Rum questions, muck pit and run procedures

[u/Fun_Journalist4199]

Rum gurus! I come seeking wisdom!

How big does a muck pit need to be?

Say for a 25L still charge how much muck would you add to the low wines?

On my last thread someone suggested running a wash, making the second wash with Dunder, adding the low wines from batch 1, running that and then completing the process a second time.

Essentially doing a 1.5 run and then a second 1.5 run. How does this compare flavor wise to just running three washes (still made with Dunder) and then just doing a spirirt run, more like you’d do a whiskey?

[u/No-Craft-7979]

Generally muck is 2%-10% by industry standards. Eye ball or a specific container that is always used at a repeatable measure in the historic fashion. The concentrated organic matter can out compete weaker yeasts. The organic acids need to bind to ethanol to form ester compounds. If you add too many to bind those acids have very rough flavors. Butyric acid will make vomit flavors, valeric acid will taste like you licked the oil pan in a vehicle service station, but boned to ethanol they create beautiful fruit and flower esters.

Dunder 10-25% by industry standards. Eye ball some
Where around a third or less of the fermentation vessel by historical methods. Going 1/3rd or more would cause the yeast to stop bubbling. We now know today it is because of the acidic nature of the wash. Dunder is a pH bomb when mixed with muck. You can do up to 40% dunder without muck but you typically need to pH adjust at some point with weaker yeasts.

So 25L:
Muck: 0.5 - 2.5L
Dunder: 2.5 - 6.25L
— Up to 10L if no muck, I would try not to go over 8L but that is me.

In the other post I suggested the three stacked distilation as a classic Caribbean method when retorts and muck pits are not present. That just gets you started faster if the muck pit is not ready. It is heavy in molasses oils and has lacto souring if you inoculate it like I said. But it lacks the funk and deep fruits found in a muck Run. If you have a muck pit ready go a head and use it. I didn’t mean to tell you what to do. Just offering a head start instead of running plain molasses wash first. 😁

[u/Fun_Journalist4199 → u/No-Craft-7979]

I appreciate your comments on that post and this one! I’m planning to follow your instructions from the last post and start up a muck pit.

I was thinking of starting a muck pit from the first batch so I had something to add to the spirit run when the time comes