Regarding the brewing of rum, we have generally talked about the process in "The Basic Process of Rum", but we have not introduced each link in detail. This article will briefly talk about the process of rum. Selection and variation of raw materials.
There are three choices for the raw materials of rum: molasses, sugar cane syrup, and sugar cane juice.
molasses
Molasses was the most used ingredient during rum's heyday. The birth of rum is a derivative of cane sugar production. In the early days, rum was distilled from the waste residue floating in the sugar boiler. After the sugar industry was restricted, it developed to brewing with molasses as the main raw material. The sugar factory separates the sugar cane juice into jaggery, and the product is molasses. After fermentation and distillation, the molasses becomes rum. Most of the rums that use molasses as raw material do not care about the type of sugar cane that produces the molasses, but they pay special attention to the sucrose content. High sucrose content means relatively low ash content. If the ash content is too high, it will be in the subsequent distillation. It will have a bad impact on the wine body. The sucrose content in molasses is closely related to the sugar production efficiency per unit of raw material.
sugar cane syrup
Sugarcane syrup is a viscous syrup-like substance produced after the first separation of crystals from sugarcane juice. Molasses is the product of two separations of crystals. Its sucrose content is higher than that of molasses, and its price is twice that of molasses. This change is a helpless choice made by some rum distilleries in order to ensure the quality of the wine after the sugar production efficiency increased and the overall sugar content of the molasses decreased.
sugarcane juice
Using sugarcane juice as the raw material for brewing is the most significant feature of "agricultural rum". There is no industrial processing into molasses or syrup. This type of rum attaches great importance to the variety of sugarcane and is also called "natural rum". liquor". Some rum distilleries choose sugarcane juice as the raw material in order to pursue a botanical flavor that is not found in rum produced from molasses or sugarcane syrup. They also want to avoid the bitter, smoky and irony smell of molasses itself. Some rum distilleries choose sugar cane juice as raw material because the Napoleonic period encouraged sugar beet cultivation and sugar beet production in Europe, which greatly affected the sugar cane cultivation and sugar industry in the Caribbean. The Haitian Revolution and the strong suppression of the Napoleonic government All have accelerated the decline of the cane sugar industry. The production of molasses and cane syrup has inevitably declined, and sugar cane juice has become the only option for wineries to stay afloat.
With the development of sugar-making technology and the updating of machines over the past century, the efficiency of sugar-making has increased significantly. The sucrose content in molasses sold by sugar factories has also dropped significantly. Some people once insisted on choosing rum made with molasses as raw material. The factory also gradually changed its strategy. Distilleries that still use molasses are becoming more and more strict about molasses. Some rum distilleries that once used molasses as raw materials began to switch to sugar cane syrup or even sugar cane juice for production, gradually transforming from "industrial rum" to "agricultural rum" .
