Homemade RUM!!!!! The best summer ever

[Teufel Hunden]

First, before anyone asks, yes I have a license for this. I'm hoping to turn this from a hobby into a legitimate side income, then hopefully grow it into my primary income. I'm still in the first few steps of doing this... and have only produced a few gallons so far.


I've created two varieties. One sipping rum, and one mixing rum.



Here's the sipping rum in the middle. The other two carboys are some beers I'm playing with.

It's a very simple recipe that turns out exceptionally smooth rum that, even unspiced, is very drinkable after only aging.

This experiment answered a lot of questions I had. It turned out smooth rum is ridiculously easy to create, and getting a repeatable, good tasting recipe happened much faster than I thought (I guessed 18 months of continuous experimenting... it took me 1 attempt).

But spicing, that's a different story altogether. My first spice experiment was a complete failure. While I'm pretty handy in the kitchen and can make up spice combinations on a whim, rum spices don't work the same way for me. I over estimated some spices, underestimated others, and what I ended up with was something that smelled like ridiculously strong sangria, and all you could taste was cinnamon. Unfortunately at that stage, nothing could salvage it, and no one wanted to drink it.

So we decided a simpler approach was needed. So after I let it age in a small American oak cask I have, I made some caramel and threw that in, let some whole vanilla beans soak in there for a while, and I ended up with this:



Odd angle because I was trying to get the light to shine through it.

PERFECT coloring, nearly perfect flavor (the vanilla was just a touch strong). This occurred over the 4th of July, and when everyone heard I had rum I wanted tasted, it turned into a little block party. Before I knew it, everyone was sauced and happy, and every drop I had was gone. My neighbors who don't even drink rum were drinking it straight out of the glass.. no mixing at all. The next day, after everyone's hangover had subsided, I had several requests for more rum.

I've got about a gallon aging right now for my wedding next week. If it goes over as well there as it did over the 4th of July, I think I've got a real winner.


But, In the wide world of Rum, not many people drink the stuff straight. Bacardi even had those commercials encouraging you to mix it with something. This is because, in general, it's too harsh, and needs to be cut. As much as I enjoy a good rum, even I don't drink Captain Morgan or Sailor Jerry unless it's mixed. So, the search started for a flagship rum. Cheaper to produce (the sipping rum requires a very specific ingredient, which I can only find in California, and the shipping is atrocious. It's more expensive across the board to create), and meant to be mixed. So that led me to this stuff here:



That's after 1 day of fermenting. When I first put it in there, it was black as molasses. The interesting thing about that particular recipe, is it's fairly unique. The knowledge base for distilling is fairly small, since it's illegal in all 50 states without a license. Compare it to something like beer, where it's legal to produce more than a man can drink in a year in your basement, and it's almost as if no one makes their own rum at all. I spent a LOT of time researching various recipes and found 99% of them look like this: Blackstrap Molasses + Sugar. Done. It took weeks to finally come up with something a bit different, and I even used a different strain of yeast than most people probably would.

After some time in the American Oak, here's what came out:



The left is straight aged, the right has a bit of caramel added.

This stuff has about the right harshness if I compared it to other base rums, and after aging, it had some pretty good flavors. The caramel cut the harshness a tad, and it seems about right for mixing.

The problem I've run into with this, is all the people I know who drink rum aren't terribly brand loyal. As long as their soda has some alcoholic beverage mixed in it, they don't care if it's bacardi, Captain Morgan, Sailor Jerry, or Kracken. So the tastings so far have been, "Yeah, it's good," or "Yep, tastes like rum." This one is sellable IMO, but I think we'd have to weigh pretty heavily on our marketing plan (which is pretty good, if I must say so myself ) to get it to go.

So, that was my epic summer of Rum. It'll cap off with my epic highland wedding, featuring a gallon of the good stuff. If there's any left, I'll see about staging a kilt night so the local Rabble can try some as well.

EDIT: Forgot to add. I cut all the rum down to 90 proof. Straight out of the still it's usually around 150-160, and that's the absolute lowest I can go. I originally was shooting for about 140 proof.

[TheKiltedCoder]

Wow, sir! I am impressed. I've done everything for which you don't need a license (beer, wine, and I even have a melomel percolating happily in the basement), but have always wondered about trying something along these lines.

