BrewDog Spirits - Spiced Rum 70cl - 500 Cuts Rum

Product Information

At the sugar mill, the cane is chopped and crushed to extract the juice which is boiled to reduce the water content and leave a syrup known as 'wet sugar', comprising approximately 30% sugar. This syrup is clarified and mixed with sugar crystals, which provide a core for the dissolved sugar in the syrup to crystallise on. This mixture is boiled and then cooled to encourage the sugar crystals to enlarge. It is then spun in a centrifuge to separate the crystals from the liquid. Simple column stills (like that designed by Aeneas Coffey) consist of two tall columns, one called an 'analyzer column' and the other the 'rectifying column'. Perforated copper trays or 'plates' sit horizontally in each, like the floors in an skyscraper. Put simply steam is introduced at the bottom of the still and the wash mid way up. The hot steam rises through the still with each floor or plate acting to distil the wash with heavier compounds unable to rise to the next floor so falling while lighter compounds vaporise and ascend the still. The two columns are linked, the second further purifying the vapours from the first while at the same time heating the wash that will charge the first (analyzer) colum. For beginners, this is a great rum to have with a nice cola and a slice of lime - it's refreshing and very moreish. The pH of the molasses will also affect fermentation and ideally will be in a range between 4.4 to 4.6 and this may be adjusted but the addition of the acidic residue (lees) left in the still after an earlier distillation. Dunder is the term given to lees which have been left in open dunder pits to concentrate the ester content and the acetic/butyric acids. Light or heavy rum Due to their plentiful supply, rum is most commonly aged in American oak casks which have previously been used to age American whisky (bourbon). This is due to the rules of bourbon dictating that the whiskey must be aged in new white oak casks so once used they are useless to the bourbon industry, other than as a commodity to be sold to other distillers around the world. The inside of these casks are charred at the cooperage when first made. This caramelises natural sugars on the wood's surface increasing the vanillins. Casks may be scraped clean to remove any previous charring, and/or re-charred before being filled with rum: the quality of these casks, what they previously held, how many times they are refilled and their treatment dramatically affects the character they impart to the rum stored within them.

By far the majority of rums are produced from molasses - known as 'rhum traditional', but also sometimes rather unkindly described by producers of rhum agricole as 'rhum industriel' (industrial rum). Whether a cask is a 'first re-fill', meaning the cask was previously used to age another spirit and this is its first time it has been used to age rum. Or it is a second or third re-fill will make a huge difference to the effect the cask has on the maturing spirit. The BrewDog Distilling Company is charged with a single mission; to challenge perceptions of what a spirit can be. This is done with a meticulous eye for detail and an approach born of non-compromise – meaning everything is done under one roof, from scratch. Nothing is rushed. For a case in point we unveil their incredible hand-made rum Five Hundred Cuts – which took six months and thirty-five recipes to uncover. But their work has been very much worth it.

Bottling rum

In practice distillation is a lot more complex with numerous variables affecting the final distillate produced - mainly the different boiling points of the various different kinds of alcohol and their particular flavour compounds. The skill of the distiller is to use the distillation process to separate and collect the alcohols and flavour compounds (congeners) wanted in the finished rum. It is common for stills with retorts to have tanks under each retort where the low wines and the high wines are sent in preparation for charging the retorts above for the following distillation. The liquids placed in the retorts will have a dramatic affect on the finished distillate. For example the first retort may contain low wines mixed with fermented wash, dunder and even some high wines.

Losses in volume to due evaporation are also more exaggerated in hotter climates (around 6% per year as opposed to 3% in Scotland) and high humidity can mean an almost equal loss between alcohol and water, meaning that although the volume is lost the strength remains fairly constant. To prevent casks destined for extended ageing from gradually emptying over the years, it is common for casks to be topped up with rum from other casks in same batch. Thus, you might start with ten casks of rum from a particular batch and ten years later be left with only five casks. Charcoal filtration of rum Natural sweetness and warm spice on the nose, Banditti Club opens up to toasted pineapple and orange on the palate with notes of clove and anise that lead to a long spicy finish. A mentioned above the distiller must judge when to make the cuts during distillation so controlling what congeners are retained and discarded. Some stills are very simple, while others have devices which allow the distiller more control. Some distillers increase the surface area of wood in the cask by inserting oak or charred oak chips. This reduces the ageing period required to gain a similar effect and is viewed by many (including me) as being something of a shortcut, as although it imparts a lot of flavours from the oak, the effects of extended oxidisation and evaporation are not replicated. In rum making one of the common additions to pot stills are retorts. The distillate from the pot still is directed into the first of two retorts, a copper chamber filled with low wines from the previous distillation diluted with water (to approx 50% alc./vol.). The hot vapour causes the liquid in the 'low wine retort' to boil and so concentrate the strength of the vapour which then moves on the second retort. This is filled with high wines from the previous distillation, again diluted with water but to a higher strength. As in the first retort, the vapour causes the liquid to boil and the alcohol strength of the vapour is boosted a second time.

Light or heavy rum

In general, heavily-bodied rums are those with more congeners and they tend to be made in pot (alembic) stills. Pot (alembic) still rum production Rum is termed 'light' or 'heavy' depending the level of flavour components or 'congeners' - products of fermentation that are not ethyl alcohol. The level of these (esters, aldyhydes and lower alcohols) is dependent on the length of the fermentation and the purity to which it was distilled. When alcohol is concentrated during distillation, the levels of congeners are reduced. The fewer congeners, the lighter the rum, the more congeners the heavier it will be. The Matugga distillery was established in 2018 by husband and wife team Jacine and Paul Rutasikwa, who had been selling their range of rums since 2015.