My Barrel Project

[YankeeShiner]

I have a 20L medium charred oak barrel full of rum. The liquor has been sleeping for about a month now. I rotate the barrel every couple days and the hardest part so far is not drinking it!

I checked the rum yesterday. The proof is down to 115 from 125 and I had to add three cups of rum to re-fill the barrel. Does this rate of evaporation seem too fast for just one month or are the Angels really that thirsty?

The good news is the color and smell are great and the little sip I had from my alcohol measurer was amazing. It's a new charred barrel so I'm hoping to get more color out of it.

[Beerswimmer]

Nice! Any updates? Recipe for your rum? Barrel source?

My best guess is that if it's a new barrel it's still absorbing the rum.

[GrassHopper]

How did you prep your barrel?

[YankeeShiner]

The rum is incredible!

I prepped the barrel by pouring five gallons of distilled water into it. It took about three days for it to stop leaking. I bought all my barrels from Red Head Barrels.

I added ground cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and two cups of brown sugar to the barrel in July. It tastes even better now! Over the course of almost a year I've had to keep adding rum to the barrel from time to time. I learned a new term called the "Solera Method." The barrel is also kept about 30ft. from my pellet stove so it gets a bit of Caribbean-like heat. Anyway, I can really taste the oak now. That flavor started coming through a few months ago.

Since this post last year I've barreled Mead, homemade Sambuca, corn likker, and most recently a Rye concoction I made.

[bitter]

The sugar will mess up your alcohol reading.. for now you will have no idea what the angels are really taking you to in terms of alcohol.

B

[Boda Getta]

I would suggest putting the rum in the barrel to mellow it and add color and wait until secondary aging on glass before adding sugar or spices.
Good luck
BG

[alohashine]

Wow that sounds awesome! Hope the rum turns out as good as it sounds.


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[YankeeShiner]

I would suggest putting the rum in the barrel to mellow it and add color and wait until secondary aging on glass before adding sugar or spices.
Good luck
BG

Too late now! HAHAHAHA!!!! It's already going. It really tastes good though.

Aging in glass?

[YankeeShiner]

Nice! Any updates? Recipe for your rum? Barrel source?

My best guess is that if it's a new barrel it's still absorbing the rum.

Yes, it was a new barrel. It took five runs to fill it and it became a real chore at one point! The cool thing is every run was a bit different. The basic recipe was the usual: Molasses, brown sugar, white sugar, spring water, splash of lemon juice, yeast. But, one wash had bananas, another one had ground coconut, and another one had a chopped up pineapple I threw into the bucket.

Here's the basic recipe:
5 gallons spring water
5 lbs, brown sugar
5 lbs white sugar
60 oz (5 jars) Grandma's Robust Molasses
Juice of 1 lemon
2 oz. bread yeast

It's got the oak flavor but I'm waiting to see if the barrel gives it tobacco and leather notes. Once that happens I'm going to drain it all out and jar it. I'm thinking (hoping) another year or two.

[The Baker]

YankeeShiner said,'
It's got the oak flavor but I'm waiting to see if the barrel gives it tobacco and leather notes. Once that happens I'm going to drain it all out and jar it. I'm thinking (hoping) another year or two.'

Suppose you work it a bit like a solera.

A while before you are ready to bottle it, make another run, maybe store it in glass for a while. With maybe some oak.
Draw off 7 standard bottles or the equivalent in jars. Top up the barrel in one or preferably two amounts.
Keep on doing the same, at as long intervals as suit your drinking/ use pattern. Results should be lots better.
Geoff

[YankeeShiner]

YankeeShiner said,'
It's got the oak flavor but I'm waiting to see if the barrel gives it tobacco and leather notes. Once that happens I'm going to drain it all out and jar it. I'm thinking (hoping) another year or two.'

Suppose you work it a bit like a solera.

A while before you are ready to bottle it, make another run, maybe store it in glass for a while. With maybe some oak.
Draw off 7 standard bottles or the equivalent in jars. Top up the barrel in one or preferably two amounts.
Keep on doing the same, at as long intervals as suit your drinking/ use pattern. Results should be lots better.
Geoff

Nice. Thank you!

[YankeeShiner]

Well, its been just over a year!

Not to pat myself on the back but the rum tastes amazing, the color is deep amber, the nose is vanilla, the finish it oak. The spices have fully incorporated into the rum and I'm really tasting that barrel.

The angels were not too kind... I did another run to refill (Solera method) and the barrel took .75 US Gallons! And, I've been filling it along the way but haven't done so since Summer 2016.

Anyway, the new recipe that went in was as follows:

60 oz. robust molasses
10 lbs brown sugar
Juice one lemon
1 cup natural OJ
1 cut up and smashed up pineapple
5 smashed up ripe bananas
1 crushed multi
1 crushed B
2 oz of granny's bread yeast
5 gal spring water

I pulled just over a gallon out of it: 135 proof at the head.

Then I charcoal filtered it! I made a filter out of an old soda bottle, some coffee filters, activated charcoal, and a drill. What a difference! I'm not even kidding. I'm all about polishing these days... I first did it on some rye but now I'm doing it with everything I make.