CANE SUGAR. 



Jamaica. Allan 25 gives the following outline of the process followed 

 in making flavoured spirit: "The wash is set up from skimmings, dunder, 

 molasses, acid and flavour. Acid is made by fermenting rum cane juice 

 which has been warmed in the coppers. To this juice is added dunder and 

 perhaps a little skimmings. When fermentation is about over, the fermenting 

 liquor is pumped on to cane trash in cisterns and here it gets sour. Into these 

 cisterns sludge settling from the fermented wash is from time to time put. 

 This acid when fit for use smells like sour beer. Flavour is prepared by 

 running fermented rum cane juice into cisterns outside the fermenting house 

 along with cane trash and dunder that has been stored from a previous crop. 

 Generally a proportion of liquid from what is called the * muck hole ' is also 

 added to this cistern. The components of the 'muck hole' are the thicker 

 portion of the dunder from the still, the lees from the retorts, and cane trash 

 and other adventitious matter which from time to time finds its way into this 

 receptacle. From this cistern the incipient flavouring material passes on to a 

 second and third cistern filled with cane trash, and to which sludge from fer- 

 menting wash has been added. From the third cistern it is added to the wash. 

 Skimmings are run from the boiling house into cisterns half filled with cane 

 trash. This is allowed to remain four, five, or six days. When the skim- 

 mings are considered ripe, wash is set up with them. Fermentation lasts 

 seven to eight days. The time which elapses between setting up the wash 

 and distillation is from thirteen to fourteen days." 



Process used in Grain Distilleries. 24 It is of interest to 

 compare the above methods with those in use in cereal distilleries. The basis 

 of manufacture is grain ; this is ground to a coarse powder and a weighed 

 amount is placed in a digester mixed with water and heated by steam under a 

 pressure of two or three atmospheres for an hour or more ; the liquid contents 

 of the digester are then blown into a second vessel and cooled ; as soon as the 

 temperature falls below 63 C., a proportion of malt is added; the malt contains 

 a ferment, diastase, which converts the starch in the grain to a sugar, maltose ; 

 after the starch has been converted into maltose, the contents of the vat are 

 drawn off into a fermenting vat and rapidly cooled ; the vats are usually large 

 enough to hold a whole day's work, and a distillery will have generally six 

 fermenting vats, each of which may be of as great a capacity as 50,000 

 gallons. After the vat is set up it is pitched with yeast, and the temperature 

 and quantity of yeast regulated with the object of obtaining the maximum 

 yield of alcohol within the legal limit of time, i.e., 72 hours. The temperature 

 is regulated by means of water circulation through coils and maintained at 

 20-25 C. ; the high temperature promotes a rapid fermentation, but 

 more fusel oils are formed than at a low one. 



The preparation of the pitching yeast is as under : A mixture of green 

 malt and water is warmed to about 70 C., kept at this temperature for about 

 two hours to allow the starch to be converted to maltose and soured. Green 



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