Rum from Beet?

[santaman2000]

....The point im trying to make is that molasses is not foul tasting until it is used to make rum in my own opinion. if you do go down the route of trying bear in mind it is a spirit and is illegal to make it so don't get caught and weather it turns out nice at the end or not can be called rum remains to be seen .....

The reason I questioned whether it could be called rum or not is because I thought the very definition of rum (not just a common recipe) was that it was distilled from cane molasses. I imagine I could easily be wrong though. Especially when I think of modern vodkas being distilled from grain rather than potatoes (although not the good vodkas)

 

[mountainm]

The reason I questioned whether it could be called rum or not is because I thought the very definition of rum (not just a common recipe) was that it was distilled from cane molasses. I imagine I could easily be wrong though. Especially when I think of modern vodkas being distilled from grain rather than potatoes (although not the good vodkas)

It all comes down to legalities and technicalities at that point - in India they make Whisky from Molasses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_whisky

 

[Danny1962]

You cannot produce methanol by distilling - worst case you can concentrate methanol that is already present if you don't pay attention to disposing of headings and tailings, but you absolutely cannot produce methanol.

Yes, I should have been more precise here. The methanol is already present at the start of the distillation process, and distilling doesn't create it.

Looking again at some of the resources I'd gathered in the past, I noticed a suggestion that creating your mash from molasses produces a lower methanol content than creating your mash from fruit.

There are some very comprehensive internet resources out there for people who want to research "home distillation of alcohol" or "building a home distillation apparatus" in more depth (put those phrases in the quote marks straight into Google and take the top hits). I used to do a lot of home brewing and I'd be lying if I said that the thought of building a still of my own hadn't crossed my mind on occasions. But I came round pretty quickly to the conclusion that it's more trouble than it's worth to do it on a domestic scale. Since I didn't fancy going to prison I decided it wasn't worth stepping it up a gear and doing it commercially, either!

 

[santaman2000]

It all comes down to legalities and technicalities at that point - in India they make Whisky from Molasses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_whisky

Interesting. Thanks.

 

[Joules]

Lets just say you can produce a nice rum from black treacle, brown sugar, yeast nutrient, bread yeast and a stainless steel stock pot with a copper head on it..... It really isn't rocket science and the parts are easily available plumbing stock... DON'T use brass fitting, they leach zinc, DON'T use lead solder. The same setup can produce botanicals (perfumes and essences), but the oils from essences will render the equipment virtually useless for other purposes. A still is a very useful bit of kit for producing clean water from water butts etc, and in that purpose is totally legal to own and operate.

 

[oldtimer]

An Irish friend told me that in parts of Ireland they don't distill but put the mash in the freezer. The water turns to ice leaving the alcohol still liquid because of its lower freezing point. This is then poured off. Is he having me on, or would this work?

 

[British Red]

It'll work IF you have a very precise temperature control on your freezer. I am told it is still illegal.

 

[SGL70]

hmmm....any freezer that manages temperatures between 0 and -40 (when ethanol itself freezes) should do the trick of increasing alc%.

 

[Mandos]

this may be of some use to some of you asking about freezing alcohol although this doesnt explain a great deal its still interesting to see how much they water down alcohol

Forgot to add the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwxGbimhQBU

 

[Toddy]

It's an old way of making cider into an alcohol that doesn't go to vinegar.
You don't need to freeze the whole thing, just lift out the kind of half formed sorbet type ice mass. A couple of icy cold nights is usually ample time.
It doesn't shift the % up into the levels that cause the revenue men to chase you, just enough to put it up into the range of the fortified wines and sake or shochu.


M

 

[British Red]

hmmm....any freezer that manages temperatures between 0 and -40 (when ethanol itself freezes) should do the trick of increasing alc%.

The problem is that the ethanol is mixed with water that does freeze. Its perfectly possible to freeze a bottle of wine solid. You don't get 10% ethanol left unfrozen. Apparently you need a well timed freeze for it to work well. Quite slow as I recall

 

[xylaria]

Freeze distillation keeps all the methanol and headachey other alcohols in the liquid. Apple jack worked because the initial brew was from natural yeasts and had a low alchohol content. The methanol has a tendency to start been produced once the brew gets above 10%. Apple jack was liquid that was drawn off barrels of apples in the northern states by the early settlers. Modern yeast can make a brew of similar strength without any form of distillation.

A liqour from sugar beet would probably be quite low in methanol as there is no pectin. Dark Jamaican rum however has a lot of fusel alcohol same with whiskeys. Distilling magnifys toxins. There is a lot of skill to making a spirit. Alcohol has other uses than drink, reading up on chemistry of distilling is useful for making tinctures and stove fuel. Yeast needs food as well as sugar for instance, a brew with just sugar ends up killing the yeast by starving it hence why malted grain and root veg need to be added as well. I tried making finish kilcof with just white sugar and it stopped with loads of sugar left.