The Rumcast Will Hoekenga and John Gulla

This episode is sponsored by Nossa Cachaça — Get 10% off any order at NossaCachaca.com with promo code RUMCAST.

In this episode, we talked to Turner Wathen and Jordan Morris, the co-founders of Rolling Fork Rum, and went DEEP on everything the Kentucky-based independent bottler has learned about secondary maturation (and more) since getting started in 2017. We discussed:

Rolling Fork's focus on utilizing an array of ex-bourbon and ex-whiskey casks for secondary maturation

How much of a difference do different types of ex-whiskey casks REALLY make on a spirit that is primarily already aged in ex-bourbon casks?

Why they just launched a rum blend designed for cocktails after their first cocktail rum failed

How they work through disagreements as co-founders

What it's like selling rum deep in the heart of bourbon country

How different types of casks — from ex-fortified wine barrels to ex-whiskey barrels — react to the wild temperature swings in their aging warehouse

Matching the right type of cask to the right rum

How the independent bottler landscape has changed since they got started in 2017

And a whole lot more!

A few links to stuff mentioned in the episode:

Check out The Rum Revival's blind tasting of Rolling Fork rums finished in five different cask types: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCVYrA7TmVw

Check out Rolling Fork's website and online store at RollingForkRum.com: https://rollingforkrum.com/

P.S.Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

We're back with another episode in our Semi-Blind Rum Reviews series. This time, we swapped roles with Will as the blind taster and John as the rum selector. It turned out to be a quite rare rum — English Harbour 1981, a 25-year-old rum from Antigua Distillery Limited, bottled all the way back in 2006!

You can also view the video version of this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36qPUvfw5vY

Be sure to subscribe to us there as well for more video content!

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

For this episode, we reached DEEP into the backs of our cabinets and pulled out a selection of rums we had long overlooked, neglected, or even forgotten about in our bars to see how our thoughts have evolved (or IF they have at all).

The rules were simple: it just had to be a bottle we hadn't tasted in at least two years.

Along the way, we discuss everything from market correcting Myers's Original Dark to John discovering (re-discovering?) one of the three best rums he's tried all year to packaging debates and more. It was a fun time, and we hope this inspires you to have your own back-of-the-cabinet adventure!

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode we talked to Pepe Álvarez, founder of San Juan Artisan Distillers, the only Puerto Rican distillery making pot still rum from fresh sugarcane juice in a true farm-to-bottle setting.

You may recall we featured Pepe as one of three interviewees in an episode back in 2021, but we wanted to bring him back for a solo interview so we could take a deeper dive into what we both think is a super interesting distillery making great rum.

It was also a chance to speak more broadly about the new wave of craft rum distilleries that have launched in Puerto Rico over the past decade or so, opening an exciting new chapter for the island's rum industry.

We discussed:

Creating a new, unconventional style of Puerto Rican rum

The evolution of the distillery's sugarcane farming operation

How much help Puerto Rico's craft distilleries receive from the government's rum tax cover over relative to the big distilleries on the island

Ideas for leveling the playing field in Puerto Rican rum

Working with legends in rum like Frank Ward and Luis Planas

Learning to make pot still rum on an island where no one used pot stills

Deciding on bottling ABV

The broader craft rum scene in Puerto Rico

The perils of finding distribution outside the island

Upcoming blends and releases from San Juan Artisan Distillers

And much more!

Oh, and John decided to replace the rapid fire segment???

You can check out San Juan Artisan Distillers' website here: https://sanjuanartisandistillers.com/

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode, we sat down with Steve Jefferson, co-founder and CEO of Kuleana Rum Works, a distillery on Hawaii's Big Island that's putting their own spin on fresh cane juice rum. From growing their own heirloom Hawaiian sugarcane to sourcing and blending rums from around the world, they have a unique approach that's resulting in some pretty damn good rum. We chatted about:

Going from sailing around the Caribbean to starting a rum distillery in Hawaii

Working with a 30+ year veteran of Martinique rhum agricole on Kuleana's production process

The big gamble Steve made to acquire the 45 acres that became Kuleana's farm

Nerdy production and still design details

The current state of their aging program

How they plan to utilize the 35 varieties of heirloom Hawaiian sugarcane

Their relationship with Ko Hana on Oahu

Why Kuleana sources and blends rums from around the world in addition to distilling their own

Their connection to High West Whiskey

Their crowdsourced funding campaign

And more!

Plus, at the beginning, some rambling thoughts on John's travels in Italy, amaro, chasing the solar eclipse, and the impact of minor ABV differences.

You can check out Kuleana's website here (which also has a link to their funding campaign): https://kuleanarum.com/

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

With John on vacation, I flew solo on this episode to welcome Ben Inglis, distillery manager and co-founder of The Islay Rum Company, to the show to get the full story on his unique approach to Scottish rum.

If you listened to our Guide to UK Rum episode, you'll remember that John and I rated both of the Islay Rum Company rums we tried quite favorably, so we'd been hoping to talk to Ben ever since. We discussed:

How Ben convinced the Vintage Malt Whisky Company to back his vision of Islay's first rum distillery instead of building a Scotch whisky distillery

Scottish Gaelic pronunciations

The pressure that comes with putting the word "Islay" on a bottle of rum

Contending with the island's flavor profile expectations

Building out the distillery in a historic lemonade factory

Why getting a custom made double retort pot still was a must

Crafting their initial flavor profile

Experiments with long fermentation, native bacteria, yeasts, and more

Balancing inspiration with originality

What's aging right now? And when can we taste it??

And a whole lot more!

You can learn more about The Islay Rum Company here: https://www.islayrum.com/

Check out our episode on the wider UK rum scene here: https://www.rumcast.com/episodes/uk-rum-guide

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.