NORTH RIVER, N.S. — Imagine, if you will, a few folks sitting around chatting inside a Kentucky bourbon distillery while imbibing some samples of the house wares.
Imagine, too, perhaps, as the warmed-belly, chin wagging turns to the subject of: ‘What if… ?’
For instance, what if you took a keg of rum and let it age ever-so-gracefully out in the rain; the bone-chilling temperatures; the sun; the snow and all the other elements cast down from a Nova Scotia sky - would it survive?
That was a question posed when North River’s Raging Crow Distillery owner Jill Linquist was touring bourbon distillery’s in Kentucky, shortly after her own facility opened in September 2018.
“We had the great fortune to have a tour of the Kelvin Cooperage to see how they actually made the barrels,” she said.
Kelvin Cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky supplies barrels to leading craft distilleries and wineries throughout the world. During the conversation that ensued during her tour, the question came up about the possibility of letting a barrel of rum age outdoors for a year.
“They thought it would be fine,” she said.
Linquist had some barrels shipped to her distillery and the culmination of that bourbon-inspired idea is a 100-litre keg of molasses and sugar cane rum, looking ever so much like a giant-sized crow’s egg, perched atop a six-metre pole and resting inside a nest made of spruce boughs and branches.
“We really just want to try it to see how it tastes,” Linquist said.
An oak barrel expands and contracts with changing temperatures, which helps to produce the flavour and colour of a barrel’s contents. Distillery barrels are charred inside and while some of content’s flavouring comes from the char, it also comes from the tannins in the wood.
Leaving the barrel to age out in the elements is expected to enhance the expansion and contracting process. Just how that will impact the rum’s flavour, however, will not be known until it is taken down and opened next August.
“It’s never been done that we’ve heard of,” Linquist said, of leaving a barrel to age outdoors at the mercy of the elements. “And, it looks so darn cool.”
As for feedback on the project, Linquist said the reaction so far has been “very positive.”
“You hear ‘wow’ a lot, and ‘what a great idea,'” she said.
“And, the wonderful thing about distilling, if there is ever an issue, you can always re-distill and start over again.”
People are already having their names added to a wait list and, like them, Linquist is eager to see how it all turns out.
“It will be a great way to celebrate the end of summer next year,” she said.
Fast facts
- As is sits in the barrel, the rum is at 56 proof. It will be proofed down to 40 per cent alcohol per volume prior to marketing.
- The pole that the keg is resting on has a metal cradle which is hidden by the “nest” of boughs.
- The pole was supplied by Stella Jones while the metal cradle was constructed by Bruce McNutt.
- Hubtown Crane lifted it all up into place and Hubtown Contracting assisted with the installation.
