Sugar Beet Rum?

[RumBarPhilly]

I know very little about this, except that a lot of cold weather countries produce rum from this. The only one I've tried is Stroh 80. What exactly is a sugar beet? How can it be considered rum if its not sugar cane?

[Dood]

I know very little about this, except that a lot of cold weather countries produce rum from this. The only one I've tried is Stroh 80. What exactly is a sugar beet? How can it be considered rum if its not sugar cane?

Sugar beets are a species of beet with a very high concentration of sucrose, which allows farmers to process them to get sugar. During the processing, molasses is produced, which COULD be used for the creation of rum, however it's not recommended.

The reason it isn't recommended is that the beats, unlike the cane, are incredibly high in alkalies (salts). The molasses, in turn, is similarly high in salt and possesses an absolutely foul taste. Most of the molasses generated in sugar production from beets is mixed with alfalfa and turned into feed for cattle and other livestock.

I only know all of this because I grew up not too far from a Holly Sugar complex in California that processed beets. Well, that and because I was curious about making rum from beets and did some investigation with a friend of mine that's connected at that same complex a few years ago.

[Edward Hamilton]

I know very little about this, except that a lot of cold weather countries produce rum from this. The only one I've tried is Stroh 80.

Stroh is not made from sugar beets despite a lot of misconceptions about that spirit. Stroh is made from sugar cane molasses.

Sugar beets are a species of beet with a very high concentration of sucrose, which allows farmers to process them to get sugar. During the processing, molasses is produced, which COULD be used for the creation of rum, however it's not recommended.

I am not aware of any country in which sugar beet distillate can be called rum.

[Dood]

I am not aware of any country in which sugar beet distillate can be called rum.

Neither am I...from what I recall, the molasses resulting from beet processing is sufficiently foul to prevent any person in their right mind from ever actually consuming it. I suppose one could come up with a process for removing the salt, but the process would likely be much more expensive than simply importing molasses made from sugar cane.

[Edward Hamilton]

Along the line of sugar beet spirits, the TTB, the new name for the ATF after they got a makeover following the Waco, Texas incident, made a new distilled spirits category called Sorghum Molasses Spirits.

[RumBarPhilly]

Along the line of sugar beet spirits, the TTB, the new name for the ATF after they got a makeover following the Waco, Texas incident, made a new distilled spirits category called Sorghum Molasses Spirits.

Thanks Ed and Dood for clearing that up. What about the juice from the sugar beet, can that be used at all?

And a sorghum spirit? my bar top is made of sorghum, and its marvelous. And idea if this Sorghum Molasses spirit will be available anytime soon?

[Dood]

Thanks Ed and Dood for clearing that up. What about the juice from the sugar beet, can that be used at all?

And a sorghum spirit? my bar top is made of sorghum, and its marvelous. And idea if this Sorghum Molasses spirit will be available anytime soon?

While I'm not expert on sugar beets, my understanding from the people working at Holly Sugar in the Imperial Valley is that, other than the sugar manufactured from the beets, there is nothing that should be consumed by human beings except in dire straights.

I'll send some more pointed questions to my friends in the Valley and see if they know if anything that can be used, but the last time I traveled this road, the opinions were not favorable for anything other than cattle feed being made from the beets.

[Edward Hamilton]

Thanks Dood, that's about what I discovered when I was researching the possibilities. In about 1887, the production of sugar from sugar beets was equal to that from sugar cane. This was the beginning of the end of Caribbean dominance in sugar production. The advent of steam ships reduced shipping costs and delays associated with sailing ships. It wasn't another fifty years before it became cheaper for Caribbean islands to import sugar than it was to produce it. But no one was able to make rum from the sugar beet juice, though there are spirits made from sugar beet sugar. But I've yet to discover even the most remote culture where there isn't some kind of alcohol made from something that will ferment which includes almost everything fruit, vegetable, grain or nut.

[Edward Hamilton]

According to one of my friends who recently visited the Cointreau factory in France, sugar beet distillate, bought from another distiller is used to make Cointreau and other cordials in Europe.