
Fresh cut sugarcane stalks are being loaded into the conveyor for chopping and crushing at Saint James distillery.

The hoisting claw as seen from another view. Sugarcane stalks are about to be loaded onto a conveyor for chopping and crushing to extract the sweet vesou.

The sigarcane stalks are chopped, crushed, rinsed, and sent through the crushers again, reducing them to a pulpy mush and extracting all of the sugary juice.

Fresh sweet sugarcane juice "Vesou" flows out of the crushers. Add water, yeast, steam and you get rhum!

This fermentation tank is becoming more tame. As the yeast converts sugar to alcohol and CO2, it begins to die of alcohol poisoning after 24-36 hours. The bubbling declines, indicating that the fermentation is complete at about 4-6% ABV.
