Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I have had the first two batches which are just over a year old

From research on this site the general consensus is to use 10 gr per litre, yet some people use 12 gr per litre, which I have followed

I found the April batch ok but maybe a little oaky for my taste, the May batch is definately oaky.

I started with 10gr per litre of American oak, then for 3 months did a combo of American and French staves at 12 gr per litre.
I have now reduced the oak to 8-9 gr per litre for future batches

My question to people who can leave their rum for a year plus, what percentage of American or French oak do you put in so it isn't over oaked ?

I would probably go for 5gr /liter if oaking for a year,but I would recommend monthly testing at least to avoid over oaking ,speed of maturation can vary due ta things like temp and quality of oak and the amount of char and ABV used.Also personnel preference matters ,my taste preference is for a mild oaking with too much making me want ta gag and spit,so I have learnt to reduce my use of oak accordingly.Compared to most recommendations,when we start out we want quick results wich means more oak ,but after ya get a bit of stock ,you can use less over a longer time, like what your doing. cheers hillzabilly

I'd suggest using less French oak than you normally use of American. My limited experience with French oak is that "oaks" VERY quickly but "ages" much slower.

I found it very easy to over oak in a short period of time with French oak.

Thanks for the advice guys, will drop the percentage back to 5 and remove the French oak. Now I have enough stock at one year old there should be enough to age even further, depending on how thirsty I get

I don't weigh my oak, I go by how long a domino it is.

I'm on my 4th lot of year old rum. I seem to get better results if I air the demijohn for at least a month, before decanting. I had the first white dog that is a year old. It was Ok, light with not much taste, tasted better with either lemonade or dry mixer, so now I have learnt the oaking process is a must, no more white dog for me.

I was speaking with a wine maker from Stanthorpe, he seems to think a tight grained good quality French ok would work well so I might start looking at the quality of the staves and do a bit of a comparison, it's a pity I got to wait a year before I know if I'm onto something or not, but you get that.

Over the 4 runs I notice the amount of backset gives a difference in the complexity, this one had 60 lt in 200 lt and seems the best so far, although the first 2 brews were a little overoaked.

Just my thoughts

Thank you for sharing. It gives others some info to play with and, as hillz said, it's all personal taste!

I have since playing with dominoes used 1x Dom per litre of 65 percent spirit. Depends on your own taste of course and medium toast seems to make a very tasty rum only once it's past the 6 month mark though.

Unna how many litres are you putting in one domino, from my experience that would be way overoaked.

One Dom per litre as I wrote @65, I can't say I have anything that has been over oaked up to nearly 2 years mate

Gavhancox wrote:I'm on my 4th lot of year old rum. I seem to get better results if I air the demijohn for at least a month, before decanting. I had the first white dog that is a year old. It was Ok, light with not much taste, tasted better with either lemonade or dry mixer, so now I have learnt the oaking process is a must, no more white dog for me.

I was speaking with a wine maker from Stanthorpe, he seems to think a tight grained good quality French ok would work well so I might start looking at the quality of the staves and do a bit of a comparison, it's a pity I got to wait a year before I know if I'm onto something or not, but you get that.

Over the 4 runs I notice the amount of backset gives a difference in the complexity, this one had 60 lt in 200 lt and seems the best so far, although the first 2 brews were a little overoaked.

Just my thoughts

Apologies for straying from topic, however, are you referring to a 1 year old white rum?

If so, you might like to try a stripped rum wash (like a Macrum) through your reflux still. Makes for a very good white rum that put's Bacardi to shame :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Unna240 wrote:I have since playing with dominoes used 1x Dom per litre of 65 percent spirit. Depends on your own taste of course and medium toast seems to make a very tasty rum only once it's past the 6 month mark though.

How many grams is the domino?

Unna240 wrote:I have since playing with dominoes used 1x Dom per litre of 65 percent spirit. Depends on your own taste of course and medium toast seems to make a very tasty rum only once it's past the 6 month mark though.

that's what I work on with the dominoes around 100mm

Unna, At a wild gues my dominos are about 100 long 25 wide by say 10 thick and again at a wild guess around the 50 grams. I overoaked my first batch of rum by using 12 gr/ lt, apart from trying to fit a whole stave in a demijohn, I still can't get my head around using that much oak per litre and getting a drinkable result. Don't get me wrong I'm not knocking your process just trying to learn.

Woodsy, yep I was referring to white dog at 65 % kept for a year and let breathe for a month or so. I accidentally put one of my first brews through the reflux still after stripping, I was kicking myself big time, ended up keeping it for 6 months before knocking it down and trying it, it was pretty good

Actually what I would like to do is get together with other rum drinkers and Do a little tasting of each other's rums. I'm sure the first couple of tastings will be constructive, after that will be interesting, once we are close to the end of a bottle than it won't really matter anyway. :))

Send me a bottle, I'd be more than happy to taste test it for you :handgestures-thumbupleft: :D

oak is a funny thing that depends on your taste. I've over oaked some rum and was really upset i had ruined a demi of rum. I put it in the back of cupboard till i could make enough to water it down with fresh rum. I forgot about it and had a taste a year or so later and it was beautiful. the over oaked flavour had smoothed out over time and its one of my best drops. time is the key to good oak flavours. i guess thats why the distilleries put their product on oak for 10 to 20 years +.
Ive never wasted any over oaked rum since. either leave it or water it down with fresh product and then wait till it comes good. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

A really important thing not to miss is the effect of temperature fluctuations, for quick aging, I keep my rum in a decommissioned car locked in my yard..
really hot days and cools right off at night, this makes drinkable rum in ~3 months, for really nice rum I keep it either in the house or shed
without the big fluctuations in temperature and leave it for ~ around a year...Which is hard for me and rum...to stay apart for that long....
in summary, hot days, cold nights, faster aging.

Just measured the domino's (with Unna) and they are 100mm x 25mm x 10mm and they weigh 20grams.