Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
We sat down — hungover, under-slept, and drinking before nine in the morning — with three of the people actually building British rum from the ground up: Lewis Hayes of DropWorks, Collin van Schayk of J. Gow, and Gergo Murath of Outlier. Between them they cover the full range of what this young category can be — Lewis running Europe's largest rum distillery out of Sherwood Forest with England's first copper double retort still, Collin fermenting wild yeast isolated from orchids beside a 2,000-litre pot still on an uninhabited Orkney island, and Gergo repping Outlier's wine-yeast, high-gravity, unfiltered rum out of the Isle of Man after thirteen years behind some of London's best bars. We trace how strange it is that Britain drank rum for centuries without distilling a drop of it until 2012, and dig into what's actually stopping British rum from having an identity yet — the fact that of roughly a hundred brands calling themselves British rum, only a third are fermenting and distilling here, and what a Geographical Indication might do about that. We get into the guts of production — dunder, backset, battonage, cane honey, double retorts versus double pot stills — and challenge the assumption that British ageing must be slower or lesser than tropical: DropWorks is releasing gold-medal-winning rum at a single year old, while J. Gow has just put out the oldest UK-distilled rum in existence, an eight-year-old matured through Orkney winters that regularly bottom out at two degrees. We talk about Haiti and clairin as a model of rum untouched by commoditisation, about the uncomfortable history British producers have to reckon with honestly, and about whether the long-promised rum boom is finally, slowly, arriving — and why slow might be exactly what keeps it from crashing the way gin did. Along the way we taste through six rums, including a whiskey-cask DropWorks expression built to provoke whiskey drinkers, And Outlier rum finished in Sauternes casks, and J. Gow's newest wild yeast release. We close by asking where each of them sees British rum in ten years — and get answers ranging from international distribution to a British "Japanese whiskey" moment.
00:00:00 introductions round the table
00:02:34 How new is British rum, really? (Old Salt Rum, 2012)
00:04:36 Why Britain never made rum despite the colonial connection
00:06:32 Marketing a "craft" product made round the corner vs. imported heritage
00:09:32 Consumer demand for provenance and the additives conversation
00:11:29 No inherited rules: the freedom (and risk) of a blank slate
00:16:44 100 "British rum" brands, a third of them actually distilling — the GI debate
00:23:27 Spiced rum: does it deserve its own category entirely?
00:25:42 Tasting: Outlier's Mistral - Sauternes cask finished
00:34:32 Haiti, clairin, and rum as living culture vs. commodity
00:39:57 DropWorks' scale in context — the Appleton maths
00:41:17 England's first double retort still, explained
00:44:07 Tasting: DropWorks whiskey-cask rum (the peated Oloroso octave)
00:52:07 Why DropWorks releases at one year old — and wins gold medals doing it
00:52:47 Tropical vs. continental ageing, myth-busted
00:56:35 Tasting: DropWorks Bordeaux red wine cask
01:08:26 Collin's route into J. Gow — the family wine business and the 2000L still
01:12:04 Wild yeast, isolated from orchids growing beside the distillery
01:19:20 Tasting: J. Gow's 8-year-old "Pieces of Eight" — oldest UK-distilled rum
01:20:05 Orkney's production challenges: cold, wind, boats, molasses that won't flow
01:26:47 Where the molasses actually comes from — and why it barely matters
01:30:12 The muck and dunder rum, and the chocolate analogy
01:36:19 Is the rum boom finally happening?
01:43:30 Final question: British rum in ten years
☕ Algebra Drinks - The world's best coffee liqueur (partly because it's low in sugar - get 15% off at algebradrinks.com with the code CURIOUS15
🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15
📷 Follow me on Instagram - instagram.com/tristanstephenson
📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - thecuriousbartender.com
We sat down — hungover, under-slept, and drinking before nine in the morning — with three of the people actually building British rum from the ground up: Lewis Hayes of DropWorks, Collin van Schayk of J. Gow, and Gergo Murath of Outlier. Between them they cover the full range of what this young category can be — Lewis running Europe's largest rum distillery out of Sherwood Forest with England's first copper double retort still, Collin fermenting wild yeast isolated from orchids beside a 2,000-litre pot still on an uninhabited Orkney island, and Gergo repping Outlier's wine-yeast, high-gravity, unfiltered rum out of the Isle of Man after thirteen years behind some of London's best bars. We trace how strange it is that Britain drank rum for centuries without distilling a drop of it until 2012, and dig into what's actually stopping British rum from having an identity yet — the fact that of roughly a hundred brands calling themselves British rum, only a third are fermenting and distilling here, and what a Geographical Indication might do about that. We get into the guts of production — dunder, backset, battonage, cane honey, double retorts versus double pot stills — and challenge the assumption that British ageing must be slower or lesser than tropical: DropWorks is releasing gold-medal-winning rum at a single year old, while J. Gow has just put out the oldest UK-distilled rum in existence, an eight-year-old matured through Orkney winters that regularly bottom out at two degrees. We talk about Haiti and clairin as a model of rum untouched by commoditisation, about the uncomfortable history British producers have to reckon with honestly, and about whether the long-promised rum boom is finally, slowly, arriving — and why slow might be exactly what keeps it from crashing the way gin did. Along the way we taste through six rums, including a whiskey-cask DropWorks expression built to provoke whiskey drinkers, And Outlier rum finished in Sauternes casks, and J. Gow's newest wild yeast release. We close by asking where each of them sees British rum in ten years — and get answers ranging from international distribution to a British "Japanese whiskey" moment.
00:00:00 introductions round the table
00:02:34 How new is British rum, really? (Old Salt Rum, 2012)
00:04:36 Why Britain never made rum despite the colonial connection
00:06:32 Marketing a "craft" product made round the corner vs. imported heritage
00:09:32 Consumer demand for provenance and the additives conversation
00:11:29 No inherited rules: the freedom (and risk) of a blank slate
00:16:44 100 "British rum" brands, a third of them actually distilling — the GI debate
00:23:27 Spiced rum: does it deserve its own category entirely?
00:25:42 Tasting: Outlier's Mistral - Sauternes cask finished
00:34:32 Haiti, clairin, and rum as living culture vs. commodity
00:39:57 DropWorks' scale in context — the Appleton maths
00:41:17 England's first double retort still, explained
00:44:07 Tasting: DropWorks whiskey-cask rum (the peated Oloroso octave)
00:52:07 Why DropWorks releases at one year old — and wins gold medals doing it
00:52:47 Tropical vs. continental ageing, myth-busted
00:56:35 Tasting: DropWorks Bordeaux red wine cask
01:08:26 Collin's route into J. Gow — the family wine business and the 2000L still
01:12:04 Wild yeast, isolated from orchids growing beside the distillery
01:19:20 Tasting: J. Gow's 8-year-old "Pieces of Eight" — oldest UK-distilled rum
01:20:05 Orkney's production challenges: cold, wind, boats, molasses that won't flow
01:26:47 Where the molasses actually comes from — and why it barely matters
01:30:12 The muck and dunder rum, and the chocolate analogy
01:36:19 Is the rum boom finally happening?
01:43:30 Final question: British rum in ten years
☕ Algebra Drinks - The world's best coffee liqueur (partly because it's low in sugar - get 15% off at algebradrinks.com with the code CURIOUS15
🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15
📷 Follow me on Instagram - instagram.com/tristanstephenson
📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - thecuriousbartender.com
