Has anyone barrel aged their Rum, other spirits?

Lately I've noticed web sites offering liter-size and up oak barrels for sale to age spirits in. Has anyone done this? I'm certainly not convinced that one would make a big difference to an already aged spirit, but might do well for infusions, homemade bumbo/spiced rum, etc. Anybody?

I have heard good things about the barrel-aged Manhattans some craft bars have started offering but I have not tasted one or done it myself. That is one thing I would really like to try doing though.

I've never barrel-aged spirits, but I'd think you'd have to age a spirit at least three years to notice much of a change. And that's a long time to wait.

I have simulated barrel aging when making beer by adding oak chips to the fermenter. This does work to a certain degree.

They're mainly used to barrel age pre-made cocktails. I once had a barrel aged negroni that was delicious. The bartender said it was aged for a month or so. I would think that any tiki drink would be pretty weird barrel aged. The citrus would probably not age well.

You are correct, barrel aging cocktails with juice or dairy isn't going to be good.

I have read in a few places that a Manhattan barrel aged for 6 months is a much more complex drink than its unaged counterpart.

I've had a barrel aged Martinez although i'm not sure how long it was in the barrel for and also, without having a freshly made one to drink along side it for comparison it's hard to say if there was/would have been much difference.

I've tried barrel aged spirits in bars & they seemed a bit woody (!) to me. The spirits used were a blend of regular spirits.

I haven't considered buying a barrel because of that. I would expect the wood used in the barrel would has a a big effect (ie if is new or has been charred / previously used).

The idea of aging a rum is interesting but the 'tropical aging' effect would be relevant (ie the heat / humidity being a catalyst for aging) - I don't think it's a case of 'put rum in barrel, wait' = 'aged rum as you know it'

I have seen a bottle for sale that has a wooden helix / honeycomb inside & if I were to try aging my own spirit short term I would try that as it would be a smaller batch. I like to hear a comparison if anyone has :)

I'm wondering - would the vermouth in a barrel-aged Manhattan, maintain itself through the aging process, or could it "go off"? It is wine, after all. I could definitely see where citrus would not age well.

I am going to try this shortly with cheap white rum as an experiment. As I understand it the smaller the barrel the faster the aging process. Also you will loose volume to the barrel and atmosphere. If you want to add the oak essence you can go to wine making supply websites and find coils of charred oak for cheap money. These will only give the oak flavor and some color to the liquor it wont really smooth it out like barrel aging will. I have tried to find a formula for aging equivalents in small vs large barrels but I assume there is a lot more variables than just time and size.

Storm

On 2013-10-09 08:04, Kill Devil wrote:
I'm wondering - would the vermouth in a barrel-aged Manhattan, maintain itself through the aging process, or could it "go off"? It is wine, after all. I could definitely see where citrus would not age well.

Wine, yes, but fortified wine, so they are typically bottled at 16-18% abv instead of the 9-12% abv of table wine. That is certainly enough alcohol to allow for good preservative properties during aging. On the other hand, oxidation is what I would be most worried about. If I was to lay down a cask of Manhattan or Martinez, etc., to be aged I would be careful to agitate/aerate the contents as little as possible (no need to stir to mix ingredients, they will have months to mix and marry in the cask) and would leave no head space in the cask.

This is an interesting topic. I just came back from my local specialty liquors store and had a conversation with the owner about cask- and barrel-aged stuff in general. This seems to be quite the rage right now. They had cask-aged and barrel-aged bottled cocktails for sale in his shop, and he spoke quite highly of these. I was left with the impression that this is another interesting variation/option brought to us by the creative (and apparently quite restless) new craft mixologists. He did regale me with stories about how he cooks batches of exotic spices and ingredients in the back room to make batches of unique bitters and syrups and extracts. I felt like I was talking to the host of a cooking show - definitely not someone who seemed devoted to playing with, and exploring, the world of vintage cocktails as much as striking out in new directions. I'm not criticizing or looking down on him at all -- but it seemed he was mostly into doing many of his own things and coming up with entirely new stuff alongside with having developed an appreciation for classic cocktails. He did acknowledge tiki as a portion of the greater realm of mixology, but I didn't get into this because I wanted to get into his view of the bigger cocktail and mixology picture.

