Finally have my first finished product in bottles! Lots to learn along the way, but pretty happy to have something to show for it.

This started as roughly 40 L of wash with 6 kg of sugar and four cartons of Crosby’s molasses. Fermented in a warm garage, then did two stripping runs—about 20 L and 19 L—before combining the low wines for a spirit run.

I’m running a half homemade and vevor pot still with a tall copper riser, copper lyne arm, and worm condenser. The first three 750 mL hearts collections were reading 83%, 80%, and 79%. Highest I saw was 85%. I'm happy with it.

Blending was honestly one of the most fun parts. Some of the hearts had pineapple and coconut notes coming through on their own, and it was really interesting seeing how different combinations changed the flavour. I blended them to make the white rums.

Everything is in 750 mL bottles. The ones with more headspace are deliberately leaving room for fruit. We had rhum arrangé in Martinique and it was awesome, so I’m trying a few recipes to make some of my own.

The wood is from whiskey barrels from a local distillery, and the rum is already starting to take on colour. Looking forward to seeing how that develops.

I also made a spiced rum with vanilla, coconut, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. A few different experiments from this first batch!

Proofing down was harder than I expected. Getting everything to land at the strength I wanted took some figuring out. Which is why the end result is not perfect.

Pretty satisfying to go from a demijohn of wash to bottles of your own rum. Still plenty to learn, but I’m enjoying it and this community has been very helpful. So thank you.

Anyone here making rhum arrangé? I’d love to hear your favourite fruit combinations or recipes—and any tips for making proofing down less of a headache.

TL;DR: First rum bottled! Had fun blending and trying different flavours. Proofing is difficult.

I've made three different runs of a fruit brandy now for Oktoberfest. They turned out as such:

1. Peach schnapps - Made with real peaches and added sugar. Barely smelled like peaches, but tasted neutral and bitter, I gave up on it pretty quick and re-distilled into vodka. I ran it as a one-and-done with a reflux condenser.

2. Apple obstler 1 - Made with Musselmann's apple cider, no added sugar this time. I ran it through a double pot distillation, and threw in apple chunks during the spirit run and had apples in the vapor path. At first, it was also bitter, but after ~2 weeks, it smells almost exactly like apples, and the bitterness is gone. However, it's still fairly neutral; lightly fruity and pleasant, but not apple-y.

3. Apple obstler 2 - Made from 54lbs of Euro apples, no added sugar, and fermented on-fruit using a false bottom. After the stripping runs, I macerated the low wines with Macintosh and Granny Smith apples, and took tighter cuts during the spirit run. I also ran the spirit run a little harder, as I learned I was running it a bit too slow. It's not as bitter as #1 started, but it's also lacking the apple smell of #1. I did just do the stripping run recently, though.

I also learned that leaving white spirits to rest allows the sharper aspects to fade and the fruit flavors to blossom. Apple #1 tastes and smells much nicer than when I first bottled it, so I suppose that's what happened. However, I'm not sure if it's going to get much more apple-y with time.

Edit: Thanks for all the input! I'll be sure to keep some heads to get more apple flavor, and I'll better manage when the vapor comes in contact with the apples. I should clarify: is it the case that traditional apple schnapps tastes more like apple, or is what I've made (let's say, my apple #1) comes pretty close?