Barstool Experts: Discuss Charcoal Filtering

[Capn Jimbo]

Will it never end?


Filtering is a very complex subject, the kind that ought to be avoided at any corner bar. Were it only so! Nope, our usual Shillery bar-stool exspurts have come to their usual, know-it-all conclusions and - like most of their crackpot pronouncements - they are mindlessly simple. This time the tottering discussion rejected El Dorado's new 6 year old white rum in sum, on this basis...

"Why filter a 6 year old rum, when that will remove all the color and most of the hard won flavor?"

Yup, just that simple. Gee, why didn't the multimillion dollar distillers think of that? Why didn't they just check in with the boyz and save themselves the time, trouble and millions of dollars to produce a colorless and relatively tasteless white rum? I'll tell you why. It's because our asshole experts don't have a clue.

Like all such rum-induced theories it's reassuringly simple. Part of being in the club also includes a measure of smug condescension, delivered in the usual breathless and isn't-it-obvious alpha fashion, designed not to be right, but to gain head nodding acquiescence from the beta monkeys.

Nonetheless they're full of it. Here's the facts.

1. Filtration is a terribly complex subject and refers to a long list of very different techniques, procedures, materials and designs.

2. There is gross, remove just the big chunks, physical filtration, like straining the rum through a sock.

3. There are ever finer methods available to remove particles and molecular components of all sizes, from huge to microscopic.

4. There are chemical, electrical, centrifugal and magnetic techniques.

5. There are all manner of materials used, including charcoal of varying levels of activation. And even activated charcoal comes in different forms based on size, shape, what is called a "molasses number" (referring to the size of molecules removed) and another measure called "caramel dp", which is decolorizing performance.

As a crude example it is possible that a filter has good decolorizing performance, while allowing smaller congener molecules to pass through unfiltered. The production and use of charcoal filters is incredibly complicated but mark my word, filters can be created to achieve a wide variety of purposes. Some of the factors which alter the performance of activated charcoal include size of particles, porosity (size of openings), hardness, degree of activation, bulk density and many, many more. Not so simple now, eh?

Anal retentive? Check out: (Wiki on Filtration).

6. There are differing times and techniques from quick 'n dirty - to slow, meticulous and complicated. All of the preceeding may be combined in different ways.

7. Different components of a spirit, from color to congeners to tannins to proteins, are removed in different ways, at different rates and with differing results.

Did I say complex?

Thus the simplistic asshole notion that some kind of generic "filtering will remove color and most of the flavor" is simply that - an asshole notion. Foolish and uneducated opinions delivered by foolish and uneducated primates, but delivered with stunning surety and overconfidence by their alpha monkey leaders and their wannabees.


Here's how it happens:

Among the alpha wannabees over at the Shillery, nothing is more important than gaining the nod of their fearless leader, the Preacher.

In this quest the wannabees act in predictable fashion. Their first crude attempts are to simply follow the leader. The Preacher preaches - and the monkey minions nod in rapt, mee-too agreement. I agree, I agree! The more advanced will express tentative, lukewarm opinions that end in the kind of California Girl upnote that implies a questioning lack of confidence. When the Preacher finally enters the fray (which he does more and more now) and cites THE POSITION, the gang then chimes in en masse, with minor extrapolations.

Embarassing.

In time, a relatively few annointed wannabees survive the hazing, come forth and actually peek out with meek opinions (having first anticipated THE POSITION). This play is deemed successful if they are not contradicted by the Preacher, and a come-in-your-pants triumph if the Preacher actually responds and - I'm Coming Sooooon! - agrees! Wow!

I'm not kidding, this is how it actually works, and how it happened this time.

What doesn't work are free thinking and independent outsiders who just plain disagree with the "...it's all good" drivel. At special risk are new distillers or product promoters who are not Preacher-approved clients. All of these are likely to be chastised, or more likely, banned. Think I'm kidding? Recently the gentlemen behind The Lash and also Ron de Jeremy suffered such fates. The Preacher lost his clout with me long ago and for good reason, and to be honest, so have most of his sycophantic butt buddies.

They have been filtered out.

[Capn Jimbo]

Me too! Me three!!


Some of you may enjoy seeing the barstool exspurts in action (aka inaction, lol). Here goes. It all started when the Prophet announced the new El Dorado 6 year old white rum:

"I received a bottle of this rum today after hearing about last night in the Appleton Reserve chat. It's only sold in Ontario at the LCBO for now, so don't ask me where you can buy it. "

Now a couple of of the monkeys - anticipating THE POSITION - chime in: "...sounds like a treat, for the tongue and the eyes on this site" and "The 3 year is my favorite white. I can only imagine this one."

Me too! Me three!!

Of course any mention of the LCBO (Canada) is a siren call to the Frozen Malemute of the north, now an inner circle member whose dues are current, and approved to make minor, tentative judgments of this own:

Artic Malemute: "I have to admit my skepticism. I like the ED 3 yr white, as well as the Flor de Cana 4 yr dry white. To me these are excellent rums where the charcoal filtering took that last bit of rough edge off the rum but enough flavour remained to make them really nice.

At six years, the flavour from the barrel aging should already be very smooth and I really wonder what the point of filtering the rum to a clear colour would be..."

Ending on the California Girl upnote. Daring! But unsure of THE POSITION, he immediately backs off. Kind of.

Malemute: "I am probably wrong, as El Dorado has proven in the past to be capable of seriously delighting me... "

Yes, no, maybe. Now here's where it gets interesting. Now the Preacher tips his hand (omigod! Is the THE POSITION changing???)...

