Bay Rum from scratch

[Churchill]

It turned out great! I also added a couple of gel tabs of vitamin e and the a/s turned out to be very soothing after the initial burn.
The scent is quite different than the rest of the Bay Rums I've tried.
Give the recipe a try it's pretty cheap and you can always give bottles to friends.

 

[Bluestaco]

It turned out great! I also added a couple of gel tabs of vitamin e and the a/s turned out to be very soothing after the initial burn.
The scent is quite different than the rest of the Bay Rums I've tried.
Give the recipe a try it's pretty cheap and you can always give bottles to friends.

What are the individual quantities, Bob?

 

[pizzaguy]

In all my travels, I have never had a better Bay Rum than this one. It is family made in small batches, kind of a microbrew.

It's from Bonny Doon Farm, they also make a great bay rum soap. But the bay rum cologne is unparalleled.
http://www.bonnydoonfarm.com/

Cliff

Thanks for sharing

 

[ZethLent]

I also brewed my own Bay Rum Aftershave splash. After a lot of investigating I decided on this 'recipe' that I devised. I added 120ml of 99.9% ethanol to 60ml of spring water (bottled), and then added the EO's that I got: 50 drops of pimenta racemosa and 10 drops of clove (I went with these amounts because they are about half of the amounts one would add for cologne and because there would be more ingredients added to the mix i.e. whole allspice and cinnamon, therefore upping the concentration a little). Then I let that stew for 24 hours and then added a table spoon of Jamaican rum, an inch of cinnamon stick, and about 50 whole allspice corns. I gave it a vigorous shake once a day for 25 days and then strained it through some coffee filters 3 times. I put it in an old 4711 bottle (labels removed) that I had saved for it. I find that the scent lasts longer than my favorite Bay Rum (St. John's) but it is a lot cheaper for me to make and use abundantly. Even though it doen't have the 'smooth' scent that the St. John's has it is closer to the QED Bay Rum soap that I have. I still like it and use it often. It is really nice in the hot summer weather; because when you sweat the fragrance is reactivated and you get a nice whiff of bay rum. The ethanol I used was just regular grade and not perfumers grade so it did start off with a scent. But after testing as to wether or not it would be a lingering scent after applied to the skin, it didn't smell like anything, so I used it. Next time I might add some lime and maybe a smidgen of vanilla, to try and smooth it out.

 

[Mantius]

I've got a batch of homemade Bay Rum stewing right now.
I used spiced rum with lime peel,bay leaves,peppercorns,cloves and a cinnamon stick.
I'm going to let it brew for a couple of weeks and then add some glycerin and give'r a try.
We'll see what happens.
I didn't like to drink the spiced rum anyway so I really wasn't out anything I'd miss.

I just finished curing a batch using virtually the same recipe with Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum. I did add quite a healthy dose of witch hazel with aloe and just a bit of the contents of a chai tea bag. The chai seemed to round out the scent and make it a bit more exotic and smooth without losing the character of the Bay Rum. Overall it turned out quite nice and unique.

 

[alacious]

Time to resurrect a thread from the depths of time..

This weekend, I was going to attempt to put together my own bay rum, and this is what I have so far for a recipe:

200ml Bacardi 151
50ml distilled or bottled water
3 ml bay oil
1 ml orange oil
1/2 ml petitgrain oil (maybe, if I'm feeling citrusy-frisky)
1/2 ml clove oil
1/2 ml allspice oil


Does anyone have any suggestions? Are my amounts way off? It's hard to figure how much essential oil to use when most of the recipes/suggestions I can find are for plain jane bay leaves etc

Also, how much glycerin do you think would be good to add for the final touch at the end? This would be for fairly sensitive skin..

