Trial and error, Citrus Rum experiment

[jason123]

I've been meaning to try and get something done for xmas that would be either a great give away xmas present or something really offensive. I was going to try and do a xmas pudding TC and might still try but then started thinking about a liqueur type drink for sipping away in front of the log burning stove.

Got this on the go this afternoon to fulfil my xmas desires.

5Kg Demerera sugar - Tate and Lyle
1Kg Dark Brown Soft Sugar
1Kg Molasses Sugar
500g Light Muscovado Sugar
500g Dark Muscovado Sugar - All Billingtons apart from the Demerera.

5 Limes chopped
4 Lemons chopped
4 Oranges Chopped
1ltr Lidl Grapefruit Juice
15Ltrs Caledonian Spring Water - Sainsbury's own brand at 90 odd p for 5ltrs and includes a free plastic DJ

1 Packet alcotec Turbo 48 yeast. - Packet suggests 8Kg of sugar down to 20% abv in 5 days

Methodology.

Chop into 8ths all the citrus fruits and chuck in the sterilised FV
Boil approx 1 ltr with 2 Kg of the Demerera and pour over the chopped fruits. - Hoping this sterilises the fruit abit.
Repeat the boil with a further 1 ltr water and 2 Kg Demerera.
Pour in the remaining water, sugar and the 1 Ltr Grapefruit Juice.
Pour in the Packet of darling yeasties. The packet comes with yeast, nutrient and other bits so nothing further added.
FV lidded up and sent to the garage.

I did take a hydro reading which proved inconclusive as the scal didn't go down far enough
Based on the scale graduations I would say it was something like 1.145 - 1.150. I took a piccie of that which I will have to add later as I'm now at work on another night shift.

Plan going forwards.

i'll give it a stir every couple of days then take a further hydro reading on day 6 to see how good that yeast claim is. If it has gone down low enough I will try and add a few hundred grams more sugar just to try and extract the most out of the yeast and keep on with this approach until I can see the yeasties have done us proud and fermented themselves to death. Poor yeasties but its all in the name of science.

After short standing when fermentation has reached an end I'll rack off into a further FV and take a look at clarity, then decide to either let it stand and clear further or I might just bottle it up.

Some thoughts running through my head are - should I add some pectolase to aid clearing or is this not necessary for citrus fruits?
Will this make me go blind?
Am I stupid?

All thoughts and comments welcome and I will keep you posted on progress.

[second2none]

I tried something like this...
and from reading your post you hitting some of the same problems I did.
I used 2kg of sugar in 4.5L of water
and left to ferment for about 4 weeks, at which point it hadnt finished bubbling but
I was too eager to start my next lot of brewing that I finn'ed it and from morrisons i put a few teaspoons of rum essence in(the bakery stuff 86p)!
but there again this was just a stupid experiment and I was seeing how far I could push my strong yeast not turbo yeast.

I KNOW I KNOW... before anyone starts having a go at me for using chemicals!

What i was left with was a clear colourless liquid that smelt and tasted like rum but still to early to give it a propper taste test.

I couldn't take a SG reading because the hydrometer just floated so high!
Using your turbo yeast it recomends that you filter it throu charcoal, have you given that any consideration?
if you're in the UK
http://www.simplynatural.org.uk/acatalo ... quors.html is a great place to get turbo yeast at a good price for ur charcoal stuff...

[jason123]

Not read about the filtering through charcoal, but tbh, that was never going to happen.

Having used a few dark sugars, the colour is very much like a black coffee at the moment. I'm expecting great things from this turbo yeast so not too worried about the long ferment. I might take pity on the yeasties and not subject them to prolonged further fermenting with extra sugars. But I might just punish them and see what happens, I'm not 100% sure about that yet. I need to start getting bottles together so it'll probably get a few weeks of settling as well.

We'll just see what happens!!

[jason123]

Here's a couple of pics of the brew just after it was concocted. Just checked it after getting back from work this morning and crikey, that turbo yeast is going like the clappers. I can see why they said don't bother with an air lock.





I can't wait to see how this turns out. Hope it's not a disappointment and that plenty of the citrus flavour comes through.

[leedsbrew]

Sounds interesting! I hope it goes well for you!

[EoinMag]

The turbo yeast normally comes with nutrient and a packet of charcoal, did you add the charcoal as per instructions? I don't think the yeast will get to the advertised 20% as they advise a glucose wash to get the best out of the yeast.
It'll still be 16-17% though I'd have thought.

[jason123]

The yeast came in a large packet with nutrient but didn't have any charcoal with it. The instructions just said tip it in and stand back.

[ron]

Hi Jason,
My citrussy stuff looking OK, stopped bubbling in 2nd dj, thrown a little bit sediment, think it might clear eventually, gonna bottle it soon, need the dj to rack off my bramble stuff soon.
Might sample it as I'm transferring.

[jason123]

Been getting a lovely smell from the FV with this lot in. I think it might have been a good move to use a litre of grapefruit juice rather than more fruit as the oranges and lemons etc don't look to have changed much. I might take them out when it comes to racking off and give them a mash, boil and sugaring before chucking back in. Then again I might just leave them with the liquor when racking off.

After pitching the turbo yeast it went off like the clappers. and its still going fairly strong. Should be plenty strong enough for christmas quaffing.

[ron]

Mine's all bottled, looks and tastes good, better than I expected.
Just gonna try and keep my hands off it till Xmas.

[DaveyT]

I worked in a prison for five years and, please don't take this the wrong way, but this reminds me of the houch the lads make inside.
They accumulated fruit and sugar, then either nabbed an oxo cube from the kitchen or squeezed out a wet slice of bread for the yeast. Then they jammed it against a hot pipe in their cell and hoped nobody found it. I saw a couple of bottles that were busied (I was in education not on the landings) and it looked pretty ropey, like, but needs must as the devil drives.
I love this thread, though; please let us know how it turns out.

[jason123]

I'm hoping to give mine a try this weekend. Unlike the prison gear, some of this might get laid down till next year or even longer. Smells really nice though and there is plenty of fruits in it. At the moment I'm quite optimistic.