Preacher: "I'm as skeptical as you are Arctic Wolf, but I'll be opening it over the weekend live on ustream.tv"

The monkeys mill about in confusion. Should we be for? Or against? Now the Frozen One - the only monkey who correctly anticipated the Preacher's position, and was accordingly blessed with - gasp! - the Preacher's agreement, now works swiftly to solidify this rare acknowledgment...

Artic: "Good job Ed! I agree 100% with your finial statements on age and maturity. My favorite rums tend to be in that 6 to 12 year window..."

After some of the usual irrelevent bullshit, the great one - finally - comes out with THE POSITION. In answer to a newbie question asking "So are you saying then by default white rums have a limit as to how old they can be. That is, one wouldn't take a 7+ aged rum and filter it because it just will not taste good?":

The Position: "It's not that a 7 year old white rum wouldn't be any good, but rather that there is a diminishing return when you filter a rum that has aged so long.

Carbon filtering makes sense for younger aged rums, but since you loose so much flavor when you carbon filter to remove the color, at some point you're not making the rum better but simply aging it longer. "

Emphasis added. Finally! The simplistic POSITION. And how do the monkeys react? Let's start with the formerly confused and contradictory ("I'm skeptical... I'm probably wrong") Wolfboy. Now that the Preacher has spoken clearly (filtration is a bad idea), Wolfie can finally commit...

Artic: "I think I was hinting that there must have been a reason why El Dorado, (or anyone else) would filter a rum of 6+ years. Filtering a quality aged rum makes no sense economically."

Lessee. "I think... I was hinting... there must have been a reason". With the Preacher's blessing he can now speculate - maybe, possibly - and hint - I think - on some other, uh reasons for this travesty. In short odor, er order, he tries on a couple for size:

Frozen One: "...the 6+ year old rum must have had less value than the resulting white... (it) must be dire to make the rum company want to incur extra expense to produce what will be perceived as a lower value product... Maybe there is too much aged rum in the pipeline... maybe somebody screwed up a blend... Maybe a miscalculation in the growth of this demand is the cause of all of these new 'premium' white spirits."

Or maybe all the monkeys and their fearless leader are just plain wrong (see the opening post). But don't take my word for it. Once again, the Preacher hisself is always the best source to contradict himself. Always the promoter seeking portfolio, let's read his main entry for this new rum:

Preachers Main Entry:

"Clear rum distilled from fermented molasses. Aged 6 years in used whisky and bourbon barrels.

Crystal clarity belies the aged rum in this frosted bottle. The first aroma instantly conjures images of an overflowing tropical fruit basket. Coconut, pineapple, papaya and guava aromas are painted over more subtle soursop, banana and sugar cane flavors. The smooth entry confirms the slightly sweet, tropical aroma leading to a round body and viscous mouthfeel. Only a second look at the label confirms that this is actually 40% alcohol.

El Dorado Deluxe Silver 6 year old rum finishes like a tropical afternoon rain shower, refreshing and lingering long enough to whet the appetite for more.

Introduced in February 2010 for the Ontario LCBO, this is the latest rum to be released from Demerara Distillers Ltd."

Tell me, does this sound like filtering has removed both the color and most of the flavors? Not hardly. This is actually a very good review for a white rum. The complexity of this product was also evident in one of his very rare video tastings. What's crystal clear here is not just the rum...

It is the mee-two hypocrisy of the barstool exspurts.

[rus]

Hi.so just read your dissertion on the preacher and his flock...where is the review? I just got handed a bottle,, never heard of it b4, guess cuz I' m an aged rum sipper and not a cocktail guy! So, should I open it, put in in the freezer beside the belvedere and grappa? Or is it only available up here in the great white and u want me 2 bring it with some screech in nov., so u can enjoy it with us? Happy trails. Russ

[Capn Jimbo]

Well, it goes without saying...


...that if you have the bottle, give it a try, and do please share your impressions of it. Or perhaps someone else here has already done so...

[mamajuana]

As a white rum lover I can tell you this bottle is rare to find I have one in my rum chest but have not cracked it open. The LCBO is sold out of it.

I bought mine with some other purchases here a long time ago:

http://www.internetwines.com/rws46147.html

Decent price to at least try or collect it only 3 US stores I found still have stock that I know of and it probably is not selling well considering its still available there. The link is the only one that ships.

Personally I believe this is a presentation bottle to be put on display with a collection so I never opened it one of the best looking bottles for a white rum I have ever seen at this price point.

As an interesting side note I believe some of the rum in this blend is cane juice based in this project. A rarity for DDL but was double filtered sadly. The cane juice would have been from the wooden still while the cont still would be molasses. The sources I have on the cane juice DDL projects are dubious due to the lack of documentation but consistent. I have no real proof on this other than being told about them by a plantation brand ambassador that also claims some of this product was procured by plantation and used in their recent multi-island release of 3 casks the Guyanese portion they claim is an 8 year tropical aged cane juice distillate prior to double and triple aging that made in 10 year.

[The Black Tot]

Very interesting.

My plans to do a white rum shoot out haven't been possible yet, but I have a good feeling about mid-June.

I can probably find this. I'll have to make sure it gets in the test pool.

[Capn Jimbo]

With all due respect to brand "ambassadors"...


...I wouldn't bend over in the shower with any of em. Seriously, how many of these hired guns have denied sugar for year, and now giving away private distilling information? Really?