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I've edited the interview/article to include the relevant parts for reproducing the process/Queens Share rum.
It's pretty evident to me it's tails, duh. Also that they proof with the 30 proof water, which I can use some rum hearts to water to make, and then my thinking is soak some French oak dominoes in cognac, let them dry, then place them in the water to make barrel-aged 30 proof water for proofing. Same for dominoes for the rum.After filling the still with 140 gallons of tails (“secondes” in French) from many prior runs, Maggie entrusts me to press a large industrial button on a control panel. Within the still, an agitator arm begins to spin and the steam jacket begins to warm the pot’s contents.
Long, cool fermentation creates flavor. The slower fermentation means less aggressive CO2 escaping the vessel. […] hot and fast fermentation leads to losing volatile aromas. Cooler temps retain high flavor definition, especially delicate flavors, and avoid stewed flavors.
[Long fermentation also] allows for extended lees contact, the dead and degrading yeast cells that can give texture and even subtle flavors […] It allows the ethanol molecules in the fermentation to link up with other flavor molecules as it rests (similar as it does during aging). […] This is the first step to ensuring we do not need filtration to remove potential off flavors or artificial additives to add flavor we didn’t achieve. We just have to get it right.
The eau de vie still has reached operating temperature, and vapor flows through the copper column. Through the porthole windows, each plate is covered in boiling liquid. Since we’re making Queen’s Share today, our heads cut will be remarkably short. Why, you ask? What’s in the pot is tails from prior distillation runs. There’s almost no heads to be found within – this run only produced a half gallon of heads. Soon enough, Maggie has determined that we’re in the hearts stage, and she moves a collection vat into place to collect the condensed distillate. It will be a while before the hearts phase completes, so it’s perfect time to look in on Privateer’s barrel aging.
Privateer only uses full-sized barrels. Their heartier distillates go into new American oak casks where they take on similar flavors to what bourbon gets from a barrel, like vanilla. More delicate distillates go into ex-bourbon or ex-brandy casks, which give less flavor from the wood and more from oxidative aging. While browsing through the barrels, I spotted a Hine Cognac labeled cask, a good sign! Rum enters the aging cask at a relatively low 110 proof. While this lower ABV makes aging take longer, the resulting spirit retains more of the original flavors created during fermentation. For proofing fresh distillate down to barrel-entry proof, Privateer’s team uses barrel-aged water that’s been proofed to 30 percent ABV. This technique “shocks” the rum less and is an old Cognac technique that I’ve heard Plantation’s Alexandre Gabriel speak about as well.
Now to the tails; I think it's not going to work to just save 120 proof down to 70/60 proof tails from several runs, until I have 5 gallons to fill my still and run that, right? There's not going to be flavor and it's going to end up coming out as pure alcohol? So my thought was to use dunder at 60% and tails at 40%, or maybe 50/50, or 40/60? But certainly not more than that, and what in my thumper?
I'm excited about the not much heads part, very excited by that. What do you all have to comment or think about this? I am going to begin saving tails immediately to try this because it should make a nice rum with some complexity.