Thanks for doing this! I did a fermentation with kviek yeast and live dunder added 1.5 days after yeast pitch. The yeast and dunder tore through the fermentation and I got about 12% ABV based on my volume of wash and low wines. I think I would be pretty bummed if I only got 2% lol. But it turned out great. I could have included more heads than I did for more fruitiness, but I wanted my friends to like it haha.
When you hold that set up, it reminds me of a little girl proudly holding up her beloved bunny rabbit. Hampden's marketing people need to get on their game. How they didn't just send you a set to review is beyond me. Same with Arminder at Rum Revival. If I worked at Hampden I would have sent the both of you a set customized with your name, your channel's name and your likeness emblazoned on the set's box.
Hahaha I am so excited about it and I'm glad that was obvious! We should get you on the Hampden marketing team then! I'd love to get free bottles from them! Actually, I wonder if it's more up to Velier's marketing team since they're the ones who actually put together the tasting collection. Regardless, I'm thrilled to have it!!
Happy birthday! Awesome channel btw, been watching since your first dunder/muck under the microscope video. Very informative, and your videos are appreciated by the two microbiologists at my distillery.
I'm very been very interested in your descriptions of your sensory of taste and smell. I have been trying to learn how to describe them myself. I have never been to a nail salon. I should go for the first time. Would you have any recommendations for a guy to ask for when I get there. Great Job 🙂
It's all about experiencing as many smells as you can! Then you get to create a sort of smell database in your brain. Everyone has different references based on what they've experienced and I find that really cool! I would definitely recommend popping into a nail salon for a manicure if you've never been! If you ask for a classic manicure without any polish, they'll do a hand massage, trim and clean your nails, and moisturize your hands. It's really nice! You could also get a pedicure... who doesn't love a foot massage! Bring some Rum Fire with you and see if the salon notes cancel one another out and you're left with all the fun fruits!
I just want to start with the observation that I have no idea how you can taste all 8 in a single session. Tasting Rum Fire neat holds my taste buds hostage with a knife, demanding something citrus and a getaway car to eventually let them go! Thank you for this amazingly informative video. Yes, others have posted quick tasting notes but you give us the details and the context to make those details meaningful. I know that some distillers use artificial means to force esters, adding chemicals or commercial bacteria. Whiskey distillers sometimes add commercial Lactobacillus to "sour" the mash, leading to Ethyl Lactate in the distilled product. It is impressive to see that Hampden can maintain a consistent flavor profile under primitive conditions using wild yeast with open air fermentation. Thanks again for sharing your understanding of and passion for funky rum.
N.B., there's a sense in which the consistency of Hampden shouldn't really be a surprise. Wild doesn't imply random, right? Yes, it's always natural yeast coming in to do the fermentation, but because the surrounding environment's basically always the same it's also basically always the same yeast - and mutatis mutandis for other microbes. Far from "primitive," if anything they can often actually be more consistent than in other kinds of production: you can't get contamination from "outside" yeasts, e.g., when the fermentation is intentionally happening outside already.
I think Hampden's washbacks are so old that they're considered primitive now haha. In all seriousness, you're right about the consistency! The yeast and bacteria that are in the wood of the washbacks, the live dunder, and the muck have established themselves in those environments and prevent other microbes from thriving in the fermentation. As long as nothing drastically changes in those environments, they're going to remain the predominant microbes. It's kind of like the story about the nun who made cheese using traditional methods in a wooden barrel (this is a true story by the way in case you haven't heard it). In the 80s, the FDA started cracking down on cheese producers because of a cheese-related listeria outbreak and made this nun switch to using stainless steel. They thought her wooden barrel was unsanitary and that switching to stainless would reduce the likelihood of pathogens in her cheese. However, she proved that it actually increased the E. coli present in her cheeses and that using the wooden barrel mitigated that because of the beneficial bacteria that had established itself within the wood of the barrel. So there are certainly a lot of microbes in Hampden's fermentations, but they're going to be pretty consistent from batch to batch!
@@RobynSmithPhD It reminds me of the traditional soy sauce producers in Japan whose entire wooden production area has been impregnated and saturated with the mold they've been using for hundreds of years.
Hello Robyn my 75 Litre molasses wash has just finished fermenting and I'm planning a 7 days dead ferment. I have managed to get hold of 5 Litres of cane vinegar and was going to add it to the wash for another 2 days and then do a double pot distillation. Would this be the right amount of cane vinegar to add and do you think 2 days be enough for some esterification to give a moderate amount of funk.
That's awesome! Where did you get your cane vinegar from? I think 5 L is a good amount to add! I'm not entirely sure exactly how much cane vinegar distilleries add to their washes nowadays, however, I've seen one paper from the early 1900s that lists quantities of dunder, muck, and cane vinegar added and it says to add 10% cane vinegar. I think adding a little under that is a safe bet, so as I said, 5 L into your wash should be good! See how the wash smells after 2 days... look for fruity flavors. If it still smells primarily of vinegar, wait another day or two to see if it improves. It's also possible that some esterification may occur during distillation due to the high heat. Let me know how it turns out!
@@RobynSmithPhD I'm in London and cane vinegar is very hard to find, I managed to locate a supply in a Filipino grocery shop apparently they use it a lot in cooking, It comes in 750 ml bottles and looks like wine I think they have a special name for it, probably best asking one of the staff if you can find a store. I put the 5 L in this morning and as you suggest I will leave it till the vinegar smell starts to go and fruit starts to come forward. I plan to use 20% of dunder from the stripping run back into the spirit run to give esterification a second chance. Once I get everything done and proofed down I will let you know if it worked out.
@@kingsburybushcraft8794 amazing!! I can’t wait to hear how it turns out! And I’m going to see if I can find came vinegar at one of the local Asian supermarkets near me! I would have never thought to check there!
@@RobynSmithPhD Hello Robyn an update on my cane vinegar experiment: After proofing down and resting for a few weeks I've tasted the rum and its intensely fruity but not in a funky way, its mostly fresh mango and orange specifically. I cant 100% say it came from the cane vinegar as I ended up with a nearly 2 week dead ferment but what ever caused it I am very happy with the result. I will carry on with cane vinegar and dead ferments and see what happens. If you manage to find some please let us know the results.
@@kingsburybushcraft8794 That sounds delicious! I bet the combo of the cane vinegar and the 2-week long dead wash really amped up the fruitiness! I think putting some dunder back into the spirit run also helped develop some of that fruitiness. Did you happen to keep track of how it smelled throughout those 2 weeks? If so, I'm curious about how the smell evolved and if there was a noticeable shift toward fruitiness after a certain amount of time?