I must be one of the weird ones (taste buds seared off by too much capsaicin, I suppose), but I tend to drink my rum straight (sipping like a good whisky). A friend introduced me to Pusser's, and I was greatly impressed.

Brian

[mull]

Let's skip the part about asking IF you have a license and tell us HOW to get a license!

[Teufel Hunden]

Wow, sir! I am impressed. I've done everything for which you don't need a license (beer, wine, and I even have a melomel percolating happily in the basement), but have always wondered about trying something along these lines.

I'd say the biggest pain is finding the knowledge base. The general knowledge is there, but if you have very specific questions about something, sometimes it can be hard to get an answer. Beer and wine, in 5 minutes you can be completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information on every corner of the net.

I must be one of the weird ones (taste buds seared off by too much capsaicin, I suppose), but I tend to drink my rum straight (sipping like a good whisky). A friend introduced me to Pusser's, and I was greatly impressed.

Brian

I wouldn't say it's weird at all. I will agree that Pusser's is pretty good stuff.

Let's skip the part about asking IF you have a license and tell us HOW to get a license!

Each state has its own rules. Here in CO, it costs about $1100 per year, and I just had to fill out an application for a manufacturers license with the Colorado Department of Revenue. Once I start selling it there will be very specific rules I'll have to follow in terms of keeping records and paying taxes.

I'm sure the process is pretty similar in every state... start with the Department of Revenue.

[MadMouser]

Each state has its own rules. Here in CO, it costs about $1100 per year, and I just had to fill out an application for a manufacturers license with the Colorado Department of Revenue. Once I start selling it there will be very specific rules I'll have to follow in terms of keeping records and paying taxes.

I'm sure the process is pretty similar in every state... start with the Department of Revenue.

It sounds like Colorado's pretty easy going about it, which is nice. Can you comment on whether you dealt with the TTB at all? It's been my understanding that the federales will still get their nose out of joint if they don't get their cut too...

[Teufel Hunden]

It sounds like Colorado's pretty easy going about it, which is nice. Can you comment on whether you dealt with the TTB at all? It's been my understanding that the federales will still get their nose out of joint if they don't get their cut too...

Colorado is very friendly with all things alcohol. 10 years ago we had no microdistilleries, and now we have 14, in addition to the booming microbrew industry. Excise taxes are about $.50 a bottle.

I'm working through the application process with the TTB right now actually. The federal laws on distilleries seem to be left over from the prohibition days... it's as if they're worried about some alcohol empire springing up and creating another Al Capone, while not quite understanding that those empires existed because there was no legal option for booze.

They want to know where all the money came from to start the business, who has an interest in the business, and you need to have bank records to back it all up. I'm forming an LLC for this, so they want to look at all the paperwork for that. They also do their usual background checks, and a federal inspector will be assigned to me at a certain point to tour the facility and make sure I'm up to code on everything. In addition to all that, I need to be bonded.

Federal excise taxes are $13.50 per 100 proof gallon, which is $2.14 per 750ml bottle at 80 proof.

[MadMouser]

Pretty cool! It sounds like the feds are ok with you doing test batches/personal consumption. Or is that because you've got the paperwork started with them?

I just checked and it looks like a distiller's permit in Texas is $3350 for two years. For that money I'm sticking with my plan to buy the booze I drink (mostly scotch and bourbon) and funnel the rest of the money in to NFA firearms.

EDIT: the fee is a 2 year fee, not 1 year.

[madmacs]

There was a tasting line and you didnt include us... ?

Used to drink a fair bit of rum in the UK (OVD or Watsons) which are much darker demerara rums than seem to be available in this side of the pond... bacardi, captain morgans, and that appleton stuff just dont have the same depth... Of course i'm pretty sure that at a lockin at 2am pretty much anything with alcohol will keep the tunes playing and the party going...

[Cowher]

Super cool.

[BonnetMaker]

With your spiced rums, you may want to allow the batch to age for a good year or more before making final decisions as to the recipe. With one of my other heads on I've done a fair amount of research into the history and archaeology of early perfumes, and there are distinct overlaps in the distilling and maturing of alcohol based scents especially for earlier centuries (and yes, I did have a permission slip from the nice men at the C&E office ;) ) Anyway, there is a lot to be said for making up some sample bottles with spice mixtures and allowing them to mature for at least a year before you make final decisions as to what proportions to go for, a lot can change in storage.