I found that he is quite knowledgeable and really enjoys what he is doing. So the clincher question I posed to him -- how long has he been "into" craft cocktails, and what made him abandon the crappy pop-culture stuff served in many restaurants and bars. He told me his tastes turned the corner in June a year ago (June 2012, so 16 months ago) when he was served his first high-quality cocktails which had history and some sort of quality pedigree. Then he took his discovery to such a high level of interest that he and his business partner came to decide to open a specialty shop with a speakeasy in the back room. (Yes, complete with intimate and clandestine-feeling atmosphere and secret entrance through a sliding bookcase.) I plan on going back tonight after work to check it out. I'm sure it will be interesting and fun.

My conclusion is that the creativity of our new craft mixologists are taking cocktails in new directions and to new levels (but not always better) with an insane number of new combinations of ingredients and techniques. I am looking forward to the "fallout" down the road and to seeing what things survive to remain a part of American cocktail culture. I think that these new discoveries and approaches to mixology will be acknowledged, at the very least, as chapters in cocktail history books of the future.

Wait. . . this specialty liquor store with attached craft cocktail speakeasy is in Jacksonville?!? Where??

It's the "Grape & Grain Exchange" in San Marco.
http://www.grapeandgrainexchange.com
2000 San Marco Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32207
(904) 396-4455

The owner I spoke with shared that the speakeasy gets quite full on weekend nights (I understand that it is "intimate," not cavernous) so call ahead to reserve a table during prime times. They have live music many nights, sometimes a DJ. I was hoping for, but did not hear anything about, exotica, lounge, or chill genres. They have to cater to what's musically appealing to the majority of folks. This includes, according to the owner, occasionally some hip-hop which I thought finally died a while back. He told me that Wed/Thu nights are quietest - which I like best for sipping good cocktails, relaxing, and actually having a conversation with whomever you're with. Most of the time I like to go easier on my ears than on my liver, heh, but there are exceptions.

This probably isn't the Tiki Central forum topic under which to post this sort of a review, but since I mentioned it and there was follow-up interest here, I decided what the heck.

Aging spirits in small barrels is complicated and a mixed bag at best.

It makes more sense for cocktails, since you're not going to age as long, and you're not really trying to put time on the liquid, so much as give it a chance for the flavors to combine and mature and maybe mellow out a little. Even so, I'd recommend tasting it often and pulling it sooner rather than later.

I've been tempted to try it, but haven't yet.

Found out in the UK you can get barrels from Master of Malt & Gerrys in Soho ~ about £35 for a litre one.

Master of Malt have a review from someone who tried the process with sherry first then scotch

http://www.masterofmalt.com/barrel/kentucky-oak-barrel/kentucky-toasted-oak-barrel-1-litre-barrel/?srh=1

Nice to see them describing the angels as 'greedy b*****ds'!

Im hunting for an even smaller barrel to buy & try it out now :)

I've barrel aged cocktails before in used casks, but I wouldn't really bother with trying it for rum mostly because there is more to the aging process than simply throwing it in a cask. Things like temperature, humidity, etc. come into play as well as you would then need to re-balance the proof since some of the water would evaporate.

we were fortunate enough to get 2, 11L, new american white oak, lightly toasted barrels from our 10 cane rep (we buy a lot). spiced up 11L each of 10 cane and myers light in the bottles for a week or two, and just poured it off into the oak. will let you know the results come mid january.

Hi Porco,

That sounds (and looks) like a fun project. I will look forward to the results.

Question... Did you fill the barrels with warm water for a few days first to get the wood to expand? Seems like I've heard that it was necessary with a new barrel.

Cheers and aloha!

Just to chime in, yes, you're supposed to immerse barrel in water for a 24 hr period to "cure" it, as a 'real' barrel's staves are not glued but held in place by metal hoops

Thanks KillDevil. I thought it had to be soaked and you confirmed it. I would love to try a small batch of aged cocktails at some point. Probably with a very small barrel so I don't ruin too much if it goes badly.

Great topic! I barrel age a lot of stuff -- cocktails, rum, you name it. But my finest achievement so far has to be my "solerish" aged J Wray. Freaking fantastic. I wrote up a pretty lengthy dissertation on it: http://inuakena.com/misc/solera-aging-rum-at-home/

Cheers

Hi all

"I have got my hands on a barrel & Im ready to go!"

That's what I should have said 2 weeks ago - Im a bit late to posting what I've been up to :)

I thought Id document the process for fellow TC'ers

So I got a barrel:

I filled it with water & left it for 24 hours. Then I turned it over & left it another 24 hours. There was some leakage in the first 12 hours of each side but it stopped pretty quickly.

