop nearby I would be charged £150+ Definitely a no-brainer for me lol.

ferrica

Anyway, managed to pour the molly without wrenching a bollock. I think warming it up helped a lot. I just laid it on it's side on my workbench, screwcap down, and gingerly removed the cap. It poured like a dream.
I'm not sure about my amounts though. Following SBB's recipe I should mix 16l of Blackstrap molasses with 60l of water for the wash. But this molly is only 35% sugar and I ran that through an online wash calculator and that gives a wash of 1.05 sg. which should ferment out to about 7% ABV. I'm tempted to pour the whole barrel of molly in, it would hopefully ferment out to roughly 12% ABV would the bakers yeast suffer this?
Cheers

welly

I bought the same stuff from Amazon and it was 10 quid for a 5L tub of it, so I guess a bit less than 20AUD?

Yummyrum

Read the recipe again Ferica .
He uses 8l of molly to make a Total wash of 27l in a 30litre container.
You do not add 8 litres to 27 liters of water , rather you add around 19liters of water until the total wash volume is 27litres .
Don’t worry , you won’t be the first that has got that confused .
But yes the wash ABV is ment to be low . Around 7-8% abv .
If you dump in too much Mollases , the wash is “too thick” due to all the un fermentable stuff in the rest of the Mollases . The yeast suffer from osmotic pressureMy recommended goto .
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_Theory

Saltbush-Bill

Yummys on the ball.

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Ferrica your molasses has me a little confused ......Ive never heard of a sugar mill which can extract enough sugar in its process to leave only 35.3% sugar in the molasses, which is the byproduct of that process. That Molasses is either coming from an extremely efficient Mill or contains something other than molasses imo.
If it is that low in sugar it might not hurt to add a little more.......having said that I wouldn't go crazy, you might need to experiment a bit to find out what you can get away with.

ferrica

Fook me.....I knew I was wrong in my calcs somewhere! Thanks gents.
Regarding the sugar content of the NAF molasses I'm using.  I had previously looked HERE and remembered from that the product was unsulphured and the sugar content was about 40% but my barrel is marked at 35% as we know.  So I'm a little confused too. I may even shoot them an e-mail to solve the mystery I'm quite curious now.

Saltbush-Bill

https://www.naf-equine.eu/uk/health/molasses
NAF Molasses is an easy pour blend that
"Easy pour blend" says to me that there is something other than molasses in there.
https://www.naf-equine.eu/uk/health/molasses
Ingredients link above says .......Composition Sugar cane molasses ........ Analytical Constituent Total sugars (as sucrose) 44.3%........then yours says 35.3%
Lots of conflicting information for sure.

Yummyrum

It sure is contradictory.
My take on it is that they procure Mollasses that has a sugar content of 44% and dilute it down to 35% to make it easy pour .
I think this because as Salty says 35% is not typical from a refinery , but 44 % is .
Also , they mention nothing in the ingredients other than molasses , where as every other feed stock that has been that low is usually boasting how much protein and other crap is in , usually what they have added .
This does not .
Earlier on , I said that 20 litres  should weight close to 34kg .
If it has infact been watered down , it will weigh a lot less .My recommended goto .
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_Theory

Saltbush-Bill

Even 44% is low going by what I'm told by a couple of local Mill workers Ive talked to.....the average I'm told is around 50%, if they could get more out of it they would.
https://www.sunshinesugar.com.au/wp-con ... lasses.pdf as an example of Aussie Food Grade.

Rrmuf

I never got an aerator, but have found that a portable drill and a paint mixer wand does perfectly well. .... atleast until I get more ambitious.-- Rrmuf

ferrica

Well I've gone as far as phoning the NAF nutritional helpline and a very helpful lady has promised to get back to me asap on the subject of the mystery of the missing sugar.....
Meanwhile I'm forging ahead regardless with prepping this batch for the ferment this week. I'll be adding in hot dunder and yeast trub today from my previous Lyles treacle efforts and (carefully lol) jetwashing it then throwing in the rest of the gubbins as per SBB's recipe.
I think I'll resist adding more sugar, I'm kinda happy if I can get 7-8% in this volume. I'll keep a close eye on it as it progresses and perhaps post a pic or two when it kicks off.
Cheers

ferrica

OK that lovely lady (Branwen) from the NAF nutritional advice department called me back and gave me (a little) more info on the sugar content of their horsefeed molasses brand. She said that the sugar % of the molly does vary frequently, it was down to their suppliers. Although she couldn't (or was unwilling) to tell me who their suppliers were. She also said they preferred lower sugar content as too much can be unhealthy for our equine friends.
I asked about the 'easy pour' quality of the brand and whether this meant there were additives present? She assured me there were none, "not even water"
That leaves us right back where we started but I'm not worried The molly is in the fermenter ready for the mix, putting it back into the drum it came from is a little beyond my capabilities so it's like it or lump it.....
Onwards & Upwards

Saltbush-Bill

I guess" easy pour" could also be marketing BS meaning "it's in a plastic cube".

