Switchel - The 18th Century Energy Drink

Nice, will try sometime

If you use this molassas vinegar, and dilute it to the similar ratios in the recipe, you get your vinegar and de-sugared and de-alcoholised molassas drink.....


Is there a simple way to substantially remove the remaining sucrose, glucose and fucktose?12:30 amIdentified typo and prepared natural correctionIdentified typo and prepared natural correctionFructose — noted.

Removing Residual Sugars from Molasses
The Simple Method — Fermentation
By far the simplest and most complete approach. Yeast consumes sucrose, glucose, and fructose readily and preferentially, leaving behind the mineral-rich, non-fermentable organic fraction.

Add water to thin the molasses to approximately 15–20% sugar concentration
Pitch a standard yeast — bread yeast works, distillers yeast is more thorough
Ferment to completion — typically 5–10 days at 25–30°C
The yeast exhausts all three fermentable sugars almost completely
What remains is the mineral and organic acid fraction — essentially demineralised, desugarised molasses liquor

The obvious byproduct is a low-grade molasses wash — which distillers use as the base for rum production.

Other Methods
Dialysis/ultrafiltration — membrane separation removes small sugar molecules while retaining larger organic compounds. Laboratory grade, not simple.
Activated carbon adsorption — partially removes sugars and colour compounds but non-selective and incomplete.
Repeated crystallisation — essentially what the sugar mill already did. Returns diminishing amounts of additional sucrose but impractical at small scale.

Practical Conclusion
Fermentation is the only genuinely simple, complete, and low-cost method available without specialist equipment. Everything else requires industrial or laboratory infrastructure.How can you then convert the alcohols into non toxic and non intoxicating materials, with and without vinegar?12:32 amConverting Fermentation Alcohols to Non-Toxic, Non-Intoxicating Materials

What You Have Post-Fermentation
The wash contains primarily:

Ethanol — the main alcohol
Small amounts of fusel alcohols — propanol, butanol, isoamyl alcohol
CO₂ dissolved
Yeast biomass
Mineral and organic acid fraction from molasses


Route 1 — With Vinegar (Acetification)
This is simply completing the natural oxidation pathway:
Ethanol → Acetic Acid (vinegar)

Introduce Acetobacter bacteria — naturally present on fruit skins, commercially available as mother of vinegar
Maintain at 25–30°C with good surface area oxygen exposure — shallow wide vessel preferred
Acetobacter oxidises ethanol completely to acetic acid over 2–6 weeks
End product is essentially molasses vinegar — entirely non-toxic, non-intoxicating
Acetic acid is a normal human metabolic intermediate — completely benign
The mineral richness of molasses origin produces a genuinely nutritious, complex vinegar

Fusel alcohols similarly oxidise to their corresponding organic acids — propionic, butyric acids — all normal metabolic compounds.

Route 2 — Without Vinegar, Chemical Oxidation
Hydrogen peroxide oxidation

Dilute H₂O₂ added to the wash oxidises ethanol progressively to acetic acid then CO₂ and water
No biological agent required
Complete oxidation to CO₂ and water achievable with sufficient peroxide
Leaves mineral fraction fully intact

Potassium permanganate

Strong oxidiser, converts ethanol to acetic acid then further to CO₂ and water
Leaves manganese dioxide residue requiring filtering
Less clean than peroxide for food-adjacent applications


Route 3 — Without Vinegar, Biological Non-Acetification
Further microbial conversion

Lactic acid bacteria convert residual ethanol and sugars to lactic acid
Lactic acid is entirely non-toxic — present in yoghurt, fermented vegetables
Produces a sour mineral-rich liquid rather than vinegar-flavoured

Yeast re-pitching under aerobic conditions

Some yeast strains under oxygen-rich conditions oxidise ethanol back to CO₂ and water directly
Essentially reverses fermentation energetically
Slow and incomplete but requires no added chemistry


