Should I char the oak?

[Urrazeb]

Years ago I mentioned Distiller forum to my HBS owner...I was shot down and told its all miss-truths and not to believe anything I read on the internet.

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: quite the opposite :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[spit'n'shine]

I have been thinking a lot about whether to char or not lately and have come up with a bit of a theory.. Don't the rum distilleries in Cuba use used bourbon barrels to age in? And don't the bourbon distilleries char the virgin barrels? What if I were to char the staves for ageing UJ and when finished use those same staves for ageing my rum? :-B :think:

[Urrazeb]

Yeah that might work but it depends on what profile your after. I personally like too keep my rum and whiskey well away from each other, but thats the beauty of this hobby... if you don't like it or are after ideas on continuous improvement then go for it :handgestures-thumbupleft: might work out to be some really good gear for your tastes.. and that's what its all about :teasing-blah:

[spit'n'shine]

Yeah, I suppose if you were trying to get say a Bacardi 8 profile it might be the direction to take.. Would trying to replicate a similar climate (for example keeping the ageing jars in a warmer room) also help to get the desired profile? Maybe cold room for things like scotch, warm room for things like rum? :-B

Anyone tried doing this?

[Urrazeb]

Yeah, I suppose if you were trying to get say a Bacardi 8 profile it might be the direction to take.. Would trying to replicate a similar climate (for example keeping the ageing jars in a warmer room) also help to get the desired profile? Maybe cold room for things like scotch, warm room for things like rum? :-B

Anyone tried doing this?

I think trying to replicate as many variables as possible is of benefit when copying another product. The closer you get to the climate, water quality blah blah blah the closer it is going to taste like what you want to mimic.. but this don't come easy and most of us settle for something different (better IMO) than the original.

I have not aged specifically on temperature before to replicate another product but believe ageing temp is way down the list when it comes to things we can change to try and match a product.

[Spar]

I did read somewhere also about using small amounts of mollasses in with the oak to give a sweeter flavor to the rum. Has anyone tried this?

[crow]

the rum industry is quite unregulated when it comes to smoothing agents ect and so a hell of a lot of commercial rums are sweetened and smoothed a whole hell of a lot with syrups and caramel, it cuts down the time they did to age and allows them to cut more liberally :-B

[spit'n'shine]

the rum industry is quite unregulated when it comes to smoothing agents ect and so a hell of a lot of commercial rums are sweetened and smoothed a whole hell of a lot with syrups and caramel, it cuts down the time they did to age and allows them to cut more liberally :-B

Interesting.. Is it also true that rum ages faster because of the warmer climates that they are generally made and aged?