Transformation

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                                        Transformation

We are halfway into our third year monitoring, documenting and reporting the physical, chemical and organoleptic changes that rum undergoes while being aged in

three different types of oak barrels.  Year one (2020) was devoted to rum aging in used, American Oak, ex-Bourbon barrels.  Year two (2021) was devoted to rum aging in new, American Oak barrels.  This year’s focus is on rum aging in new, French Oak barrels.  You can read more about this on pages 14-19 of this issue and by downloading archival issues of “Got Rum?”.

Seeing changes in pH, ABV, color, etc., is only one part of a very complex picture.  These parameters speak to how the rum reacts to its environmental conditions over time.  Other, less obvious changes include how the rum changes its environment and also how the rum’s own initial chemical makeup can affect these transformations.

As the contents of the barrels evaporate inside the cellar, water + alcohol vapors are released into the environment, where they are able to interact with, even allow the presence of, different organisms.  Perhaps the most noticeable of these is Baudoinia compniacensis, a fungus that has evolved the ability to consume alcohol vapor.  It is present in all established aging cellars around the world and it is known as Whisky Black, Black Soot, Cognac Black Fungus, etc.

Different rums also age differently, depending on their initial Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), for example.  All these factors remind me of how people react differently to the same environmental conditions, some excelling at overcoming obstacles while others become victims of their surroundings.  Unlike rum, however, we humans have the option at all times to change our “chemical composition” and confront life’s obstacles with a different attitude and determination, so that we can obtain more desirable goals.

Please take a few moments before you walk out the door to do an inventory of your strengths and goals.  Do you plan to be helplessly shaped by your surroundings or do you chose to be an agent of change, making this a better world for you and for those around you?

Cheers!

Luis Ayala, Editor and Publisher

http://www.linkedin.com/in/rumconsultant