In preparation I picked up some supermarket 'better than average' sherry:

I chose that one mainly to try it out as alternative to Bristol Cream sherry as recommended in an article I saw about the Fog Cutter.

I emptied the water & re filled the barrel with the sherry (I kept a little for comparison). I sampled the water:

As you can see it gained a white wine colour but it tasted slightly smokey.

Its been 2 weeks now, going from the tips on the Master Of Malt website, it's good to be filled with the intended end product.

I think Im going to fill it with a spiced rum Im making- Im not a big spiced rum drinker so the choice is partly because I think I'll have a patience to let it age!

Also I picked up a home ageing kit:

The kit has 2 ageing sticks - Im thinking you can use them more than once but the effects will diminish (but you just leave the stick in for longer).

I figure the contents should be spirits & liquors (i.e. not fruit juices or sweetners) but would think blending the rums used in a particular cocktail would have an effect.

I'm not short on ideas but thought I'd open it up to debate, my ideas were either:

• a mai tai rum combo
• a navy grog rum combo
• a regular rum
• a whiskey old fashioned

I lean towards rum or whiskey over 'classic cocktails' with other spirits (like the Martinez or Negroni), any other suggestions?

I have a 1 liter aging barrel that I have aged a few things in already. My first attempt was the Ballast Point white rum. It turned out better than their aged in my opinion. At about the 2 1/2 month point we noticed that we had drank it all as samples. I guess it went really well for the first attempt.

I also did 2 months on some Mezcal. Didn't make it amazing, but it was horrible when we put it in and aging made it tolerable.

Now I am aging some Moonshine into Whiskey. Added a little water to cut down the proof and it has been in there for a few weeks. I think I want to do a full 3 months on this one just to give it some character.

I don't know what I will do next, I might try for an aged cocktail. We will see. I still have a couple months to decide.

I am testing the lengths of time to keep them in I know. I hear in a barrel this size it will age the equivalent of 1 year in 1 month, but there is no way to test that theory. I think I lost about 10-15% of the Mezcal in 2 months time to evaporation.

Encouraging words Luna - did ageing different spirits leave a taste in the barrel for the next batch?

I drained the sherry out of my barrel at the weekend (meaning it had had 15 days in there in total). It looked like this:

The one on the bottom was the aged sherry. It had a very very slight darker colouration & very very slight woody spice to it - not smokey like the water had been previously.

There had been some evaporation in the 15 days (about 1-2%)

I promptly filled the barrel with some spiced rum I have been making (see this thread - I have kept a sample for comparison).

I have set it up in cold shed to see what happens in 3 months!

Just getting started (finally) myself on this barrel aging thing. I have been putting it off way too long, partially out of skepticism.

I have three barrels now, a 2 liter and two 1 liters. One arrived a week before the other two, so the aging is staggered a bit. The barrel labeled "1" (after soaking in water for several days as per instructions) has been aging El Dorado 151 for nine days at this point.

I filled barrel no.2 with Wray & Nephew Overproof and barrel no. 3 with Beefeater gin two days ago.

I am reading different opinions on how long to age spirits in these small barrels. Some said to check it within 5 days and that 10 days may be a good maximum. others say start tasting in two weeks.

Anyway, I poured a taste of the 9 day aged El Dorado 151 and provide a photograph as follows. The glass on the left is plain old ED 151. My aged rum is on the right. There is a very noticeable change in color as you will see. There is also a striking change in flavor. It's mellowed out tremendously to a nice sipper with lots of tannins. I get wood and custard on the nose with oak, walnut and butter in the flavor. I am finding the results encouraging, and of course, different than I expected. I was hoping to come up with a good Mai Tai float ingredient. I might just try that test in five days. There's none of that smoke and dark brown sugar found in Lemon Hart. Maybe with more time I can get something darker?

Cheers!

Jack

On 2015-01-25 11:30, AdOrAdam wrote:
Encouraging words Luna - did ageing different spirits leave a taste in the barrel for the next batch?

No, I was not able to tell at all that there had ever been other spirits in the barrel. I did wash it out just with water quickly after emptying the contents. I was not worried about any flavors combining though, so I may taste it in this new batch of Whiskey, but I doubt it.

I want to age some ED 151 as well, so please keep me posted on how that goes Tabuzak. I think 10 days will not be enough and I think you should start tasting at 2 weeks.