When Sugar House Rum was launched back in June 2017 at the Rum Festival Glasgow, it was the first release amongst the new wave of rum producers in the city. The inspiration behind the name derives from the original 17th century rum producers of Scotland - the Glasgow Sugar Houses. There were four sugar refineries in Glasgow in total that processed the imported sugar from the Caribbean and then produced rum from the molasses by-product of their sugar refining processes.

Old Sugar House, 138 Gallowgate, a watercolour painted c 1846 by William Simpson (1823-1899). — *Old Sugar House, 138 Gallowgate*, a watercolour painted c 1846 by William Simpson (1823-1899).

The journey so far for The Spirit of Glasgow and its Sugar House rums has not been the typical route that many craft spirits producers take, as I do not own or operate my own distillery. Sugar House Rum was originally produced under contract distilling at Strathearn Distillery in Perthshire. In October 2018, I relocated the production of my rum to Strathleven Distillery in Dumbarton, which coincidentally is much closer to home as I am based in Glasgow.

The first Sugar House product releases were white and spiced rums – both made from the same base rum made, using a traditional copper pot still. The white rum is rested and then reduced to bottling strength at 43% abv and the spiced is also reduced before infusing with our selection of premium spices for around two weeks before being bottled. Both rums are made using 100% natural ingredients and have no added sweeteners or colouring but are naturally and subtly sweet.

Our newest and third addition to the line-up is our Scotch Bonnet Spiced Rum, which won a silver medal in the 2019 International Wine & Spirit Competition awards. The same base rum – bottled at 47% abv, gets infused with tropical fruits and scotch bonnet chilli’s for that extra kick. We slightly sweeten in line with the EU guidelines.

All of our rums are distilled from scratch in Scotland using a premium grade of sugarcane molasses, distiller’s yeast, unfiltered Scottish water and a custom in-house nutrient blend for the yeast. The fermentations typically take 4-5 days and finish as a molasses wine/beer at around 9-10% abv. After the fermentation has completed, we have the option to distil a variety of ways owing to the capability of the Holstein still at Strathleven Distillery, which is a large copper pot still with an added copper-rectifying column. Our standard white rum is only distilled once through the copper pot, but with the added rectifying column this in effect acts as multiple distillations in one pass and leaves the still as rum at around 93% abv. This allows us to analyse every drop of the distillate to allow only the most flavourful elements into our final spirit.

I have been a “one-man band” from the beginning, dealing with all aspects of setting up and running a rum company from scratch. Deciding recipes, distilling, bottling and then finally sourcing distribution channels to get the rum out there. Thankfully, I am surrounded by family and friends who have been fantastic in attending events and festivals around the country with me, sharing rum all whilst having fun with other rum lovers... and sometimes converting non-rum lovers too! A HGV Mechanical Engineer by profession, I recently made the leap into full-time spirits production allowing me to follow concentrate on my rum distilling passion and growing my brand.

The plans for the future of Sugar House rum will include releasing some of our aged stock, with the oldest resting in casks for over 2 years currently. We also plan to include some new products that we are currently working on too, so that's something to look forward to sharing later on. We had some excellent feedback of our range while exhibiting at the London Rumfest in October 2019 and with the calibre of guests and producers commenting we will certainly value that feedback going forward.

Aside from new product releases we are excited to be part of the Scottish Rum scene and the upcoming virtual Scottish Rum Festival. As Scottish Rum is still new to the global rum arena, it seems to be getting a fair bit of attention of late and it would be great if we could show some positive direction and initiative on how Scottish Rum can lead the way on displaying transparency with our many passionate rum producers as this is quite a big issue in the bigger rum world.