Barrels of Rum

[Edward Hamilton]

A few years ago friends and I bought a couple of small barrels and then added rum to them in an attempt to make the perfect blend. After attempting to toast the inside of the barrel with a torch and burning some hands, the approx 5 liter barrels were filled.

While it's nice to have a small barrel of rum on the shelf if you aren't drinking enough of it the high surface area to volume of a small barrel may impose more wood flavor on the rum than you want for the perfect blend. On the other hand, if you have a barrel of rum on your shelf, chances are you'll have more than a few friends stopping by to help you with the research.

[Dood]

I actually have noticed this with a large number of wood chips in an 800 mL jar of rum. I've been tweaking my amounts and still haven't found the right amount of wood-to-rum to not end up with something that was a little too woody. Of course part of that could be the French Oak chips I'm using.

[El Dorado]

I actually have noticed this with a large number of wood chips in an 800 mL jar of rum. I've been tweaking my amounts and still haven't found the right amount of wood-to-rum to not end up with something that was a little too woody. Of course part of that could be the French Oak chips I'm using.

Generally with wood chips, because of the large surface area exposed to the alcohol per unit volume, the rate of extraction is very high hence not only pulling oak flavours but heavy woody notes.

[TheRumelier]

Messing around with barrels is good clean fun. I have a bunch at home, but only have three full right now. That is a lot of rum to drink. I like to try something different most nights so don't drink too much from them unless I fill one with one of my favourite rums. In one I have Castillo Silver ageing, I must check it to see how the colour and taste have changed. In the other two I have emptied two tin barrels of Brugal into the oak barrels to see how this will change their flavour. The oak chips work great if you can find them. I got some from inside old Appleton barrels we bought in for display. I added some in white rum for my rum tasting kit, you should see the colour of the rum now!! Barrels add a great display to any rum bar especially if they are branded. I think I know what I'm going to try tonight.