StillSmart

After asking in October last year about rums - getting some great advice from here with regard to which essence to use it turned out I like rum. A lot
I've been experimenting with 60% rums using the essencia dark Jamaican rum. I hate to think how much has been tested...
Anyway I have a plan to try to eventually make my own without any flavourings - first step was the molasses wash I've used a few times which has made a huge difference from the alcotec and still spirits yeasts.
I took the next step today and I've ordered a small (1.3 us gallon) barrel from ebay - I even got to discuss toastings with the seller so I'm getting a heavy toast done on the barrel. It will be a couple of months before I get it but I can't wait
Ebay link
Just checked my stocks tonight and I need to get some more product going so monday's job will be starting a molasses wash in my new fermenter.
I'm going to use flavourings for the first few goes but the plan is for sometime this year to get a pot still head with a thumper built to fit on my T500 boiler just for rums

Exciting stuff Mr Cat, been drinking more than my fair of that dark Jamaican flavouring too, it\'s a belter. Making it up slighty stronger than directed seems to be the way I like it.
I’ve read on one of the other sites that new barrels can impart a harshness, and it may not actually improve your good spirit, which is why the used barrels are sought after. So you might want to consider part filling with neutral, turning it daily for a few weeks, before putting your nice rum into it. This info is all second hand so feel free to ignore
On a similar note, I made the mods I was talking about and have just stripped a molasses beer on my T500, boiler and column now insulated and all the packing pulled out, no reflux cooling.
Turned on 8pm tonight with 24L – approx 9-10% molasses wash.

Was up to boiling for 9pm, turned down to 1100w.

Pulled off about 1.5L in the first 30mins, turned the power up to 1500w when the output slowed.

Stopped when the output was under 20% just before 11pm. Collected about 6L.
I’ll repack the column & re-run as I do on a neutral run tomorrow with some dunder in the boiler, and use the remaining dunder in the next wash on the yeast cake in the fermenter.

The hot dunder smells great, not at all like the spent wash I normally throw on the veg garden.
Not sure if I\'ll bother unpacking the column next time, I\'ll try it both ways and see if I can see a difference.

looks good there mate, i have had some exelent results from the one i bought [url=http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/forum/topic.php?id=315], though a brass tap on yours dose sound better than mine, but so far mine has not leaked

Stripping 6 litres in 3 hours is pretty good I\'ve never timed a stripping run with the SS reflux but I run it full tilt (1400 watt) for the entire run. I\'ll time it next time for a comparison. I think I get 1 1/2 gallons of avg 40% from a 22 litre wash
This time next week I should have 2*60 litre fermenters (one to ferment in and one to rack to) - the aim is to get 45 litres of molasses wash, strip that in the SS reflux over two runs then do one big final run in the T500 which should kick out about a gallon and a half of 90+. I figure I should maybe get three maybe four litres of hearts which once cut back will get me a gallon of 60% to use.
I\'d read your thread fRUMw and it was one of the main inspirations for ordering one of my own.

Here's my 9 litre new American Oak barrel, I got it 4 weeks ago and filled with bourbon.

I tasted the bourbon last night and its so much smoother without the flavour being changed.





The barrel came from http://www.rolloutthebarrel.com.au/ but I got it from my LHBS

Stainless tap and threaded stainless bung.

Cost me $320 AU

Very, very nice Andy. Doesn\'t even look \"too\" out of place in your living room

glad to know i inspired quite like the look of yours MrCat, may have to get annother lol
nice looking barrel there andy

Doesn\'t even look "too" out of place in your living room

I am thinking a few more would look better, but it interferes with the TV remote so might need to find a new spot

Nice one Andy. Drink whats in it and you wont see the TV, you will have your own TV.

Awesome barrel.would love to have one like that.

You can Mark, either http://www.rolloutthebarrel.com.au or call Craig from http://www.tru-brew.com.au/

Both will be happy to ship.

Oh, if you go through Craig - tell him I sent you

Looking at Barrels in the UK. Oak Barrel Shop does nice ones. Not as Nice as Andys but nice at the price and too your spec.

Sorry Its Woodbarrels.The one above is German.

Hum ? Well I did a lot of looking and reading about oak barrels a while back. It does seem that you want to be careful in how you use one of these small, decorative barrels.
Why? Well the correct amount of oaking is, apparently, calculated with the spirit/wood contact area of an \"industry standard\" 225 litre barrel. While it\'s hard to grasp, the spirit/wood contact ratio is actually higher on smaller barrels, hence once you start using them, you need to check the spirit often to make sure that it\'s not getting \"over oaked\" and starting to produce off flavours of and excessively woody taste.....
Of course, there\'s also the difference produced by the levels of toasting, light, medium or heavy... but apparently the same phenomena applies......
I\'ve had an enquiry/question elsewhere answered, that it\'s often easier to stick to barrels of a minimum of 50 litres. Yes, that was a wine making question, but if you think about it, spirits often extract flavours quicker than wines, due to the higher alcohol content.
Though this isn\'t to disuade the use of them, just to make the point that their use should be watched carefully, to make sure that you get the taste right......
Apart from that, they lose their usefulness relatively quickly, as after a couple of batches of spirit, they start to lose the oak/wood/vanillins/colour producing compounds. So you end up with a glorified display gadget quite quickly......
I\'d have thought it would probably be necessary to use oak chips/cubes/staves etc after maybe 4 o 5 uses of the barrel for flavouring/smoothing reasons. Then it\'s still a pretty thing to use to serve the spirit from........

i thought standard barrels deteriated pretty quickly too, as i seem to recall one of them \"how do they do that\" programs on the jack daniels brewery, and if memory serves me correctly, they dont reuse any barrels. (i may be wrong on this as it was a while ago when i watched it)