Wood chips soaked in dark rum

Brewing a Scottish Wee Heavy. Threw in a couple oz's of toasted oak chips into secondary that I have been soaking in dark rum. They were soaking for a couple months so should be good to go. Will be bottling next weekend. Let you know how it turns out

I'm interested to hear how this turns out. I'm thinking about using rum-soaked oak (probably cubes) in a barleywine I'm planning, but haven't seen much info on rum-aged beers on here. How long has it been on the oak? Did you add the rum or just the oak?

Yea, I shouldn't have said chips. They are the toasted cubes. I am a HUGE fan of Innis and Gunn's rum-cask Scottish ale. Trying to come as close as I can. Will be sure to update.

I bought the cubes already toasted. I then took a clear wine bottle, sanitized it, added about 2oz of cubes then filled the bottle a 1/4 of the way with dark rum. Corked it and let it sit for a couple months. When it was time to transfer to secondary, I strained the cubes and added them to the carboy. Will sit for 2 weeks and I will bottle.

http://www.innisandgunn.com/en/the-range/rum-cask.aspx

How did this turn out?

BGBC said:

I'm interested to hear how this turns out. I'm thinking about using rum-soaked oak (probably cubes) in a barleywine I'm planning, but haven't seen much info on rum-aged beers on here. How long has it been on the oak? Did you add the rum or just the oak?

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BGBC, did you make make the barleywine and add the rum soaked oak? I am thinking of doing that same thing when I brew up my barleywine in the new year! Would love any insight or advice you have on adding the rum cubes.

GunnerBrewer said:

How did this turn out?

BGBC, did you make make the barleywine and add the rum soaked oak? I am thinking of doing that same thing when I brew up my barleywine in the new year! Would love any insight or advice you have on adding the rum cubes.

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I did make it, but I can't give too much feedback yet since I haven't tasted it since bottling day (late July). Looking at my notes I used French medium plus oak cubes at a rate of ~1.5oz/5 gal (this was a small batch for me, 1.5 gal), soaked in Bajan XO rum for 8 days. I left the beer on the oak for 3 weeks prior to bottling. It was super smooth at bottling, very balanced, so I have high hopes. I'm planning on cracking one open sometime over the holidays, so I'll check back in if I do.

Oh, the other thing I did, which was kind of a pain, but helpful - I drilled a small hole in the cubes and threaded some floss through them. Added a few stainless nuts so the cubes would sink.

Sounds good! I would not have thought to drill holes in the cubes. Will do that if I remember it.

GunnerBrewer said:

Sounds good! I would not have thought to drill holes in the cubes. Will do that if I remember it.

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Again, it was a pain and I lost a couple of the cubes to splinters, but I think it was worth it, since I can save them for reuse. You could always throw them in a bag with some stainless nuts to weight them down too.

a pumpkin stout with some rum soaked oak cubes could be nice.

RonPopeil said:

a pumpkin stout with some rum soaked oak cubes could be nice.

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Yea.

Avery Rumpkin sounds pretty good. Would like to try that someday.

GunnerBrewer said:

How did this turn out?







BGBC, did you make make the barleywine and add the rum soaked oak? I am thinking of doing that same thing when I brew up my barleywine in the new year! Would love any insight or advice you have on adding the rum cubes.

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Just to report back on this, I opened my first bottle of this. Tastes great. It's maybe a little thin for the style for me, and the oak/rum character is not overpowering. If I did it again I would add a little more oak and maybe pour in some of the rum, especially as the flavors will meld more with time.

I added the same cubes (soaking in the same rum this whole time) to a sour blackberry cider I've got going. I think it could use the tannins, we'll see how that turns out now.