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I have a batch of oak barrel aged rum that smells wonderful and adds wonderful taste in mixed drinks, but it has a bitter aftertaste that rules out sippin. The new make rum was a conservative cut and not bitter, so I assume the bitterness came from the new oak barrel. Likely Tannins, maybe also from the toasting, charring. Much of this batch is still at barrel strength.

I’m weighing options for improving this batch a little and interested in any real experience you may have to share.

Adding some sweetness
One option would be to add some sweetness to the rum to cut the bitterness. I’m thinking this would just involve using refined sugar, but if there is something better please let me know. Should I just add refined sugar out of the bag, or would I want to invert it for any reason? I.e. Does inversion help it mix better, improve sweetness, and/or minimize cloudiness? I don’t have any desire to add color or caramel flavor that would come from caramelizing the sugar first.

Does anyone have any opinion on roughly how much sugar can be added w/o making the spirit cloudy? I know I will test this, but hoping to get a ballpark from those who have done this.

Cutting with new make
Another option would be cutting my aged spirit with new make rum hearts to reduce the bitterness. I’ve read about folks doing this to fix bad cuts, and not sure how effective this would be in dealing with reducing bitterness from oak. If you have done this, what kind of ratio of aged to new make have you done with success?

This should reduce my bitterness but will also reduce the good color/smell as well. I feel I have plenty of good color, smell and taste to spare.

What kind of post mixing process would you recommend after cutting with new make? My thought would be to simply age this mix in glass for a few months to address any new make smell/taste. Other ideas?

Redistilling
I have ruled this option out for now. My experience with redistillation of oak aged products is that the sharpness and bitterness in taste that comes from wood treatment come through the redistillation process, so this would not buy me anything positive while stripping a lot of goodness.

Other options
Any other tricks up your sleeve for reducing bitterness?

Thanks,
Otis

My thoughts: Dilute 2:1 with new make (with very wide cuts) targeting 60% abv for your new aging strength. Use a little water to get you there if needed. Age on toasted french oak for 3 years.

Describe how it was aged please.

How long has this rum been aging?....made with what? Mollases sugar or panella?
Was it by any chance a charred barrel... not just toasted?

Rum:
Pamela rum. I can’t recall if I used dunder but I don’t think so. If I did use dunder, it would have been no more than 5%. A fairly conservative cut with some heads and very little tails. It was a pretty clean rum.

Wood and aging:
These rums were aged one year in four different one gallon badmo barrels that I made. Each barrel had a rum in it previously for only 6 months. I thought that 6 months would have been be long enough to leach more tannins, but apparently I thought wrong. (3rd time’s the charm, I hope). The wood I made these from was only seasoned one year, which is one reason I suspect the wood as the source of bitterness.

All of the oak was toasted at 400F and two of the four barrels were charred to a light alligator. Each of the four rums came out a bit bitter, so I guess I can rule out Char as the primary cause, though it may have contributed. I think the source of the bitter is either from the toast and/or tannins in the wood.

These rums have spent some additional time in glass with small amounts of Apple, toasted and charred, but they were bitter before adding apple so that is not the culprit. (I retrospect, I had enough toast/char already so I should have used raw apple. Next time)

I was reluctant to keep these in the oak barrels longer due to the bitter profile after one year. Does bitterness due to tannins go down over time? I considered leaving them for another year, but opted in stead to work with what I got and I will try a 3rd batch in these barrels.

Otis

PS. I made these barrels a few years ago. My latest barrels are seasoned longer and I have been doing my toasts a bit cooler, targeting 385F-390F. Not sure yet what the difference will be, but I will know in a few more years.

I avoid anything charred in my Rum.......cant say Ive noticed bitterness when I have used char......but didnt like the results anyway.
Id consider putting at least some of it back in a barrel and aging it further. It may come good given more time.
Any bitterness that ive ever encountered in my rum was from to much tails kept. Noted that you used very very little.

A year is pretty young for rums in my shed.

Are you sure you're not confusing bitter with tannin? I've deliberately fast aged over-oaked experimental rum trials to where the tannins have made them almost nasty and they have mellowed to nice a couple of years later.

Saltbush Bill wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:13 pm Any bitterness that ive ever encountered in my rum was from to much tails kept. Noted that you used very very little.

Thats my thinking too Salty . Especially with a potty.
Tails are every where like a mad womans shit .

No amount if ageing makes them sweet.

Otis , probably not what You want to hear , but I would run it though a reflux still and make a sipp'n Rum on ice .

Total noob chiming in so this could be stoopid...

Would setting up a solera system to both continue aging and mix with newer rum be a good idea here?

FLOB wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:57 am Would setting up a solera system to both continue aging and mix with newer rum be a good idea here?

Couldnt hurt , might work, but a hell of a lot of barrel space and mucking around to fix a small quantity of bitter tasting rum.
Easier would be to half fill a barrel with the bitter stuff .....top off with new make rum heart.....no tails at all.
Keep topping as the angels and others sample.

Saltbush Bill wrote:

FLOB wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:57 am Would setting up a solera system to both continue aging and mix with newer rum be a good idea here?

Couldnt hurt , might work, but a hell of a lot of barrel space and mucking around to fix a small quantity of bitter tasting rum.
Easier would be to half fill a barrel with the bitter stuff .....top off with new make rum heart.....no tails at all.
Keep topping as the angels and others sample.

Thats a good point. I was thinking a system of small homemade badmo barrels but your idea is better.

I don't do true solera style ageing of my rum, but I do use three vessels in a similar manner. I like the results.

I only ever draw off enough for a bottle as required from container 3, the oldest one with the lowest ABV. I refill container 3 from container 2 and container two from container 1. New make only goes in container 1 and same with new oak (never replaced the wood yet, but when the time comes...). They all have breathable tops, glass swingtop jars with cloth under the lid in place of the gasket. I gradually adjust ABV down a little each step too to try and get slightly different character from the wood along the way. The oldest product will now be approaching 3 years, though blended with younger over time.

Would 1 year in such a small barrel not be over doing it and possibly cause the bitterness?
The wood to spirit ratio is very high in small barrels.
As for sweetening - you could try obscuration with invert sugar.