Rum in a barrell

[lunalibre]

I was thinking of throwing a rum tasting party and was curious if it is possible to buy an actual barrel of rum.  Does anyone know of a place that may sell these?

[JOHN REEKIE]

Lunalibre....welcome to the forum. before everybody ,who have the answers ,join in, let me ask you a few leading questions.

A.. How big a barrel of rum do you want ?  A standard barrel with aprox 55 gallons. can give you equal to over 400 bottles of rum ! Depending on the evaporation and "angels share".

B.. Do you mean  a small I gallon or up to 5 gallon barrel. There is a firm in Florida that makes small barrels, ready for filling, of this size, and smaller. (I can look up their website for you) Then you could get your favorite distiller/ distributer to have it filled. Most rums (unfortunately) are shipped in bulk containers from the islands then bottled in the States by 'Bottlers'.  A practice that I strongly dislike. Scotch whisky can only be bottled in Scotland!  Cognac can only be bottled in Cognac, France!.etc.  As far as I am concerned Rum can only be bottled at "the place of origin" within the latitudes that sugar cane can grow. Rum made from grain distalate or sugar beet distalate is not RUM.

 

Back to " A barrel of Rum"...

C... what part of the Continent are you located and how much are you willing to pay for shipping and customs duties.  I  do know that in 2000 in Barbados one distiller was offering barrels of ten year old rum. from their warehouse,in Barbados. Yes I am sure they are still available.

D...Some times in the Islands one sees a small promotional barrel behind a bar with the Distillers/Brand name on the face of the barrel. In the B.V.I.s I saw three 'Pussers' promotional ,but now dry,barrels.also I have seen photos of small barrels in martinique.  So you could contact the distillers directly to see if they can help you.

E..This could be a lively topic to which I am sure someone has the answers. So group lets have some answers. for Lunalibre.

yours

John Reekie   searching for rum!

[Ed Hamilton]

Buying a barrel of rum isn't any problem at compared to importing it to the US, if you live in the freest country in the world, forget it.

As for most rum being imported in bulk, a lot is but the numbers as a percentage of total imports is dropping.

The easist thing to do is buy a barrel, then buy rum to fill it. I blend different rums in a barrel and the flavors marry and change over time.

I really enjoy adding more rum as the barrel is depleted.

[Damian]

Do you enjoy adding more rum as much as you enjoy depleting the barrel?  ;)

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

Perhaps you could buy it from:

http://www.neworleansrum.com/

In the uS?  Yes, reluctantly, but, unless you pick it up yourself, freight will be rather expensive. :D

[JOHN REEKIE]

I am also trying to  blend small quantities of rums as Ed has proposed,with mixed results. Taking various caricatures of one rum and accentuating the flavour of another,blending out the bitterness of one while pulling up the dryness or sweetness of another. Trying to keep a record of the blend became impossible as the rum becomes a one single barrel solera. But still very enjoyable.  Over the winter I have been rebuilding a two gallon oak barrel ( the original barrel was half a gallon) Stripping the out side down to clean oak, so that it can breath. Cleaning the inside with recomended soda washes. Now I am ready to reband and soak the barrel to take up its shape again. This barrel fortunately was paraffin wax lined , which meant the oak was clear on the inside once I stripped the wax. And the washes hopefully would have taken care of too much tannins.  

Ed's recomendation of finding a barrel and blending your own is very good advice. I have found a website for barrels and if explored one can find advice on storage, cleaning, and general conditioning. As well as  buying barrels of various sizes. Note you do not want a wax lined barrel as you get no oak reaction ( these are for Beer)  And a new non waxed oak barrel would release a lot of tannins when first used, except with the recomended washes, search this site for information.

 

Look under:  www.google.com    enter search:  oak barrels or small oak barrels

 

(little barrels relates to guns or cannons..suprise)

Good luck and keep us informed as to how you get on.

John Reekie..

[Ed Hamilton]

The tannins from a new small barrel came really detract from what you want but I have had good luck by filling a new barrel with rum and then emptying it after a month or so and keeping this strong tannin influenced rum to add to later batches. I don't like to wash the tannins with soda but that will work as well. I also prefer to use a toasted barrel which is tricky to do if you buy an assembled barrel. I have used an oxygen acetylene torch with pretty good results. Try to avoid the bung hole with the hot torch and have plenty of water around to cool things off.

I don't know of any distillery that uses new barrels, they all use once used barrels, mostly from the states.

[JOHN REEKIE]

Unfortunately I never have enough rum to use as a wash, but maybe straight liquor store drinking, 40%, alcohol will do, then and I would not mind throwing it out ..  and as for toasting I had not thought about a torch. These suggestions I will have to try when I find my next small barrel.or as my present barrel I am working on still has a loose stave it would be simple to toast inside. Thanks Ed....    

Then there are the warnings about alcohol and open flames.  That old Barbados story, which there are various versions,.... of a man servant told to get some rum for his master, from the rum storage. This being after dark he took a candle with him. Unfortunately the overproof rum fumes and the candle flame came in contact and he blew himself up.  This I think comes from Ligons 1600"s Exact history of Barbados. (I would have to look it up). But some have said this is the original (one of) interpretation of where "KILL DEVIL" come from " The rum explosion killed the poor devil".  So to you about to torch their barrels take warning of its previous contents.

To my suggestions and the web site to look up. Look or ask for reconditioned barrels plus its history. might be hard to find but could be well worth it.

John Reekie.

[Kristian]

I don't like to wash the tannins with soda but that will work as well.

Is there some reason why one wouldn't want to wash the barrel with soda, but rather with rum or some other alcohol?