Aging in uncharred barrels

[michaelsura99]

I am interested in making a white rum. I have made rum before but it seems to have a bit of harsh flavors to it. Does anyone know if aging white rum in an uncharred barrel has much of an effect on the spirit. How about for other clear spirits?

[DFitz]

It does have an effect on the spirit, all negative. I would recommend browsing Amazon or EBay for some hardwood activated charcoal. You can filter the spirit with the charcoal to achieve what I believe you're looking for. Do some searching, you'll find a few threads on it.

[BayouShine]

Rum right off the still is pretty harsh, no matter how you dice it. It benefits tremendously with a little aging. I wouldn't use a barrel unless you were interested in gold rum.

My advice if you want to keep it white/silver:
-strip and spirit run
-make pretty conservative heads cut while keeping some tails
-put what you keep into a glass or stainless container and forget about it for 6-8 months. A year would be better.

[vqstatesman]

Personally I age all my rum on charred american oak for a good 12 months or more. To make a white I run it very slowly through about activated coconut charcoal. My filter is 2" diameter by about 40" controlled by a tap. The charcoal strips the colour back to clear and removes some of the big bold flavours leaving you with something very smooth.

[Shine0n]

What type of white rum are you after?
I also like my rum white but I also like a bold flavor, if I want it lighter flavor I'd use fancy molasses with dark brown sugar so that I wouldn't have to use as much molly.
What recipe are you using?
How long of a rest after stillin?
Cuts?

Time will mellow it out some, and from what I've read charcoal filtering will strip alot of the best flavors out along with the color.
If you like a bold flavor, go feed molly and dark brown sugar and it may surprise you.
Cuts may bring harshness if too many heads, and too many tails will bring some funk.

Tell us more about what you ran, kind of still, cuts made and of course your recipe and we could give better advice.


Shine0n