Saltbush Bill’s All Molasses Rum (SBB) is a wash recipe targeting original gravity 1.070 with a blackstrap molasses (unsulphured) bill. Use it as the starting fermentation for rum runs in Broover, or as a reference template for your own variation.
Sugar bill, yeast, nutrient, target original gravity, and fermentation temperature band. These values pre-fill the New Wash form so you're not retyping them every time you start a fermentation.
Australian distiller Saltbush Bill’s canonical heavy-rum recipe. INTENTIONALLY warm-fermented (28–32°C) for ester production — the funk, oil, butyric/propionic acid notes that define traditional dark Caribbean rum. Long slow ferment (10–21 days) builds flavour.
DUNDER / MUCK: Dunder is the spent wash backset from a previous rum distillation — carries bacteria + esters. Muck pit is dunder allowed to bacterially ferment 1–6 weeks (anaerobic, sealed bucket) — generates butyric/propionic acids that esterify during ferment + distillation into the heavy-rum funk. For Gen 1 with no prior dunder: substitute with 500 g overripe fruit + 1 cup yoghurt + a slice of bread to bootstrap microflora.
DISTILLATION: POT STILL ONLY — reflux strips the character that’s the whole point. Strip aggressively (keep more tails than usual — the long-chain congeners ARE the flavour). Spirit run with WIDE cuts: minimal heads removal, hearts collected long into tails territory, stop ~85°C pot temp / 30% ABV in the jar.
AGING: Charred American oak chips, 3–12 months. Or barrel if available. Heavy rums shine with extended aging — ester-vanillin marriage.
GOTCHAS: NEVER use sulphured molasses — SO₂ kills yeast. Dunder pits stink BADLY — outdoor / shed only, not your kitchen. Cool ferment = thin “white rum” character (fine for cocktails, wrong here).
Source: homedistiller.org forum, Saltbush Bill. Typical OG 1.065–1.075, FG 1.005–1.010 (molasses doesn’t fully attenuate), wash ABV 7–9%.
Broover is the workflow app for craft and home distillers — track every wash, distillation run, and bottled lot from a single screen with full provenance from kettle to bottle. Clone this recipe to your account and Broover pre-fills your next wash from these settings; strip and spirit runs link automatically, and the bottled lot at the end traces all the way back to this recipe.