Charcoal filtering

[Glock19Fan]

Hello.

I have 5 gallons of rum that I am ready to barrel (5 gallon white oak light charred from Gibbs).

Anyway, on one of the runs, I accidently mixed in some tails with the batch. Not only that, but I wanted to mellow out the flavor just a little bit, to aim for a gold type rum.

I know that several distillers, especially Jack Daniels, filter their spirit through charcoal becuase placing it into barrels. From what I read, they specifically use sugar maple wood.

I can call around and look for it, but I was wondering if I would get the same results by using charred white oak it none were available?

Thanks!

[theholymackerel]

I accidently mixed in some tails with the batch. Not only that, but I wanted to mellow out the flavor just a little bit

Age will mellow out the flavour, but activated carbon, charcoal, or charred oak will not remove tails. It might make it taste a bit better... it might make it smell a bit less whiff, but the tails will still be in there givin' ya hangovers unless it's all distilled again cleanly without tails.

Sorry.

[KornSkweezer]

If you do use activated charcoal, rinse it repeatedly, then rinse it again or you'll be drinkin' black likker. I know because....er... a friend told me, yea, a freind told me!

[Glock19Fan]

I accidently mixed in some tails with the batch. Not only that, but I wanted to mellow out the flavor just a little bit

Age will mellow out the flavour, but activated carbon, charcoal, or charred oak will not remove tails. It might make it taste a bit better... it might make it smell a bit less whiff, but the tails will still be in there givin' ya hangovers unless it's all distilled again cleanly without tails.

Sorry.

Well I am not too worried about it, since it was only maybe 1/30th of the entire batch. Maybe less. It was just faintly present in one of the jars, but I honestly think that when mixed with everything else it may not even be present, or even concentrated enough to even impact the flavor or the "hangover potential".

I remember seeing somewhere that the aging process may convert some of the tails into drinkable ethanol, but I may have been reading something else.

I was wanting to stay away from the activated charcoal, becuase from what I have read, it will strip away too much flavor. I was to understand that regular charcoal will still give mellowing capabilties, without stripping out all the flavor.

[Dnderhead]

""may convert some of the tails into drinkable ethanol""
I do not believe it does that but over time tails become "flavors" that are in such as whisky , but you are talking about years.
(whisky distillers add back to low wines most everything taking out) but most on hear aren't going to barrel for 3+years.
so making your product as clean as possible to start with is a big plus.
nobody knows exactly what happens in a barrel , they can replicate some of these chemical processes , but not all and not all at once.

[bronzdragon]

Tails give good flavor to rums, in fact, on my dark rum I run heavily into the tails.

With that said, I also use charred sugar maple for flavor in my rum and bourbon. If your barrel is already charred, I wouldn't worry about it. As it sits, it will mellow with age and pick up a lot of that flavor from the barrel.

cheers

~bd~

[Glock19Fan]

Well now as I sip the unaged rum, it is almost at the point to where I dont know whether I am tasting too much flavor, or it there are tails present. It doesnt leave a bad after taste, and doesnt go down rough, so I am guessing it has a lot of flavor I am not used to.

I have tasted what tails taste like in other spirits (such as straight sugar wash), and it doesnt taste anything like this. Do the tails from rum have a different taste, or would it be basically the same (since I would think they are all a similar chemical?)?

I am going to age it at least one year, maybe longer for what its worth.

[bronzdragon]

Well, I think there are two things going on here in the tails portion of the run.

First off is obvious, the alcohol percentage is going down and I'm not a chemist, so I don't know how the chemical properties of the actual alcohol change as you get into the tails.

But secondly, the liquid in the boiler has been cooking for awhile. As liquids cook, the flavors get stronger and stronger. So I think this has an affect on the actual alcohol flavor coming out the condenser.

Rum is about the only thing I run heavily into the tails on. I usually run it down until about 20-30%, and then I cut it off. I figure it's costing me more in electricity to keep the run going then what I'm actually getting out of it.

I just think it's finding a good median, where you like the flavor of what you're making.

~bd~

[Glock19Fan]

Do you know a good source for sugar maple wood? I was wanting to purchase some to char and filter my rum through.

Any online suppliers in the US?

Thanks!

[bronzdragon]

I got mine off of ebay. There's a guy that has a lumber mill in the NE part of the US that makes wood flooring. He cuts up the scrap sugar maple in small rough sticks, about 1" x 1" x 4". They are plain wood that has been kiln dried, no chemicals, etc.

He sells several different types of wood, and at a very reasonable price. There are a few other people who sell wood on ebay also.

~bd~

[The Chemist]

Do you know a good source for sugar maple wood? I was wanting to purchase some to char and filter my rum through.

Any online suppliers in the US?

Thanks!

Sugar maple sometimes goes by the names "hard maple" and "rock maple". If you don't have a hardwood supplier (for woodworkers) nearby, sometime you can find cheap little mitre boxes made of "rock maple"...should work in a pinch.