PugiRum

[Wai`ona]

Reading this thread and this thread in its original location, I have not been able to find whether the fertilizer in the yeast nutient, 20-0-0, is supposed to be nitrate or sulfate based.

The reason I wonder is I made some pugirum and it has an off-flavor in it. The off-flavor is a bit like rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide). I used 21-0-0 ammonium sulfate. It is my understanding that the fertilzer is there for nitrogen content. Ammonium sulfate is also 24% sulfur as sulfate. Could this be the source of the off-flavor? I followed the rest of the wash recipe very closely.

This is the first iteration so I had no rum oils to add, and I used 50% low wines + 50% wash in the spirit run instead of dunder, as recommended by Punkin (in the thread over there).

I have to admit that these are my first attemps with a pot still, so maybe I am not making my cuts right. My experience with the way heads and tails smell/feel come from running a VM column.

I am tempted to put a themometer well in the high spot of the lyne arm to see what the vapor temperatures are. I am measuring abv with a 100mL volumetric flask, thermometer, tripple beam balance and a conversion spreadsheet. (Parrot building is on my to-do list).

Any thoughts on ammonium sulfate causing off-flavors?

[pintoshine]

The common fertilizers I find a combination of urea and nitrate. My preference is urea and di-ammonium phosphate(DAP). This has gotten quite common in the homebrew stores in my area as yeast nutrient.

[rwshaved]

Is there a sub for the 5 teaspoons of 20-0-0, agrcultural fertalizer
Iam having a hard time finding it. Thanks RW

[pintoshine]

Miracle Grow, Peter's or any general purpose blue, water soluble plant food will work.

[rwshaved]

As a general rule how sugar do you caramelize per gallon?
A ruff est. would be nice. Thanks RW

[jose]

wash
How clear will the wash be before running?
Thanks

[Alfred]

I always just let it settle for a day or 3 after it's done. Pour it off without disturbing the lees and you're good to go.

-Mud

[jose]

Thank you Sir.

[SuburbanStiller]

When using dunder that has set around for a while, are we supposed to boil it before we add it to the fermentor to sterilize it? Or do we just pour it in with whatever kind of natural goodness that have drifted in?

[vb]

some folks use a dunder pit and gain all sorts of "interesting" flavors.
I'm nervous about that sorta thing, so I'd boil it myself.

[big_onion]

Is baker's yeast a necessity for this? I'm having a hard time finding it locally in a large quantity.

Anyone had luck with any other kind of yeast?

[Al Qaemist]

Any yeast I've chucked at molasses has done fantastically well - there is a whole thread on HD where someone trialed a few different yeasts side by side and compared the flavours - the bakers didn't do too favourably in his tests.

I'm currently trying a cheap Ale yeast - to see how that works out. As long as the yeast is good for the ABV your shooting for I can't imagine having any issues - I'll underpin that by saying I've only been doing this a short while - hopefully one of the resident rum-bums will sort me out if I'm off the mark.

[kiwi]

sure, you can use all sorts of different yeasts, but where the hell are you that you can't get bread yeast?

EDV493 is awesome if you can get it.

[Harry]

Depending on what you mean by "large quantity", these folks (local to you) should be able to help, or order in for you. They'd have to carry 1 kg compressed yeast blocks, maybe even DYG (dried yeast granules).

http://www.haydelbakery.com/


Failing that, get Danstill EDV 493 yeast from White Labs. It's the "go to" yeast for commercial rum production.
http://www.whitelabs.com/distilling/yeast.html


Slainte!
regards Harry

[big_onion]

sure, you can use all sorts of different yeasts, but where the hell are you that you can't get bread yeast?

EDV493 is awesome if you can get it.

Haha. We have bread yeast, just not in the quantities this calls for. I can order it online but I like supporting our local shops when I can.

I've got a crap ton of Red Star champagne yeast, but I'll look for that HD thread that Al mentioned.