Lost Spirits review on eGullet

Now's here's the real stuff - traditional, cleans your socks on the way down. Unlike the Royal Navy, the pirates drank while eating, sailing and fighting - the first multitaskers. Here's to Port Royal, the Port of Orgies! Say it loud and say it plowed!
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Hassouni
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Lost Spirits review on eGullet

Post by Hassouni »

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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Stasi Alert!!!


Turns out that Hass' link was to a ultra-fawning post at eGullet in re Lost Spirits, that could easily have been written by the micro-distiller who has made all manner of false claims about "fast aging" (by exposing his wood and inserted staves to a magic light), that was clearly very young yet dark mahogany in color, and who claimed that adding a banana peel to his ferment was the equivalent of a 20 year old, open air dunder pit.

These claims are simply nutty, and were well addressed in my link above, here at The Project.

Anyway, I repeated the main points of our post, corrected a misimpression (that copper stills cause "funk" !?) in my usual kind and gentle way - no insults, just embarassing contradictions. And guess what?

Within hours the management removed the BS post and my spirited retort. Actually, this was a good thing as I hate such blatant information being disseminated and only having to be undone by attentive posters. Still, it would have been nice if the point/counterpoint had been left intact. To be fair, I make a special effort to remain unemotional, avoid name calling or insults, but rely on the facts in a clear effort to expose silliness and misinformation for what it is.

My guess? The local management - perhaps properly - guessed that the OP was a plant, so removed it and accordingly my counterpoint (which would make little sense without it). Sorry Hass, I couldn't resist....
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Post by Hassouni »

Actually they didn't delete anything at all, they just moved it to Jimbo's own Understanding Rum thread. The OP is definitely NOT a plant, but it one of the regular participants of the spirits & cocktails subforum. Here's the thread: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/142091- ... rum/page-2

You should have received a notification that said:
Hello Hassouni, tanstaafl2, Capn Jimbo,

A discussion you were participating in, originally in the London Spirits Run topic, has been moved over to the Understanding Rum topic, since it had grown into a discussion that didn't quite fit with the intent of the original topic
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Perfect!

Never got the memo...

...but good for them. I see that it opened up a discussion, which sadly has devolved into the usual "he said" "she said" kind of exchange. Apparently one poster remains willing to suspend disbelief in that he accepts that a new, very young rum can present as dark mahogany despite the distiller's claim that he uses "no colorings, no flavorings". Another makes excuses for his claim of a banana peel used in the ferment as dunder, claiming the adjective was misused but still accepting the outcome.

I don't accept either. No new young rum will ever present as "dark mahogany" without "help". And 2 days with a banana peel can't replace a 20 year old dunder pit.

The same poster considers the distiller's added sherry as fair (and not an added flavoring) and is even willing to consider that the distiller's special "light-treated" wood and staves might achieve years of aging in mere weeks or months.

I don't. Again, it's impossible, period. These are some of the nuttiest hobby-distiller claims I've ever seen. Tell you what. If the distiller wants to send me a bottle, we'll test it and we'll taste it and honestly report the results. I won't be holding my breath.
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Post by Hassouni »

So I tried the stuff.

It's a good attempt, but there's something in it that puts me off. It has an EXTREMELY heavy, sweet, rotting-molasses nose, but is bone dry on the taste. I suppose my request for a super high ester rum has been met, and maybe I'm not ready for it. That rotting-molasses note is part of the taste that puts me off, along with what I can only imagine is excess woodiness. It reminds me a bit of Myer's, if the "distinctively Jamaican" elements in Myer's were all amped up along with the ABV. Or perhaps the elements of WNOP that some people find objectionable, magnified at the expense of the other elements of WNOP.

I did not try it in a cocktail, and my guess is that it might work better in that regard than sipping neat. It might make for a killer Mai Tai.
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

It took some research but...


Based on when LS's wooden stills had to be destroyed (due to his failure to anticipate the fungus that was encouraged by permeable oak in a constantly hot and steamy environment), I'm going to guess that his self-designated "Navy rum" is only a few months old. It is then fast aged by what seems to be a technique using his magic light exposed oak staves jammed into a "fast seasoned barrel" for a relatively brief time.

The barrel's are "fast seasoned" apparently by using some kind of pressure to force sherry into new oak for about 40 hours (?) - which he wants us to believe replaces years of actual sherry aging in a few hours. Like Cleveland Whisky's Black Bourbon, I'm going to guess that he also uses this pressure technique to "fast age" the rum.

Reviews of CW's 6-day, fast aged bourbon reveals TONS of what some describe as raw wood, no doubt resulting from the spirit being forced past the char and/or toasted layer into - yup - raw wood. What LS thus is selling is a very young, forced age spirit that - at the very, very best - MAY be a mixer...

...selling for $50!? LS's peated whisky seems to suffer the same fate - woodiness - and wasn't even recognized as a whisky by Serge of Whiskyfun, who oughta know...
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Post by Hassouni »

Part of the price is the alcohol content, I think...68% I believe? (I know WN, etc, is much cheaper and all, but absinthe is unaged and in that ABV range as well as that price range)
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