Rum-Agol

Ive used this brand of molly for a while and it did use to state 44.3% but I noticed the lower rate on my last order. Not sure why the sugar content has dropped but it didnt affect the ABV of the wash very much nor the flavour,I just added a little cane sugar. I have since found another (cheaper) source of molly which has 45%

ferrica

Hey Rum Agol is that cheaper source in the UK? Consider me very interested.
Couldn't do much molly-wise today. I'm cracking on though tomorrow morning
TY

Rum-Agol

Yes its in the UK  I get it from here
https://www.chelfordfarmsupplies.co.uk/
£18.45 for 25kg or £135 for 280kg. My work takes me to the area a couple of times a year so I pick it up from the store.

ferrica

Thanks Rum Agol
That price for the 280kg is impressively low! I guess I'm stuck with my local dealers though as they don't ship big weights.
Got the molly wash up and running. Followed the recipe to the letter. Resisted adding more sugar. Used hot dunder and the yeast trub from my Lyles run.
Using the jetwash as advised made mixing a doddle as they say.....
I know SBB spurns checking out SG etc with this mix but out of curiosity I dropped in the hydrometer and was surprised to see it at nearly 1.200 !?!?
Left the lid loose in case it gets too lively overnight. I'm using a suspended 200w aquarium heater with an external digital temp controller. It worked fine on my 30l Lyles wash and is rated at 150l so hopefully will cope OK here also.
Anyhoo roll on tomorrow

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Yummyrum

Guessing thats a typo ferrica .
1.120 would be closer to the mark .  

My recommended goto .
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_Theory

ferrica

Yes typo lol
in fact the hydrometer bulb is almost out of the wash I think I understand now why SBB doesn't bother with SG readings of this wash

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Yummyrum

Haa , seems you’re following same path I know . Hydrometer popping its shoulders out of wash . LOL , forced me to get a meter that read higher .
All means nothing really , but all info is handy ….. maybe just in case the next fella comes along and wonders the same questions  .
Now , fun part is when you start adding dunder from this wash to the next …. And the next . You’ll soon see the start gravity getting higher and higher . …. And the finish gravity .
Then you will see why the Dunder 10% of total wash volume comes from . It will stabilise .Sometimes it need s a bit  less . You’ll know , because fermentations start slowing down a bit .My recommended goto .
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_Theory

ferrica

Just checked Molly out. Doesn't seem like much/any activity. I've tightened the lid and put a bubbler airlock in. I think she may be cold (it's about 6C/43F) out my shed. The heater is reporting 29-30C but my temperature gun is showing only 14C on the outside of the bin so I swaddled it with a  big towel/blanket. I'll check in the morning for any movement, I've got a heater pad and a belt I can use if needs be.
Gotta take care of my baby lol.

ferrica

You got me there Yummyrum, when that happened with the hydro I was straight on Amazon looking for another one lol.
I'm learning a lot with this hobby. I'm not afraid of making mistakes, that's how you learn when you fix it. If the next fella learns from my mistakes that's a bonus.
Cheers

Yummyrum

Might want to take a peek inside or hold your ear up to it .
By now , it should look like and sound like a bowl of fizzing Coke a cola.
I think I would also stick a thermometer into the wash and see what it really is . It does sound like its way too cold though . Probably need to get as much heat inti it as you can .My recommended goto .
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... ion_TheoryHope you can keep it warm enough ferrica, rum is more of a summer thing for me. I'm letting it go nuts here right now in the southern hemisphere.
Hope it works out well, I hope you have something ok for Christmas, but I hope you stash more away for a few more months. By summertime in the UK you should have some tasty rum hopefully.

ferricaDathhu

I hope so too Dathhu
My wash was/is very sedate compared to how yours took off. But just checked and she's gurgling away happily despite the cold Welsh weather.
Roll on.

ferrica

Checked Molly out last night. She's stopped bubbling at the airlock, opened her up and can still see/hear fizz. Will have a better look in daylight later today.
Roll-on