carbon filtering for premium silver rum

[RumBull]

I wanted to make a premium silver rum for those friends that don't care for the heavy full bodied rums. I have tripple distilled rum before and then just aged in glass. But we all know that glass ageing does very little compared to ageing on oak. I am looking for the smoothness of barrel ageing without the color and heavy flavor.
I took a barrel of 1 year old rum and ran it through a carbon filter that I cobbled up from 2" sanitary pipe (although it nearly broke my heart )

My barrels of rum, one of which is to be sacrificed! It was transfered into a glass carboy.

I used copper tubing to siphon because the process takes several hours and did not want long exposure to plastic tubing.
The filter is fed from the bottom which reduces the the chance of channeling through the carbon.

I used a controllable spigot to regulate the flow.

I put a wad of copper mesh to keep the the carbon out of the spigot although it is so fine that it was able to pass the copper but did not cause a problem.


The rum pre-filtering...

The rum after filtering...

The process took 8 hours to run 5 gallons through the filter.
The result is a ultra smooth white rum. Very very mild in flavor. There is a sweetness that comes through that reminds you that it is still a rum.

[vb]

would break my heart to do that, but glad your results were positive.
Gotta Invest in some more barrels to get enough volume ageing that I'd be able to let a batch sit for a year.

[vb]

are those new or used barrels?

[RumBull]

They are well used! I would have to guess about 5-8 years with countless batches of wine and port passing through them. Perfect for rum.
Silver rum is not my cup of tea but the masses have been drinking Bacardi. I expect this to go ever well with those that only like the light rums. I may blend in some of my tripple run to add back more flavor...

[punkin]

I've had popular reviews from the Bacardi drinkers and love drinking myself, watered down neutral from rum strip.

Seems to still carry enough of the mollasses flavour even at 95+ to keep the silver rum drinkers happy and saves all the trouble of using your carefully crafted and aged rums on the heathens.

I like it with fruit juice and lemonade.

You don't have to even worry about using dunder, i just used Pints fast fermenting mollasses wash.

[vb]

...but the masses have been drinking Bacardi. ...

ya, when I started drinking rum I though bacardi was pretty decent, bought a bottle of it a couple months back cause I was away from home, couldn't even finish one drink of the stuff.

I've done the same thing, rum that I've had aging for a month on oak ran through carbon for a decent white rum.
but considering what you started with your results should have been a bit nicer than mine.
however, one could use less carbon for a faster filtering. it would strip the color and the heaviest flavours, but leave you with a slightly more flavourfull product.

[Rebel_Yell]

I would just buy them another bottle of bacardi...

[RumBull]

Silver rum is not my cup of tea

I may have to retract that statement. This stuff is pretty damn good! I poured two fingers into a snifter and sipped it this evening. There is still plenty of flavor and the sweetness really sings without the oak and other flavors overpowering it. The smoothness though is fantastic. I bet if I gave this to someone with their eyes closed, they would never guess it to be a white rum.
It is like the difference between well tequila and the top shelf stuff. One makes you shutter when you drink it and the other is quite pleasant.
I will bottle some of this as is, blend in some unfilter silver and bottle a few more and then some may get blended with old barrel stock.

[Rebel_Yell]

Rumbull's premium silver rum!

Thanks for sharing your methods.

[vb]

had some rum that I had aged on cherry wood (musta got some sap wood in there) before I put it in my barrel for a couple months, just wouldn't loose one harsh flavour note. so I decided to run it through carbon.

now I ran it thtough as fast as it'd go, on a 2"dia tube 18" long used the spigot on my barrel to regulate the flow into the carbon.

end results is a very flavorfull but not harsh in any any way, white rum. I decided to bottle sum up for posterity, kept a gallon to mix with my next run (which should be run very soon), and used a bit with some brew shop flavorings (btw Liquor quick Bourbon is not that bad, but doesn't taste like bourbon)

[Adverse Effects]

i am sorry you had to do that

i could not have done that (filtered) something i had made and aged that long

[pintoshine]

This is actually the method that all Puerto Rico white rum has to endure for import into the USA. 1 year on oak and then carbon filtering. And you wonder why some styles are so hard to match.
I have done this also. It is great for the ones who like it but I prefer mine black. I have even added caramel to oak aged rum. I really like the Gosling's Black Seal variety of rum but with a bit more oak flavor.
I like your method of forcing the filter flow upward rather than downward. It makes perfect sense.

[manu de hanoi]

seems like a bad method to me. i'd suggest a column still if you want to make white rhum.

[RumBull]

Why do you say it is a bad method??

[manu de hanoi]

Well if the product is "damn good" then it's a good method , but triple distill seems a lot of work and pple usually use pot still for dark rums not white rhums. I believe you could get white rum with a single (or double) pass in a column still without carbon, that would be easier.