What is Irish Rum?
Rum is made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The new make spirit which is clear in then usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world but given it’s increasing popularity is distilled across the world including Ireland!
Rums can be either ‘light’ or ‘dark’, with light rums being commonly used in
cocktails. Golden or dark rums are richer in flavour and can be drunk straight or neat, iced ("on the rocks") or with mixers. There are also flavoured and spiced rums, which tend to be at the cheaper end of the market, and Premium rums which use aging and different casks to create superior taste and quality.
Mixology has grown substantially in the UK and Ireland, opening up alternative spirits and cocktails. Rum has predominantly been a Caribbean drink, but with the demand for different varieties, other areas of the World have started to distil their own rum. Copland rum takes its inspiration from the smugglers and contrabandists who would use the Copeland Islands to smuggle rum,
whiskey and tobacco into Ireland in the 17th and 18th centuries.
How is Copland distillery Rum made?
Copeland Distillery currently have two equally delicious options for all rum connoisseurs, and they follow a very similar manufacturing process. They differ in the ratio of the blend itself and the aging process.
Mashing
Mashing is the first stage of the production process, which is where the different ingredients are mixed together. Copeland rum is made with 200KG of sugar cane molasses, and diluted down with hot water. Before extra ingredients are added, the 1100L of molasses wort needs to cool down, after which the yeast and nutrients are added. The Wort is left to ferment for a week which is how the liquid becomes alcoholic. This Alcoholic liquid is called the wash.
Distillation
Once the wash has been fermented for a week, on the 7th day it is split into two wash distillations. These are more commonly known as runs, and these runs need to start distillation on the same day. The end result is a total of 360L of what is known as ‘low wines’. On day 2 of the distillation process, the low wines are distilled a second time. The low wines for our Irish rum is distilled through the spirit still, where they are cut into heads, hearts, and tails. The heads and tails are repurposed and used in the next day's spirit run with the fresh low wines. The hearts are kept, collected, and batched together; the hearts are then diluted down to “cask strength”.
Aging
The Smugglers Reserve and Overproof rum are aged slightly differently, and blended with different ratios. The Smugglers Reserve is made from heavy Caribbean rum, made to Copeland Distilleries specifications, and blended with our own rum. The rums are re-aged for up to 12 months in a mixture of First Fill American bourbon oak barrels and French Pinot Noir casks and are then blended at a 9:1 ratio (Bourbon: Pinot Noir). The Overproof rum is made from specific batches of re-aged rum, which is filled one batch at a time, using French Pinot Noir and First Fill American bourbon casks. They are then bended at a ratio of 1:1 giving a smooth, superior rum and it is then bottled at 57.2% abv.
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Why is Copeland rum the one to buy?
Copeland Distillery has taken time and care to make sure the products we make are to the highest quality. There are very few Irish distilleries making rum and we aim to have the Best Irish Rum on the market - a high benchmark for a distillery that started its journey in 2016. We started with making high quality, affordable, Irish gins, and have grown to make mouth-watering rums and Irish whiskey!
