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The production of rum
1. Sugar cane cultivation & harvest
Sugar cane is a tropical grass which is up to five cm thick and grows as high as six metres. It ripens in 13 to 16 months in tropical and subtropical temperatures between 26 and 30 degrees.
As the young plant needs little water, sugar cane is planted in the dry period. It grows in the rainy period and is harvested in the following dry period when the sugar content is at its highest.
Captions:
The Estate Whim Museum on St. Croix on the site of a former sugar cane plantation: Visitors can see how rum and sugar were produced in the 18th century.
2. Sugar cane press
Initially, sugar cane was pressed in windmills, with animals or hydropower – later with steam and today with modern technology.
The juice for sugar production is then boiled and sieved. The crystalline, sticky, brown raw cane sugar is gained by dripping – in the past into clay pots or barrels, nowadays in tanks.
What remains are the molasses and special foam – the so-called “skimmings”.
Captions:
The remains of a windmill and an animal mill in the Estate Whim Museum on St. Croix.
3. Mash fermentation
Water is added to the molasses, skimmings and so-called dunder – which refers to the residue of previous distillations that is valuable for the aroma. Yeast is added and the mash begins to ferment.
This produces alcohol, heat and carbon dioxide, which evaporates in this process. What remains is a mash with an alcohol content of about 4 to 7%.
By the way, 15 litres of mash are needed to produce 1 litre of rum …
Captions:
Molasses
Fermentation starts … and a few days later Mash is cooled in broad daylight …
4. Distillation & barrel storage
The mash is now heated in the pot still, resulting in an alcoholic vapour. The vapour passes through the swan neck to the cooling tank in which it condenses.
A high-percentage rum containing about 75% alcohol has been produced. This is filled in 200-litre barrels for further storage and to mature.
Captions:
left: Pot still in the Estate Whim Museum
Middle: Storage of Cruzan Rum in barrels on St. Croix in the 1950s … and today.
