wooded rum - it's blue??!!

[HDNB]

so i made up this nice molasses/brown sugar run, and it came out great. nice a crystal clear.
i took a couple middle jars 105 and 115 proof to try some new "finest Caribbean ex-rum barrels" chopped up for your grilling pleasure by a company called Mclean's.

8 hours later the nice crystal clear product is now blueish-grey...wtf?

they were already charred and smelled great so i just washed em off and threw them in....

i used some of their ex-bourbon barrel blocks on some UJSSM and it worked out nice...good flavour and golden brown.

anybody seen anything like that before?

[FullySilenced]

Carbon can sometimes turn it blue grey... filter it through a cotton make up pad stuffed in a funnel ... see if it comes clean... best i can suggest..

FS

[HDNB]

thx, i'll give er a go. there was a lot of char on them so maybe that s it.

[T-Pee]

thx, i'll give er a go. there was a lot of char on them so maybe that s it.

Next time rinse your oak under the tap to knock some of the loose stuff off before use. Can make a difference.

tp

[dakotasnake]

thats pretty weird, was the entire stave charred or just the inside part of the barrel? if just the inside you would need to charr yourself.

[hitek redneck]

I am using the same stuff.. it did turn a bit blueish-green at first but its been a few weeks or so since I put mine in and starting to see it turn a bit darker. Just gonna take some time to turn the right color I think.

HR

[HDNB]

hitek- if nothing else, i guess we'll have some designer rum!

[hitek redneck]

hehe call it Blue Lightning


HR

[Prairiepiss]

I personally would be concerned with blue distillate. Even after aging. Blue and or green usually means a chemical reaction with something present in the spirits and copper. But not always.

Bottom line is. Aging on wood it should not turn blue or green. Yellow to brown yes. But not blue green.

[dakotasnake]

i was also thinking heat - humidity in the tropics- fungus. may or may not be good on the barrell when they whacked it up.

[pfshine]

Did you scrape the tar and crap off of the outside part? That part can have some really narley stuff on it.

[shadylane]

"8 hours later the nice crystal clear product is now blueish-grey...wtf"

Patience my friend. The blue part doesn't sound right but time will tell.
What color of light and what is in the back ground while you were looking at your wooded rum?

[HDNB]

natural daylight with any color background.

i'm leaning towards a) the char and b) the outside of the barrel had some (thing) on it like the algae/fungus mentioned maybe, since from the tropics...the ex- bourbon barrel chunks look the same on the outside, but gives a rich yellow brown color...and great flavour...these rum barrels though i'm a bit leery of.

i'm going to chisel the outside 1/4" off and give the inside chunks with char and the outside parts a soak and see if i can see which side of the barrel it's coming from.

pretty sure it's not a copper oxide... but no a chemist. just seems to look "brackish" more grey than blue, but with a blue hue.

keep ya posted if i learn anything. piss me off if i wasted two quarts on this experiment, this noob is getting very good a drain cleaning.

[White_Lightning_Rod]

Dont pour it out just re run it. You worked too hard to get it to just pour it out.

[Dan P.]

It might be water in the wood causing "misting"???
It might go away, there are a number of things that make spirit "mist", most of them are a reaction with water or the chemical composition of water.
Blue-grey sounds withing the realms of "normal but not optimal".
Green sounds wierd and scary.

However, let me add this;
If you fermented and distilled your product using kosher (not literally kosher!) ingredients and methods, and then used wood of which you had complete knowledge of where t came from, which you processed from bare wood to charred/toasted staves, then any misting would be less concerning.
The fact that the chips you used were designed to be burnt, came ready made, etc., they could contain anything! Firelighter, paraffin, who knows!
I would not put anything in my product that is not specifically food safe.

[thecroweater]

A member here, Emptyglass had some oak that made spirit turn silver grey once, never seen nothing like it before or since. He had not idea why and although it tasted normal it freaked him out enough to re-run it. Blue yeah now if it isn't copper who knows maybe phenols is the wood or in the spirit, either way doesn't bode well for a good result

[HDNB]

and the winners are: fully silenced, dakota snake and rock chucker

actually i dunno...
this is what i learned about maclean's real rum barrels chunks for grilling/smoking:

i split them in half, outer part of the barrel in one jar of water (cheaper easier to get than more rum) and the inside char part in another.

the one with the outsides went lavender blue

the insides stayed almost clear but had a bit of grey (char?) and a v.v.slight hint of the lavender (soaked through or transferred from outers since they are in a bag)

if the color came from the char side, i thought i'd keep it, but it's coming from the outside
- who knows what the hell it is: dye, rot, fungus, bacteria, pesticides, pests.... so out with it, down the drain....at least only 2 quarts

sad thing is it has a great flavour. (a lick off a finger, i know, i'm stupid...)

i think i'll write this company and ask a few questions...should be food grade, they are suggesting cooking food over top of it.

hitek- your rowing the other oar here, whats your take on it?

[hitek redneck]

Not sure on what causes the greenish blue hue to it but mine is getting more gold as we speak. Bottled it on the 23rd of Feb. Just popped the top, Smell is delicious. Color is about Capt Morgan Dark rum in color. Taste is fabulous. Still a bit new to the taste but very very rum like. I am gonna let it sit another month then taste again. will keep updated as I go. But I can confirm that there is not a stitch of blue or green left to it.

Let me know what the company tells you.. I am interested if there is anything non food grade about the barrels that I shod be worried about.


HR

[DuckofDeath]

They discuss using used rum barrels in the whiskey islah movie. They said it often turned the whitedog green.

[Cardinalbags]

Maybe you've hit on the secret recipe for Romulan ale???

[hitek redneck]

Maybe you've hit on the secret recipe for Romulan ale???

Dammit man that could be it!

[hitek redneck]

Well I made the decision to make up the bottle of rum oaked with this stuff today. Rum was 4 months old as white and then aged 2 months on the oak chunk Diluted down to 50% ABV(100 proof). So here are my results:

1. Color - Dark Rum coloring not quite a commercial dark color but dark enough that its well past amber in color.
2. Smell - Very nice smell, light molasses odor, closer to an amber then a dark although longer on the oak might have adjusted that more.
3. Taste - Its superb is all I can say. By far the best rum I have made yet. Nothing I have made/bought so far is even close to this.

Final thoughts on the matter.
Well I was initially worried about the blue/green color problem but after a lot of thinking on it I have come to the firm conclusion that there is nothing on the barrel wood that is harmful as it would not be resalable as a product that is used for cooking. With that said I am not 100% sure of that but I am willing to trust the manufacturer of the product on my end. The end result was well worth the wait and from where I see it the experiment was well worth it and I will do it again no questions asked. I might even buy a few more bags so I have enough to work with over the winter.

Anyone else at the point where they can update their progress with this stuff?

HR