particles in Appleton Estate 21 Year Old Rum?

I had seen similar thing in a bottle from Companies des Indes bought recently, I immediately brought the bottle back to the seller, and we agreed that I could take another bottle instead as a compensation. In my opinion it's not normal, and should be returned and replaced by the seller, or money should be returned. Properly bottled rum should be clear, at maximum with a slight haze if chill filtration was not used. Particles in the rum indicate either improperly maintained barrels, or cork dissolved by the rum due to either bad materials used to produce the cork, or bad storage (rum should never be stored on the side like wine, the distillate should not touch the cork).

thanks. the particles dont look like pieces from the cork, they look more like crystallized sugar. i dont remember if there was a chill filter or not on the appleton 21. i thought it was a sign of the rum starting to go bad therefor i did not buy. the seller thought it was natural.

Crystalized sugar or other adulterants that get pushed out of the solution can happen, I saw something similar in a bottle of Zafra. But Jamaican and Bajan rum should not ever be sweetened, so I don't think that was the case. Appleton is a respectable brand, and 21 years is their top offering, so I would expect the best quality (I did not have the pleasure of tasting this particular rum, though).

Ok, so after performing extensive research in numerous websites, I was able to come up with the answer to your is this normal for small particles to be encountered in rum. The answer to this is a huge YES! Many distillers not limited to whisky and rum use a filtering technique called chill filtering. Chill filtering aids in precluding sediment from occurring in rums that partake in this procedure. Appleton uses this chill filtering on their younger siblings, HOWEVER, chill filtering is NOT USED in their Appleton 21 presentation. Many distillers do not like to use this process as it tends to take away from the more natural approach. For rums, this process really doesn’t add anything like sugar to alter the taste, but removes sediment only or aids in preventing hazy coloration to rum in the bottle or when water or ice is added. For certain scotches where Peat is a major source of a smokiness flavor, chill filtering will remove some of the Peat, which will alter the taste therefore, this process is not used. Hopefully this helps you and eases your mind regarding these particles and ensures you that this is natural and not harmful.

"The answer to this is a huge YES! " Would you care to share the source of such information? Because one dude in a forum telling another dude that it's okay is not exactly an authoritative opinion on the subject. Especially if the dude happens to be a supplier of said alcohol. And if you think that particles in rum are okay, would you care to explain how they legitimately get into the rum? Because no particles pass through distillation, raw distillate should be perfectly clear. Properly maintained and prepared barrels should not release wooden splinters during the aging process. So any particles you find in the rum are either pieces of the cork, which means the cork was dissolved partially and/or physically damaged, but that also probably means that some of the bonding agent that held the cork together is dissolved in your rum, possibly affecting flavor and aroma. And if it's not pieces of cork or splinters from the barrel, it's either dirt, dead insects that fell into the liquid at some stage, or other impurities, all indicating bad production and/or quality control process.

There are many websites that discuss this issue and how it occurs in rum, bourbon and whiskey. Calcium oxylate, reversible or irreversible flocculation, particles of wood from the barrel etc. Reddit.com, Ministry of Rum and Cocktailwonk.com to name 3 sites that discuss this issue.

100% of bottles of rum and scotch I've had over the last 15 years have had some form of sediment where they have not been chill filtered - some of this sediment has been darker in colour and is likely to be very small bits of cask, some of it is where minerals come out of solution into the spirit and form white floaters that sometimes looks like flakes of dandruff or smaller round white blobs (irreversible flocculation). Barrier filtering will not remove all of these bits as the files are not fine enough, only chill filtering will remove the sediment. If you see "clouds" or stringy looking bits (especially when the liquid is cold) then it's more likely to be reversible flocculation as the fatty acids found in the spirit clump together. Whilst it's almost true that the distilled spirit is clear, it is not just a mix of ethanol and water, it contains all those lovely congeners (fatty acids) that are produced during fermentation and result in esters - this gives the spirit flavour. If it was just ethanol and water then it'd be flavourless, and new make is certainly not!...well, sometimes...it is. The spirit gets matured and encounters oak. Ethanol and water are both solvents and will acquire molecules from the cask over time. In addition to this, new make is usually brought down to cask fill strength with local water, this water will contain molecules, minerals etc which mix with the spirit, which interacts with the cask. Don't chill filter...you'll get some of this "stuff" in your bottle.