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I have been making moonshine for 10 years, but I rarely use pure moonshine. I prefer to make aromatic tinctures. Once I was told a recipe for homemade rum, which used not simple sugar, but cane sugar.
It became interesting to me how it differs so much from the usual granulated sugar that it cannot be replaced in any case.
The story was shared by blog subscriber Denis.
White and cane sugar: what’s the difference
Sugar and yeast are essential ingredients in the production of homemade vodka. When these components interact, alcohol is produced. Craftsmen have learned to use in moonshine any raw material that contains sucrose. For example, fruits, berries, cereals.
Sugar in our latitudes is made from beets, and you can buy it at any store.
Interesting: among moonshiners, it is believed that granulated sugar with a creamy tint has a high sugar content. But this is a moot point.
Often, refined sugar is used in the manufacture of mash. I can say for sure that it costs much more than ordinary sand, but there are fewer impurities in it. If you want to expel high-quality moonshine without extraneous aftertastes, then I prefer to fork out.
Cane sugar is produced, as you might guess, from sugar cane juice. The raw material grows in warm Brazil and Guatemala, so the finished product comes to Russia. In terms of sucrose content, brown and white sugar are not inferior to each other.
But cane contains a by-product of sugar production – molasses. It is she who is needed in moonshine brewing, when you want to make a fragrant drink.
The effect of sugar on the quality of moonshine
A sweet product significantly speeds up fermentation and improves the quality of the distillate. I did not notice a fundamental difference when I used different types of sugar, but I understood how to speed up the fermentation process. There is such a thing as sugar inversion.
It only takes three ingredients:
- purified water – 1l;
- sugar – 1 kg;
- citric acid – 4 g.
I heat the water in a saucepan to 70°C, remove from heat. Then add sugar and citric acid, mix thoroughly until the grains dissolve. The resulting mixture is put on the stove, heated to 80 ° C.
Invert sugar is ready. It remains to cool the syrup before adding to the mash. A similar trick can be done with cane sugar.
Interesting: there is a myth that when inverted, a large amount of harmful substances are released. We are talking about furfurals, which are actually formed, but in such meager doses that they do not harm health.
Why does rum have an unusual taste?
According to the recipe, real rum is aged in oak barrels for 3-4 months, and ideally 3 years. Experts recommend pouring the distillate into heavily roasted barrels so that the drink acquires a specific color and aroma.
Interesting: in hot countries, the aging of the drink is reduced by 2 times. High temperature and humidity throughout the year do their job much faster than the cold in Europe.
I don’t have an oak barrel for rum on the farm, so I ennoble my homemade rum with spices. Ginger, cloves, orange peel, vanilla pods, cinnamon sticks are used. I constantly change the number of additives, so the drink turns out with a new taste every time.
Benefits of Cane Sugar
While researching the topic of brown sugar, I realized that this product contains calcium, phosphorus, iron, B vitamins. Confectioners add it to pastries to add sophistication to their products. But I see no reason to use cane sugar in moonshine, especially considering its price.
In stores, I saw inexpensive brown sugar, which was very surprised. Everything turned out to be simple: the producers soaked white sugar with molasses syrup, and it turned out to be an overseas miracle.
I use cane sugar only when making rum, because without it the drink simply won’t work. I wonder if there are many admirers of cane sweets here? Share your impressions of drinking homemade rum?