Ingredients:
1/2 lb fresh ginger root
2 cups sugar
5 cups water
750 ml white rum
Instructions:
Before using the barrel, check the instructions. It needs to be cleaned out and prepped to hold liquid. To prepare the barrel, rinse it with hot water to get out any stray wood bits, them fill it with cold water and let it swell-up for at least a week, until no more water seeps out. Then it’s ready to be filled with alcohol.
Wash and cut the ginger root into sticks, leaving the peels on. In a sauce pan, bring 5 cups of water to boil. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve, then add the ginger root. Simmer the mixture for 30-40 minutes until reduced by half. Strain the syrup, reserving the ginger root for another use (like cookies!) Let the syrup cool.
Combine the syrup with a 750 ml bottle of white rum, then pour into your prepared 1 liter barrel. Let age for two weeks, then sample. Decant it into a bottle when it reaches the level of smoky carameliness. My rum just past a month and tastes great, but I think I’ll let it roll and see what happens the longer it sits. Assuming it lasts that long.