I'll keep this one simple. We have had any number of Lost Spirit threads here, most regarding this guys amazing multiple claims of "fast dunder" (a ripe banana for 2 days in the ferment), "fast seasoning" (using pressure to create years old sherry barrels in just 40 hours), and "fast aging" (see fast seasoning) in "fast barrels" (treated with a "magic" light).
If that weren't enough this MacGuyver wannabee had yet another unproven theory, namely that if he distilled his spirits in his homemade oak stills, that somehow the few hours the wash spent in the still would produce and transfer untold numbers of flavors from the oak into the spirit in just the few hours of distilling. Did this potted idea work?
No.
What it did produce - due to the constant hot and steamy process - was to become infected with the same fungus apparent in corks and that is called "cork taint". A very nasty, unappetizing and rather unhealthy and unintended additive.
Note this: The fungus caused him to destroy his large still, and quickly replace it with a much smaller, bizarre and homemade copper still - according to my research - less than a year ago. It is this new copper still that is alleged to be used to make his rum. Yet today I received an email from Drinkupny that promoted the rum thusly:
WTF?! How can you produce a 4 year old sherry barreled rum in barrels that were reportedly seasoned for 40 hours, and using a copper still that seems to be less than one year old? Or is this rum that was produced in the fungus infected old oak still he was forced to destroy? You decide...Drinkupny:
"Bryan Davis deploys 100% low rectification pot distillation process and age the distillate just under four years in Oloroso sherry seasoned new American oak to create a rum that is big, thick, dense, complex and rich."
For me, it remains a mystery.
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http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtopic.php?t=1230
http://www.drinkupny.com/Lost_Spirits_N ... /s1501.htm
Special Note: The age of LS's homemade still was discovered a few months ago. According to that research, it appeared that the still was made in late 2013. In that post I estimated the age of the rums at about four months, ergo the current estimate of less than one year old. Drinkupny's statement is even more curious when as recently as last year Lost Spirits refused to discuss actual age when directly confronted.
