I had beers that were aged in barrels that once held a variety of spirits or wines, but never rum. Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried aging with oak soaked in good rum? Sounds like an interesting experiment, albeit i think spiced rum would be horrible.
I did an oatmeal stout aged on rum soaked oak cubes. It was good, but in my opinion, not as good as bourbon, but better than port (I split it 3 ways). It all depends on the base beer style that you are brewing.
I judged a robust porter with spiced rum and maple and it was a little intense. The spice definitely came through in a harsh way.
I used black rum and 1.5 oz’s French oak on a 4.2% abv brown porter last year. Left it on the oak to long and it took over 6 months to mellow out, but it ended up being quite tasty and did very well in competition.
Matt
Didn’t do rum-soaked cubes but rather added rum directly at bottling (Goslings Black Seal). Wasn’t particularly impressed with the results as discussed here in an earlier thread…
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=3389.msg38475#msg38475