The molasses which is produced in Louisiana has not been used very extensively there for the manufacture of rum, because it is not sufficiently aromatic, or because the refinements of manufacture have extracted from the molasses too much of its saccharine contents to make it a suitable source for the manufacture of rum. Moreover, it may be said that the use of the fumes of burning sulphur in treating the juices of the expressed sugar cane tends to render the molasses unfit for the manufacture of rum. It would be impossible to make a rum, which would have any character at all from black strap, a low-grade molasses, or molasses in which the content of sulphur dioxid had been increased to a very large amount by the successive concentrations and extractions of the sugar therein contained.

Manufacture

The manufacture of rum does not differ in any essential particular and principle from the manufacture of other distilled liquors. In the case of rum there is one difference which is quite marked between that industry and the whisky or spirit industry in general. There is no starch which must previously be converted into sugar before the fermentation takes place. Inasmuch, as the cane sugar which remains in the molasses is not acted upon directly by the ferments, it is important that it should be changed into invert sugar before or during the process of fermentation. Fortunately, the yeasts which are used in the fermentation secrete a diastase which is very active in converting cane sugar into invert sugar. Hence, it is usually not found necessary to convert the cane sugar into invert sugar by treatment with an acid or otherwise before the fermentation begins. As a rule, the invertase secreted by the yeasts is quite sufficient for the purpose mentioned.