Route 4 — Physical Removal
Evaporation/boiling

Ethanol boils at 78.4°C — gentle prolonged heating drives off alcohol before water
Leaves mineral and organic acid fraction behind
Simple, no chemistry required
Does not convert alcohol — simply removes it
Fusel alcohols largely co-evaporate


Summary Table
MethodEnd ProductsComplexityResultAcetobacter fermentationAcetic acid + waterSimpleMolasses vinegarH₂O₂ oxidationAcetic acid → CO₂ + waterModerateClean mineral liquorLactic acid bacteriaLactic acidSimpleSour mineral liquorEvaporationAlcohol removed physicallyVery simpleConcentrated mineral liquorPermanganateCO₂ + water + MnO₂ModerateRequires filtering

The Most Elegant Outcome
Acetobacter fermentation route produces a mineral-rich molasses vinegar retaining all the potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron of the original molasses — essentially concentrating the nutritional fraction into a completely shelf-stable, non-intoxicating, non-toxic product with genuine food value.

How many kilos of sugar up stream of the molassas extraction, does it take to make a Kg of molassas?



Upstream Sugar Required per Kilogram of Molasses

The Extraction Cascade

Sugarcane juice is processed through successive crystallisation stages. Each pass extracts crystalline sucrose, leaving progressively more depleted liquor:

Stage Sucrose Extracted Residual liquor

First crystallisation ~60–65% of available sucrose First molasses
Second crystallisation further ~15–20% Second molasses
Third crystallisation further ~5–8% Blackstrap

The Ratio

From raw cane juice through to second grade molasses — the typical figure quoted by sugar technologists is:

Approximately 3–4 kg of raw cane sucrose processed upstream to yield 1 kg of molasses

More precisely:

Raw sugarcane juice runs approximately 12–18% sucrose by weight
From that, roughly 8–10 kg of raw sugarcane is crushed to produce 1 kg of molasses
Expressed in terms of upstream crystalline sucrose specifically — approximately 3–4 kg sucrose enters the process for every 1 kg of molasses that exits

The Practical Implication

Molasses retains only 450–520g of sugars per kilogram — meaning the majority of upstream sucrose has already been extracted as refined white or raw sugar before molasses ever exists as a product.

Molasses is fundamentally the residue of sugar extraction, not a product manufactured in its own right.

Tell me about the typical composition of unsulphured, organic molassas, focussing on sugar content per kilo.

Unsulphured Organic Molasses — Sugar Composition per Kilogram

What Unsulphured Organic Means
Unsulphured — no sulphur dioxide used in processing, derived from fully ripened cane, cleaner flavour profile, no sulphite residues
Organic — no synthetic pesticides or fertilisers on source cane, certified processing
Total Sugar Content per Kilogram


Molasses varies significantly by grade — the more sugar extracted prior, the less remains:

Grade Total Sugars per kg
First molasses (A) 600–650g
Second molasses (B) 450–550g
Blackstrap (third/final) 280–380g
Unsulphured organic (typically 2nd grade) 450–550g
Unsulphured organic molasses is most commonly second extraction grade — so approximately 480–520g total sugars per kilogram is a reliable working figure.


Sugar Composition Breakdown (per kg, typical)
Sugar Amount

Sucrose 280–320g

Glucose (dextrose) 70–100g

Fructose 70–100g

Total fermentable sugars ~450–520g

Non-fermentable organic solids ~150–200g

Moisture ~200g

Ash/minerals ~40–80g

Notable Non-Sugar Components per kg

Iron — 40–95mg (exceptionally high, a notable nutritional feature)

Calcium — 800–1,200mg

Magnesium — 250–500mg

Potassium — 2,500–4,500mg (very high)

B vitamins — particularly B6 and pantothenic acid

Organic acids — acetic, aconitic, formic acids contributing to flavour complexity

Key Point

The sucrose fraction dominates but is notably lower than refined sugar — roughly one third of total mass versus near 100% in white sugar. The remaining dry solids are a complex mixture of minerals, organic acids, and non-fermentable carbohydrates that give blackstrap and second molasses their distinctive character and nutritional density.