Bottom of the barrel - what to do?

[nerdybrewer]

I went out and got the final bit of rum from the bottom of the barrel today.
Black nasty looking stuff, but great smell.
I have had some white rum in carboys since 2018 so I wanted that to have a turn in this barrel.

Here's what I got out:

Like I said, black as the devil's heart.
So I ran it through a coffee filter:

Into a jar:

And got 10 ounces of pure Panela rum:

Very much worth it!

[Deplorable]

Looks beautiful. I'm not a rum fan but I'd not turn it down.

[8Ball]

Wow. Looks great. I’m going to give that filter trick a try on some of my early hooch made a couple years ago. Thanks for posting.

[CopperFiend]

Ideal! Do you think the blackness was suspended charcoal bits? What did it look like on the filter?

[nerdybrewer]

Ideal! Do you think the blackness was suspended charcoal bits? What did it look like on the filter?

That's exactly what it was, the filter had a lot of tiny silty looking charcoal in it.

[Durhommer]

So I just got a level 4 char barrel.is this what I can expect from the it when I drain it

[nerdybrewer]

So I just got a level 4 char barrel.is this what I can expect from the it when I drain it

I have experienced more of this sediment in the larger barrels.
Makes sense, more inside area so more bits left behind.
There were some larger pieces but those are easily discarded, the dregs can be filtered as I show above.
I just looked at the bottle I put this in and there's no sediment on the bottom so I would say the coffee filter got as close to 100% of it as is reasonable to expect.

For myself I use a ptfe hose to siphon the spirit out of the barrel, hold a bit off the bottom for most of it so you leave this stuff behind.
Then filter the dregs.

[Oldvine Zin]

So sad to be at the bottom of that barrel but hope that there is another waiting

Stay safe
OVZ