Rum aging

[pumpman]

Ran my first rum this weekend and was wondering how yall age your rum?

[violentblue]

in a barrel

[Dnderhead]

white or dark?
white in glass/stainless bubble some air threw it .
dark,, a barrel or in glass/stainless with wood.

[LWTCS]

Hey dude,
I have been using chared (alligator char) white oak with a wedge of pine apple,rasins,strawberries, cinamin and a tea spoon of vinilla.

But now some of the Gents have got me all torqued up on a couple of chared dried appricots.

I recon you should try all of the above...............Cuz its fun to see and test and see.

[LWTCS]

Uh,,,, in glass.

I damn sure do wish I had a barrel.

[Barney Fife]

Charred oak(not too much), and a teaspoon/L of dark caramel(make your own); allow to age as long as you can stand. Shake often, let breath weekly, or let breath in open(coffee filter as jar lid, for example). Yeilds a wonderful, rich flavored, yet not overly "busy" rum.

More important to start out with good ingredients and make careful cuts, though.

[Daantje]

I just tasted the rum I made 9 days ago. I had 3 L of keeping stuff, which i divided into 3. One L just dark toasted oak, 1 L dark toasted oak, pineapple, vanilla and peppercorn, and 1 L dark toasted oak, pineapple, vanilla and peppercorn and cinnamon.

The liter on oak was pretty harsh, was a little biting and I think will need some time. The other two were very smooth, round without the bite of the first, very nice. Does anyone see this as well, that adding stuff sort of "speeds up" the aging?

Daantje

[Barney Fife]

9 days does not constitute "aging". Flavoring, yes, aging, no.

Put the jars where you'll forget them, then go look for 'em next year...

[Daantje]

Yes, i understand it is not aging, however, I was curious and tasted a little and was surprised by the difference a little fruit, vanilla and peper makes. I plan on aging them properly so will be hiding them soon

[Barney Fife]

The fruit, vanilla and pepper are flavorings, and that happens right away. No different than adding a drop of vanilla in your coffee cup in the morning will flavor it right away. But drop a piece of oak into your coffee, and it'll do nothing(but spill over <lol>). Aging is a process of slow interaction and chemical transformation. Flavoring is a 'now' deal. Not the same, so you're comparing flavored spirits VS raw, unaged spirits.

[Daantje]

So it does make little sense to keep the flavourings in while aging? Or does the flavouring screw so much with the original taste only the one on oak is worth proper aging?

[plonker]

I try hiding my rum to let it age but I keep finding it..... And then by the time I run my next wash its all gone..

[Barney Fife]

No, go ahead and leave it; what I'm trying to make you see is that what you're tasting is what the flavorings have added immediately, but now you need to wait for aging to take place, and yes, the flavorings will also keep working and changing. Bottom line is what you tasted this week is not what you'll have next year, so there's no point in "sneaking a sip" to see how its coming, because that sip tells you nothing.

[Daantje]

And what I ment was that I made 3 groups of my rum batch to see what the effect of flavouring was. I was surprised to smell and taste a very different product after adding flavouring products. I thought the flavouring would add to the raw oaked stuff, so it would taste like the batch I put on oak, but with additional flavours from the pinapple and vanilla. However I found the flavoured stuff to be much smoother and nicer, and lost its harsh bite.

[noobsauce]

And what I ment was that I made 3 groups of my rum batch to see what the effect of flavouring was. I was surprised to smell and taste a very different product after adding flavouring products. I thought the flavouring would add to the raw oaked stuff, so it would taste like the batch I put on oak, but with additional flavours from the pinapple and vanilla. However I found the flavoured stuff to be much smoother and nicer, and lost its harsh bite.

Remember..."A spoon-full of sugar helps the medecine go down"

[pumpman]

I have noticed in the past that fruit does absorb some of the harshness. If you have a particularly nasty batch fruit will not help it.

[LWTCS]

So I have heard from two separte people,,,,,,,,Peuerto Rican people, that their move is to fill a jar with fruit (cherries, strawberries,apples,raisins or what ever) and top off with white rum.

Then burry the jar in the back garden for a year or two.

Any body know why?

When I asked my Puerto Rican friends why, neither could really explain. The jist was more like,,,"Because it's better if it gets burried".

This trick is passed from father to son, but nobody seems to know why exactly.

Anybody?

[kiwistiller]

because fruity rum is delicious? and I'm guessing they bury it so it doesn't get drunk

[LWTCS]

They put markers in the yard so they can remember where the jars are burried.

[FarSideStill]

mental note - if ever in Puerto Rico, look for markers in all gardens

[LWTCS]

Ha ha. Copy that Farside

[pumpman]

You should see what they put in their rum in Jamaca and burry in the yard. WOW! Cheech and Chong aint got nuttin like it.

[rad14701]

Depending on where you are located, burying the jars in the ground would regulate the maceration process... While Puerto Rico has arid tropical temperatures where this process would work well I have my doubts about how well it would work in cooler climate of the great white north...