Have you ever wanted to know how to make Rum? It all starts with sugarcane. Raw sugarcane is harvested for the sugar industry where it is pressed to extract juice before heating that juice and centrifuging it to extract the solid crystals that become granulated sugar.

Everything left behind after this process is called Molasses and this is what most rum around the world is made from. It is sticky, dark and treacle-like and was originally just seen as a waste product by the sugar industry so it would have just been thrown away.

To make rum we need to first ferment the molasses to create alcohol. Yeast, water and additional sugar is added to the molasses and left to ferment for anywhere up to 2 weeks. The yeast consumes sugar and produces ethanol (alcohol). This resulting liquid, called a wash is still quite weak – around 5%ABV.

The wash is then distilled, often in a pot still but sometimes a column still to extract and concentrate the ethanol. At this point you have technically made rum, but it is still not strong enough, around 60%ABV and with acidic and dairy like tasting notes – not very tasty! We have also reduced the overall volume to about 20% of what originally went into the still.

This liquid is called low wines and needs to be distilled a second time to concentrate the ethanol even further and separations called ‘cuts’ need to made to the liquid coming out of the still to remove unwanted flavours and ensure only the best is collected. These cuts are known as Heads, Hearts and Tails.

Hearts is the only part that makes it into the bottle as this is where the best flavours are found, the Heads contains most of the negative tasting alcohol compounds like acetone and the Tails is the weakest part with much more water than alcohol and the flavours start to fade or grow bitter and unpleasant.

After the second distillation our rum should be at 80%ABV or higher and even smaller in volume at around 5-10% of the initial volume of our wash!

This is then blended down with heavily filtered water and either bottled clear or coloured or placed into wooden casks (usually oak) for maturation.

To find out more and have a go at spicing a rum, click here and book yourself on the Devon Rum School! Book Here!

Find out more about the world of rum and all it’s different styles here – rum guide