Sugar Cane Buck

Hello All,

I'm very new to brewing (as in just tried brewing my first batch today!), but that's another topic for another day.

I will be heading home this weekend to help my family make Cane Syrup. The process is similar to how cane sugar is made. Sugar Cane stalks are cut out of the field, run through a mill that squeezes the juice out, then boiled down into syrup. My family has been making cane syrup for at least five generations that I know of.

The reason for the story; every year we make syrup my grandfather talks about how his daddy used to make "cane buck". He was very young the last time he saw it made and was never told the recipe/technique. He does remember that his daddy would cook the juice in the kettle just a little bit before letting it set up to ferment.

It sounds to me like they used the pure cane juice as a mash and let wild yeast take care of the fermenting. Has anyone ever heard of this? If not, have any suggestions for me trying to ferment pure cane juice? any help will be much appreciated! I would love to be able to recreate something my grandfather has been talking about for 60+ years.

Thanks,
Eldowr

Hello All,

I'm very new to brewing (as in just tried brewing my first batch today!), but that's topic for another day.

I will be heading home this weekend to help my family make Cane Syrup. The process is similar to how cane sugar is made. Sugar Cane stalks are cut out of the field, run through a mill that squeezes the juice out, then the juice is boiled down into syrup. My family has been making cane syrup for at least five generations that I know of.

The reason for the story; every year we make syrup my grandfather talks about how his daddy used to make "cane buck". He was very young the last time he saw it made and was never told the recipe/technique. He does remember that his daddy would cook the juice in the kettle just a little bit before letting it set up to ferment.

It sounds to me like they used the pure cane juice as a mash and let wild yeast take care of the fermenting. Has anyone ever heard of this? If not, have any suggestions for me trying to ferment pure cane juice? any help will be much appreciated! I would love to be able to recreate something my grandfather has been talking about for 60+ years.

Thanks,
Eldowr

Aw man, that's awesome. I've never heard of it, but I don't see any reason it shouldn't work. They're are definately a lot of things you can do to improve the flavor of the finished product (such as using a pure yeast culture instead of wild yeast, though that sorta ruins a lil but of the magic I imagine.

Keep us posted, this is an exciting merger of 2 of my favorite things: family traditions and brewing

I did ita few times.
The first time it was boiled for 15 minutes before adding ale yeast. But I think the boiling altered the flavours.
The second time it was just left to do its thing. It fermented out in under 2 weeks and was quite nice with a little sourness.

While I've never heard of cane buck I strongly suspect your right about how it's made. I agree that using a yeast culture would work but it wouldn't taste the same. If your grandpa is like mine he won't care. He will appreciate the effort and will be more than happy to be your Ginny pig in your attempts to make it just right.

My grandpa used to do something similar but with sorghum. They used bakers yeast to ferment with. Of course there was only one type of yeast and they used it for all their wines back then lol.

A little yeast nutrient while grandpa isn't looking might provide a healthier ferment and more pleasant flavors???

wilserbrewer said:

A little yeast nutrient while grandpa isn't looking might provide a healthier ferment and more pleasant flavors???

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Seconded. Also a starter with a drop (stress SINGLE DROP) of olive oil. It provides whatever they get from dissolved oxygen. You still need to aerate, but you can be sure you've aerated well enough. Don't do it for beer though, cause too much can really screw with head retention.

Thanks for the responses and encouragement everyone! I talked with my dad today and found out that he has been trying to make this recently with my grandfather. Pretty sure they've only tried using bakers yeast as well. They've said that all their attempts have just turned out 'soured'. I'm thinking that is due to other critters taking over before the yeast can get to really working. Would a cultured, properly activated yeast help offset that?

The available yeast selection is quite simply overwhelming.. I've picked a few dry yeasts to order online and would consider a liquid yeast if I knew where to start. Any suggestions? The cane juice has a flavor/aroma somewhere between fresh cut grass on a cold day and molasses..