Thanks

 

[Cat]

Hi ZethLent:
The finished scent will have a harsh undertone, not from the essential oils or spices themselves, but from the type of alcohol you are using. I am going to assume you used grain alcohol (aka Everclear)?
Grain alcohol is distilled from corn and has not been filtered to remove the "fusel oil", which occurs during the distillation process. Fusel oils are what give Everclear and most cheap vodkas that notorious bite or burn when you drink them (or try to).
An easy way to remedy this (aside from purchasing ready made bay rum) is to purchase perfumer's alcohol, which is a near pure specially denatured alcohol meant for perfumery use.
You can also filter your grain alcohol to remove fusel oils: place 2 tb. activated aquarium charcoal in a paper coffee filter and place that in a funnel over a glass jar. Slowly pour the alcohol through this, letting it drip into the glass jar.
Repeat another 2 or 3 times and allow the filtered alcohol to sit, undisturbed and tightly covered for a few days. Decant off the clear alcohol from the sediment and it's ready to use!
Note: this is also a useful tip for those making their own liquers, which may make an interesting thread unto itself!
Cat

 

[Cat]

Hi Alacious:

A couple of things on your bay rum:
If you want the finished product to be crystal clear, mix your essential oils into the 151 rum first, then very slowly add the water, almost drop by drop, stirring constantly.

Stop if it begins to cloud up and let it rest for a few minutes to see if clears up. If it does, add a little more water, again stirring constantly.
If it remains cloudy, you have added too much water. Try to remedy this by adding small amounts of rum until the solution clears.

This is the same principle as making a mayonnaise or hollandaise: you are creating an oil in water emulsion.
The alcohol breaks the oils down into micro-sized droplets so small that we can't see them, thus the product appears clear. Add too much water and the emulsion breaks, turing it cloudy.

You will want to keep notes on the actual amounts of rum, water and anything else you have used as well as the process since this will be your formula to recreate your bay rum later on.

Finally, let the cologne age in dark glass for 2 weeks before decanting into a pretty bottle. You may also want to add 2 or 3% glycerin as a fixative to the finished cologne to help the fragrance last on the skin.

Good luck and please let us know how it turns out!
Cat

 

[Crazy Dave]

In all my travels, I have never had a better Bay Rum than this one. It is family made in small batches, kind of a microbrew.

It's from Bonny Doon Farm, they also make a great bay rum soap. But the bay rum cologne is unparalleled.
http://www.bonnydoonfarm.com/

Cliff

Hi Cliff,

Have you tried thier Bay Rhum Shaving Soap?

TIA,

Dave

 

[alacious]

Thank you for the hints Cat

 

[Eighties]

I've made my own batch with contained white rum (cheapest stuff I could find) and bay leaves. I then included eyeballed amounts of cinnamon and clove with a drop or two of vanilla. After allowing it to ferment in a dark cupboard for a month I strained it and got a very nice yet mild splash that works well as an after shave but has basically no staying power. I'll top it off with Pinaud Bay Rum if thats the scent I want for the day.

 

[Welshcitydragon]

I recently was at a local health store and noticed that they had "Bay Essential Oil" (pimento racemosa) for $10.00 (0.5 oz). I also noticed that a local liquor store had cheap dark Jamaican Rum for $9.00 (750 ml).

I started thinking.... Maybe I can combine the two to make my own Bay Rum Cologne.

A quick search for homemade Bay Rum Cologne finds several recipes that use the actual bay leaves, however, they require waiting for over a month before using. If one uses essential oil, then one shouldn't have to wait.

Anyway, has anyone tried to use essential oil to make their own Bay Rum Cologne? If so, how much of the essential oil for the 750ml of Rum?


Thanks,

Bob

Yes your right it can be done with EO infact its called Bay West Indies

 

[Graybeard57]

Using booze as an AS base? Is this a common practice? I wouldn't want to go anywhere smelling like that. Let us know how your recipe(s) work out.

 

[kdizz]

The Art Of Manliness has a 2 interesting Bay Rum AS Ingredient Lists if anyones interested in that. Pretty simple too. just type that into google