Aging Rum

[stillwagon]

I use new, charred, American Oak barrels to age in for the first few years.  The rum is then much like a bourbon.  Then from there I start moving it around in a variety of other barrels.

[SLCDBD]

We are going to market soon with a rum that's aged in cab sauv barrels that underwent no aggressive swelling prior to our refill and all the remnants from the previous fill are significantly impacting the flavor profile. It's pretty tasty.

[prcdc]

8 months ago I decided to age my rum in a 25 year old light charred barrel that had a TON of whiskey dumps over the 20+ years. Everything is turning out great, but i think my final product needs more toffee/carmel/sugar nuances to be where i want it to be. Any suggestions in what type of barrel (toast and char level) i should consider to keep this going? 

 

I have been doing a ton of reading on aging rum and tannins...but i can't seem to find out how to toast / char a barrel more or less to keep more tannins in the wood. French Oak has the most tannins, but when you heat the wood most articles say it kills the tannins. What am i missing here?

[Black Creek]

My first batch from stainless drums with french oak spirals is a hit. The women seem to go for the med+char and the men def have a preference for the heavy char. The rum we left white is going over great with my recipe for lemon drop. I have been making a pitcher of lemon drop for the tastings we have put on and it sells more white for me than when I do not do it. This rum is made from 100% panela. I have both my fermenters almost ready to run for second batch. Now that we have our first run on the market and doing well I am considering a second larger still just for stripping runs and possibly start trying a few side experiments adding some molasses to see what kind of flavor that can give. But I have to say right now the panela is doing great on its own. This is going to be an interesting ride into retirement after 40 years in the sign and teaching biz, lol.

[sandytoes]

@Black Creek How long did you end up aging with the spirals?

[Black Creek]

6 weeks to 8 weeks wood in the barrel then 5 months without. My wife is my taste tester, when she says it's ready we proof and bottle.

[stillwagon]

I age most of my rum in new, charred, American oak barrels. I do use some wine barrels for aging some infused rums that I don't want a major influence from the oak. I generally age 3+ years in the new barrels, a year or so in the wine barrels.