When you think of flavour diversity in the world of rum, you’d normally associate it with varying distillation marks, the use of different raw materials, or most common is the use of various cask-types for aging. But up in Far North Queensland, in the heart of sugarcane country, hides one of the most promising distilleries in the modern rum scene — Cairns Rum Company (@cairns_rumserker). CRC stands apart from most, if not almost all, rum distilleries because of its fanatical pursuit in building its fermentations around rare yeast strains, and in particular fission yeasts, such as S.Pombe and S.Japonicus. One could even regard CRC as the pioneer in the development of S.Japonicus rums, having produced rums a couple of years ago from this exciting yeast strain that achieves nearly four to five times more esters than traditional brewing yeasts.
Naturally, with an abundance of esters and flavour compounds found in its wash, it is no surprise that CRC decidedly moved in the direction of high-ester rums, and those of the Grand Arôme category. One would therefore expect CRC’s rums to not only be bold and flavourful, but also bringing with it layers of complexity and sophistication, all of which I can attest to. What impressed me most was the diversity of their rums; of all the samples I’ve had, no two tasted alike, and in fact were worlds apart. In a blind tasting, you would never have guessed that they’d all be from one singular distillery.
This brings me to what is perhaps the most unique and intriguing rum I’ve tasted yet — an almost experimental heavy rum produced from sugarcane syrup, fermented using S.Pombe, distilled on its 10,500 litre pot still, and aged for a mere three months in a 50 litre American oak barrel. It stands apart even from within CRC’s lineup — with the addition of CRC’s very own muck. This is even more impressive when you consider that most fermentations involving muck or dunder are often wild-fermented, drawing from its surrounding microbial ecosystem to supercharge their fermentations and developing flavours unique to its own.
The result is a rum that changes my perception of “funk” in rum entirely. I might not have a comprehensive list of tasting notes with me at this moment, but just as a little teaser, it was overwhelmingly cheesy and savoury, exactly what you’d expect from a cheese and charcuterie platter, complete with those distinctive “off-smells” that you’d find in blue cheese but without any of that sharpness. That balance with the savouriness of dried meats was perfect, elegant even in its own charming way, and as it opened up, revealing a malty side to it all, almost akin to a slice of warmly toasted, sourdough bread. It is the innovations in rums like these from CRC that excites me, as they push the boundaries of rum making and create real masterpieces like these.
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