From what I gather talking with my dad, I believe my best course of action will be to heat the juice from ambient up to just shy of a boil. At that point all of the "skimmings" (impurities/debris) float to the top of the juice and can easily be removed. (we usually dump the skimmings from syrup making into a barrel, the next morning that barrel will already be fermenting from wild yeast or what ever critters are floating around in south georgia.) After heating I'll cool the juice and move into a carboy to be sealed away from airborne critters and add my own yeast of choice.

I'm ordering two 5-gallon carboys to try this out it. Maybe I'll use cultured yeast in one and let the other go au naturale..

Thanks again for all the help!

neo71665 said:

My grandpa used to do something similar but with sorghum. They used bakers yeast to ferment with. Of course there was only one type of yeast and they used it for all their wines back then lol.

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Neo,
Any chance you could pass any details from your grandpa's methods? Thanks!

Thanks for the reply! Did you add any yeast to the last batch or leave it out to gather wild yeast?

The one which was boiled had ale yeast added and was,hmmmmm.
The non boiled version had nothing added at all and managed to ferment very well with help only from what was present on the cane.

If you were going to pitch yeast, which would you choose? I'm assuming something very clean tasting that wouldn't impart big, defined flavors? Then again, the naturally, spontaneously fermented probably has a much more full flavor profile.

You can do spontaneous fermentation in a controlled way.

Collect your syrup, and put a pint aside in a sanitized quart jar. Boil the rest to kill whatever is in it. Refrigerate the boiled syrup. Let the pint ferment out, and see how it tastes. If the naturally fermented stuff tastes bad, pitch a commercial yeast into the boiled syrup. If it tastes good, pitch the whole thing into the boiled syrup.

Not much to pass on from what I know. I can ask my granny if she remembers anything about it. Ya a few years late getting me to ask papa. Back then I was too young to be worried about note taking.

There was a tartness in the non pitched version that was very complimentary. I dont think a clean yeast would be all that good. Something with some character would be better.
Having said that, I do like the method proposed by ahpsp.

Bought two plastic buckets and a glass carboy today. Picked up Safale 05 and Coopers something or other.. figure I'll leave one bucket to go natural and through the safale in the other.. which ever looks best I'll fill the carboy with and go from there.

I like the idea you proposed ahpsp, I'll probably do that for the natural one.

Eldowr said:

Bought two plastic buckets and a glass carboy today. Picked up Safale 05 and Coopers something or other.. figure I'll leave one bucket to go natural and through the safale in the other.. which ever looks best I'll fill the carboy with and go from there.

I like the idea you proposed ahpsp, I'll probably do that for the natural one.

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Ahhh, a good ole experiment, that's the ticket! Keep us updated, I'm dying to know how this stuff turns out, and I don't have a sugar cane harvest to try it myself, haha. Good luck!

Well I ended up not having much time to experiment with this. I did grab some skimmings from a cooking and put them in a 750ml bottle. It fermented out in a few days but had a soured milk smell to it.

My dad tells me they've tried many different ways. Raw juice, Boiled Juice, Raw skimmings, etc. Granddad says that his older brothers would take the skimmings after they were done with making syrup they would pour the skimmings back into the kettle and cook them almost to a boil to skim off the worst of it. They'd then put the recooked skimmings into a oak barrel and let it ferment off. He doesn't know if they added any yeast or not.

We did have a cooking of syrup that didn't turn out. It's syrup but there is a lot of debris in it from getting interrupted before being able to skim it off.
I took some of that and added it to water in a gallon jug with safale-05. It stopped fermenting after about 5 days, didn't really have any alcohol to it at all. I poured more syrup into the wort just to see what will happen. As of today it has started fermenting again. We'll see what happens!

My family lived near Hahira, GA. I saw skimming being saved for buck at a cane grinding when I was 14 (1969). From what I have heard, skimmings were simply left in a barrel to ferment. The buck clarified after it finished working. It was considered a vile but potent drink, consumed mostly by those who could get nothing better. My great uncle and some friends went to invite a neighbor to a hunt. His tiny daughter answered their hail and said, "Pa's down at the buck barrel, but he's junk by now." Also, "Out stunk a buck barrel" was a proverb. I believe those with stills sometimes used buck to make rum. I know they used cane syrup in corn mash. Imagine the "whang" that stuff must have had.