Fermenting molasses

I'm thinking of starting a gallon experiment.

1 pint of grandmas molasses
1 gallon of water
2 vanilla beans
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp 71-b
1 tsp nutrient and energizer

Let me know what you think, it sounds good in theory but I want to hear from people with experience with molasses.

that sounds fun! whats the OG of that?

I don't have a clue but molasses is sugar just in a liquid form. I haven't started it yet, and I don't have a hydrometer so I'll just be able to tell you if it tastes good

Interesting. Seems like 1 pint is roughly 1.5 lbs. I plugged it into a OG calculator and your recipe comes to an OG of 1.054, so with normal attenuation in the low 70% or so you're looking at 5 to 5.2% abv.
I'd like to know how this turns out. My guess is it might be a good ingredient in a larger drink, like a holiday toddy, but who knows it may be good on it's own! Good luck and please try to remember to report back!

My prediction:

Watered down rum. This is pretty close to how rum makers start their batches. The only difference is the lack of distillation and the extra ingredients.

divi2323 said:

My prediction:

Watered down rum. This is pretty close to how rum makers start their batches. The only difference is the lack of distillation and the extra ingredients.

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Funny you say that. That's where I got the idea, I was watching how they make rum on Natgeo last night. But it sounds like I need to add more than a pint of molasses, I'm thinking this would be alot like a mead.

I did start it last night, I'm going to wait to add the cinnamon and vanilla beans until the secondary. I used D47 instead of 71-b since many people choose this yeast for meads.

Tnoodle said:

Funny you say that. That's where I got the idea, I was watching how they make rum on Natgeo last night. But it sounds like I need to add more than a pint of molasses, I'm thinking this would be alot like a mead.

I did start it last night, I'm going to wait to add the cinnamon and vanilla beans until the secondary. I used D47 instead of 71-b since many people choose this yeast for meads.

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Now that's funny!!! I was watching that also!!! The thing is that they didn't show everything that went on.

Update, it was horrific. It smells like a burning tire and my work boots. There is not even a hint of molasses, and it tastes just like it smells. I don't even know where to start to fix this thing.

I think you probably have 2 options if you want to keep the "spirit" of your rum experiment (pun intended).

1) Add more molasses or sugar until you reach the yeasts tolerance, and see if it is any better as a sweet or semi-sweet drink. You'd probably have to age it for at least a year too.
2) when it finished fermenting, bottle it, stick it in the cupboard, and come back in a year.

I would vote for option 1 as having the most chance of success (especially if you used honey as the additional sugar) but either way, it's going to need a lot of aging to become drinkable (assuming it actually does).


Respect for giving it a go

Age it on Oak? (Technically Rum is a spirit with most of the stuff that you still have removed, but it's then aged on oak, and many wines, meads and beers are aged on oak)

Blend it with a Mead?

Blend it with a beer (We've tried molasses in the beer (gluten free) for depth and flavor, thought that was prior to fermentation.)

Oak is a great idea, that might just remove some of that funk. I think I will go ahead and add some brown sugar to it also. Thank you for the ideas

I am trying something similar the ingredients are:
Molasses
Sugar
Corn syrup
Raisins
Water
Champagne yeast
Yeast nutrients
My issue is my house smells like chicken poop because of it.. Strange part is when I open the bucket it doesn't smell.. Tastes pretty good. I'm wondering if it's just the co2 smell it gives off through the air lock .. Still learning thank you

Homesteader said:

I am trying something similar the ingredients are:
Molasses
Sugar
Corn syrup
Raisins
Water
Champagne yeast
Yeast nutrients
My issue is my house smells like chicken poop because of it.. Strange part is when I open the bucket it doesn't smell.. Tastes pretty good. I'm wondering if it's just the co2 smell it gives off through the air lock .. Still learning thank you

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Fermented molasses tastes really awful- that's probably where the terrible smell is coming from. Since it's all simple sugars with no fruit, it probably will end up tasting worse than it smells in the end.

Can this be "fixed"

Homesteader said:

Can this be "fixed"

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I doubt it. I think your best option is to let it age, time can fix a lot of problems. Not sure if it can fix that though. Give it a shot, you got nothing to lose.
Regards, GF.

I am new and am doing my first experimental brew ever. I am fermenting 1kg cane sugar boiled in about 4.5l water with cinnamon sticks, cloves and aniseed. I can say it's coming up quite nice... can's how it would be after a week or so. Tastes like a sweet and slightly sour fruit juice, already has some crisp alcohol content... has turned pale lemon yellow, and is quite drinkable after 48 hours. Well, don't take my word for it for while I am used to spirits and beer, I have never had the chance to taste wine. I wanted to make beer, but with no malted grains and hops available here, I ended up experimenting with sugar!

Just checked it... tastes like rotten grapes!

got any ant hills or ground bees?

beerfant, can you get juice concentrates? With a little ingenuity and patience, you can make a lot of different drinkable beverages.