Buying a Barrel

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19Jamie76
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Buying a Barrel

Post by 19Jamie76 »

Not sure if this is the proper place for this question so please move if necessary Jimbo.

Is it possible to buy a barrel of rum? Not actually having a barrel shipped to you per se, but rather going to a distillery and picking out a barrel that you particularly like and then have it bottled by the distillery.

This is somewhat of a common occurrence with some Bourbon/whiskey distilleries here in the U.S., with numerous liquor stores selling something they hand picked. I am not even sure if the general public can do this. Also not sure how that would work if you wanted something from say Jamaica, or Trinidad.
rockydog101
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Post by rockydog101 »

Sorry. Don't expect a reply to this post. I've asked a similar question in the past, on two different rum forums, and not a shred of insight!
AK9
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Post by AK9 »

Whiskybroker has a good reputation on whisky circles for bottling whisky at logical prices.

He did ask the following question few weeks ago.
Have not seen any response from him on where his rum is from but I am waiting ...

https://www.facebook.com/whiskybroker.c ... 6791508160
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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Don't know how I missed this one, sorry...


Can you be more specific as to:

1. What volume of rum do you wish to buy?
2. Do you intend to buy the actual barrel (and suffer or benefit from continuing aging or angel's losses of say 7% a year)?
3. Do you intend to buy from a specific distiller? Country? Style?
4. Do you intend to taste a sample of the actual bulk you will be buying?
5. What are your intentions with such a purpose? Getting drunk for the next few year? Party? Rebottling?

Tag...
19Jamie76
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Post by 19Jamie76 »

Well, that is the problem...I really don't know.

I guess the question came about from seeing some of the U.S. whiskey distilleries doing this (i.e., Four Roses, Smooth Ambler Spirits, etc). Liquor stores such as Bevmo or Binny's usually offer these to their customers, however, I know some bourbon-centered forums occasionally will do a group buy where they choose a barrel based on taste and have the distillery bottle it for them.

As far as a specific distillery or style, etc, I guess it would depend on which if any rum distillery would do this. It is probably easier to do this with U.S. based companies, as you don't have the issues of importation.

I don't know...just thinking out loud right now.
DanL
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Post by DanL »

This site is quite useful:
http://www.wineoakbarrels.com/rumbarrels.html

I see that they do barrels as small as 1 litre, however I reckon a 3 litre barrel would look good on the sideboard.

I would have thought a craft distillery might be able to oblige, however there may be concerns over what your particular barrel might do to the taste / quality of their product (assuming you supply them with the barrel).

The other option is to make your own, and fill a cask of your choice.

This site has really interested me recently:
http://www.lovebrewing.co.uk/beginners/ ... -liqueurs/

Not too sure about the flavouring additives, but I reckon their little pot still, or column still could be quite an interesting project; pity it'd be somewhat illegal here in the UK though.

Mind you, if I had one in the garage, who's to know...
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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

It stands to reason that until or unless you can answer the questions in my last post, that there's no real advice to give right now. Try this: forgetting the details, the availabilities, and the acquisition etc., but for now please try to define your ideal goal, budget, et al.

Knowing that, I'm sure you'll get good counsel here on what your next steps are. Other subjects have been raised like buying your own micro barrel - a real turkey shoot in that small, new barrels can overoak a spirit very quickly. As far as making your own, this is a huge endeavor that requires that you spend considerable time educating yourself. The one and only website to do that is the well known and respected Homedistillers group...

http://homedistiller.org/forum/index.ph ... 879ab392ee

Good luck. Do present your personal and ideal goal and then let's see what's next...
DanL
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Post by DanL »

Cheers for the link to Homedistillers.org. I can see me spending a bit of time wading through that forum.
19Jamie76
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Post by 19Jamie76 »

I'm hoping this clarifies things a bit more...

To answer your questions Jimbo:

1) This would be a single barrel. Of course the amount would depend somewhat on the age, but that could be decided later.
2) I would not want to buy the actual barrel.
3) I enjoy Jamaican, Guyanese and Trinidadian rums.
4) Yes, I would like to be able to taste said rum prior to purchase.
5) My intention would be to get a rum that may not be readily available.
6) I know there wasn't a question number 6, however, the whole intention here would be to do a group buy.

So...could one approach Appleton and say: "I really love your 12 year old rum. Could I purchase a barrel and have you bottle it at barrel strength?"

What about Velier? I'm thinking since they are already producing specialty bottles, this would be a no-go.

Again, I go back to the likes of Four Roses. They do this. However, since they already produce barrel strength bourbons, doing specialty bottles from hand picked barrels is not so difficult. Willett used to do similar things as well with their barrels.
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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Thanks for the info - members, do you have any ideas? Meanwhile, I'll see what I can turn up...
Blade Rummer
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Post by Blade Rummer »

I'm sure you'll get much more informed project members replying, but for what it's worth, I strongly doubt getting anywhere with the larger distillers for a few reasons :

- You would need to place a large enough order for it to be worth their time and effort. Unless you and everybody you know wants to spend their remaining days on a bender, it would probably be way too large an order.
- For any distiller outside of your country of origin, you would have to deal with the import, the duties, etc. which sometimes go up very quickly the higher proofage of the imported spirit.
- In the case of Appleton, say the previous points are moot and they agree to bottle your barrel. Which bottles would they use? Would it be labeled an Appleton rum? For spirits like rum, branding is mostly everything (and in some case simply everything) and the distillers probably wouldn't be keen on these bottles of their product floating around in a sort of limbo.
- If you are to have any sucess, I think you would really need to find craft distillers who would be more open to it (and your money, let's be honest here).

All that being said, if you somehow manage some barrel strength Appleton Reserve, I'll be the first person pestering you for a bottle! :D
19Jamie76
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Post by 19Jamie76 »

Blade,

Good points and I suspect you are right. The main reason being the importation issues I assume. Again, this is a fairly common occurrence in the bourbon world, but I've not seen it with rum.

Oh well...
mamajuana
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Post by mamajuana »

Caskers.com has their own Private cask/bottling/labeling service which includes rum. Never bought a private cask I'm a real slut when it comes to rum I'm always going for a different experience and only revisit my absolute favorites. There are a number of private rum cask offerings lately too many I know of to list. The most popular are from Mt. Gay lately. A local liquor store here released an outstanding single barrel from the new Black Barrel release. Binny's also just released a Bacardi single barrel series of a 10 year old. Hitime just released one actually a foursquare 9 year old rum with 6 of those years in a port cask.


https://www.caskers.com/private-cask/


If you have the money anything is possible. They take care of all the leg work you just need to know what you want and have the money of course.
19Jamie76
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Post by 19Jamie76 »

Thanks for that. I sent them a note and will let everyone know what I find out.
19Jamie76
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Post by 19Jamie76 »

As of yet, no response from Caskers... I've been subscribed to their site for a while and have only received spam mail so they not actually responding to a general e-mail doesn't surprise me. If anything comes up, I will update further.
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