Rum ageing in wild turkey quarter casks

[needmorstuff]

I ferment molasses for 7 days, 300 litre batches. I pot still it and collect around 55 litres at around  50% abv.

I do that again to give me 110litres of strip at 50%

I then put that 110 litres of strip plus 180 litres of fermented molasses into my 300 litre still and run it through 4 plates. I collect around 70 litres at 92%.

My cuts are quite tight, I keep around 32 litres.

This goes into ex first use wild turkey casks at 62%.

The liquid after 9 months is a light straw colour but to my palate has already taken on a lot of the flavour of the cask and is beginning to taste more like whiskey than rum.. so much that my silver rum straight off the still tastes more like rum.

The casks are 120 litre as I had them recoopered down to this size to increase the wood to liquid surface contact.

I wanted this to be a single cask rum but am now considering blending with silver rum and adjusting colour with e150a to bring it toward something that will sell and have more consumer appeal.

What's your opinion on the whiskey flavour and any other general comments? All criticism welcome

[Silk City Distillers]

At 62%, you'll lose a lot of color and flavor during proofing, especially with shorter aging cycles (<4y), and even at the 120 liter surface areas.

You'll need to mix in some third use (or well used) barrels to tone down the whiskey/wood impact.

IMHO, we go into fresh dump bourbon 30g most regularly w/ 'dark' rums, and tend to really like the flavor impact.  Big vanilla is the standout note for us, and that tends to be much more acceptable than big tannin, people often tell us we make rums for whiskey drinkers, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

We recently did a batch where we blended back in some younger rums to amp the funk for a tiki style cocktail rum, which I thought worked really well.  Those younger rums were distilled to specifically to be higher-ester blenders, as I thought we were losing a lot of the rum nose/topnote during aging - this will be very, very controversial - but these are zero heads cuts blenders.  Which IMHO, at 1 year, were absolutely fabulous barrels of rum.

Consumer appeal is easy, ample amounts of sugar (10-15g/l) and e150, just like the big boys do.

[Kindred Spirits]

So it all depends on what you really want out of your product. Like @Silk City Distillers said, it you only care about the consumer appeal, just add the coloring and sugar.
But if you are looking to make a great rum without the shortcuts, there will be a bit of trial and error.

For first use or new barrels I typically recommend a low entry proof for the first couple uses. This keeps the amount of extraction down and prevents excess tannin extraction too. You will still get that great vanilla character from the whiskey barrels and you won't lose a lot of the color because you wont need to proof much.
You might want to play with your cuts too, as the heads and tails will mellow/change with time in the bottle. Now a "zero-heads cut" addition is not something I would recommend for a major batch, but maybe try it in a barrel or two. Silk has been around for a number of years and has honed his recipes, so he knows what works for his process. 

This to me is the best part of working with spirits, the ability to try new things and see how they turn out. Sometimes you will get some winners, and other times they might not turn out amazing. But you will typically have something better than the big manufacturers make provided you are using the best base materials you can. 

 

[needmorstuff]

Hey guys, thanks so much for your imput. So much information in these two replies I'm going to read them several times over several days abnd consider my next move.. this information probably spans years and years of experience, failure and successes. Thank you so much.

I'm only a small operation. I've got 6 x 120l WT casks. and 2 x 120l sgherry casks. 

I started out by putting 40 litres in each cask to keep them wet.. rotating periodically. that was done by End of May 2024.

Due to my operation it takes me about a month to add the remaining 70 litres to a cask. 

Of the 6 WT, 2 are full, 1 has around 90l and the remaining 3 have 30l.

The 2 sherry casks have 40l, theres an Palo Cortado and an Amontillado. I plan on using these to finish some liquid in the future.. I need to try whats in there now to see how it has changed the liquid so far...

I 100% agree, ths is th emost enjoyable part of the process, the experimentation and creation lf liquid.

Regard consumer appeal, that's just so it sells well.. I generally dislike anything i make that sells well - such as dark spiced "rum" with sugar and vanilla added. It's a rock and a hard place kind of thing. If it's gonna win medals it probably won't appeal to mass market. I'll gie this thought also. Personally I'd rather make amazing liquid for a discerning drinker and hopefully bag a few gongs - I can always have consumer products in my portfolio.

I'll drop by in a few days with my thoughts on next steps.. 

thanks again guys, really appreciate your time and energy on this. At least I'm not too far down the rabbit hole.. i think there are things I can do to create some good liquid here.

 

[FaintingGoatSpirits]

I would distill it at a lower proof to get more of the molasses flavor out of it.

[needmorstuff]

4 hours ago, FaintingGoatSpirits said:

I would distill it at a lower proof to get more of the molasses flavor out of it.

thanks for this info and take on the process... why white rum off the still at 92 has plenty of rum flavour. However maybe if that was amped up by a lower abv it would hold itself against the wood during maturation.. food for though for sure.

[Kindred Spirits]

Also you are really leaving a lot in the wash if you only collect your low wines from your strip down to 50%. You should be a lot closer to 35% or so on the low wines if you start at around 8-10% wash.

[adamOVD]

 

Our rum is also very barrel foward, and i tell people it drinks more like a bourbon than a rum. It sells quite well, almost as well as the whiskey, and is a fan favorite for quite a few people.

Are you saying your hearts cut is less than 50%, collecting at 92% after a striping run, and running through 4 plates? To me the whole point of plates is to hold back the tailsy stuff and maximize the hearts.