Distilling at home grappa or other spirits like rum, vodka, or tequila, usually a still is used. However, as it’s unclear whether home distillation for hobbyists is legal or not, I’ve refrained from demonstrating how to make grappa, palinka, whisky, etc., at home in my videos, citing its potential illegality. Thanks to Derek, a follower of the English channel , today we’ll use a different method—instead of an alembic, we’ll use our refrigerator’s freezer.
First, we need an alcoholic beverage to distill. In this case, distilling rum, we require sugar cane molasses that we need to ferment. For this fermentation I used:
INGREDIENTS
Raw sugar: 1 kg
Water: 3 liters
For the best fermentation, you’ll need yeast from a previous fermentation. If it’s your first time, it’s okay, but remember to collect the yeast for next time.
sugar and yeast
YEAST
– Exhausted yeast: 1/2 cup
or
– Selected yeast: 1 tablespoon
PROCESS
1. Melt the sugar in a pot over heat.
2. Once dissolved, remove from heat.
3. When the molasses reaches room temperature, pour it into the fermenter, add yeast, close with a lid, on the lid put the bubbler with any liquor you have at home.
FERMENTATION
After 12/24 hours, the fermentation should start, noticeable from the bubbler or airlock and from the foam on the top of the molasses (as shown in the video).
If fermentation doesn’t start, possible reasons are: low temperature or the melasses needs oxygen. For any questions, reach me out on Instagram or comment under the video.
Usually, in 7 days, fermentation is complete, but always check with the bubbler and hydrometer to be sure.
Now, we have our alcoholic beverage ready for distillation.
DISTILLATION
I’ll write a different article and make a video about distillation with a still soon but for now, let’s focus on cold distillation or freeze distillation.
Instead of using vapor to extract alcohol, we’ll use ice to extract water from our wine.
Divide 3 liters of wine into 3 plastic bottles and place them in the freezer. After 48 hours, the bottles are frozen.
Remove the bottle caps, put them upside down in a container, big enough to contain at least 3 liters, and wait until you have 2 liters of wine in the container.
Since alcohol has a much lower freezing point than water, it will melt and drain first, while the icy water will take longer.
When the ice inside the bottles turns white or transparent, it means the alcohol has drained, and it’s time to discard the ice. This eliminates 1 liter of water from our 3 liters of wine.
Repeat this step at least 2 times.
ALCOHOL CONTENT CALCULATION
As seen in the video, my wine had an alcohol content of 13.5% Alc/Vol (this can vary based on yeast tolerance, temperature, and water/sugar ratio).
Calculate: 13.5 x 3 = 40.5 alcohol / 2 = 20.25% Alc/Vol.
After the first freezing, alcohol percentage increased from 13.5 to 20.25.
If you want a Rum at 40% Alc/Vol, freeze again, going from 2 liters to 1 liter.
Calculate: 20.25 x 2 = 40.5 / 1 = 40.5% Alc/Vol.
After the second freezing, some wine won’t freeze. Once you’ve collected your liter of Rum, you can still test and refreeze for a third time. If you’ve reached 40% alcohol concentration, your freezer won’t freeze the Rum anymore, similar to store-bought Rum.
distilling at home with the frizer
So in a few weeks and without special equipment, you’ve managed to distill your liter of Rum without a still.
Remember to drink moderation, please share your experiences by sending photos on Instagram or leaving a comment directly on YouTube under the video.
