Fermentation & Distillation

Many only think about terroir, a term that refers to soil, topography, and the environment, when it comes to wine. However, recent studies are showing that this is important for all spirits - especially those made from sugarcane! With sugarcane being a grass, this means that it doesn’t have to be seeded like grains and when cut correctly, the stalks can remain in the ground and regrow for up to a decade.

Sugarcane comes in three main varietals that are talked about when it comes to the grass - red, green, and blue. These all have different sugar content and grow better in different climates so it’s important to each manufacturer to choose which best suits their final products.

Harvesting sugarcane can either be done by hand or by machine and that largely depends on where it is grown. Once the sugarcane has been cut and harvested, it is then shipped to the plants where it is processed into the desired needs.

Sugar - Here lies the heart of the sugarcane industry. The cane is pressed, juiced, and then clarified to remove impurities. It is then carbonated and has sulphur dioxide added to it to remove any remaining impurities and removes unwanted color. Afterwards, it is heated to evaporate any remaining moisture and what’s left is an incredibly sweet syrup. That syrup is left to crystalize and this is what is harvested as sugar. This processes is repeated several times until the remaining syrup is dark and unusable.

Molasses - Remember that unusable syrup above? That’s the molasses! Molasses comes in varying degrees depending on how many sugar crystals are harvested from it. In the world of spirits, we call this molasses blackstrap.

Cane Honey - This is the thick syrup that left’s behind after the evaporation process before the crystallization of the sugar begins.

Cane Juice - Used in agricole rhum production, this juice has a time clock that begins the minute that it’s pressed. It’s important that this juice begins fermenting at distilleries as quickly as possible to ensure maximum sugar content.

Fermentation is the most important part in all spirits production - in fact, you can’t have alcohol without it!

Fermentation begins when yeast cells start eating the sugar molecules in the mash (here its’ sugarcane) and start producing carbon dioxide and alcohol. It is in this phase of production that sugarcane spirits start to develop flavors that will define their final products. If you haven’t already guessed, the type of yeast a distiller uses is important too. Typically, distiller’s yeast, or Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is used but some distilleries have their own proprietary strains that they use to develop unique flavors.

Yeast is a fickle organism and needs to be treated appropriately for the desired effect to work. While it dies once it runs out of food (sugar) it also is prone to excessive heat - which it also creates while making CO2 and alcohol. Yeast will perish when temperatures rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, so you can see how this might be a problem in the tropics where most sugarcane spirits are made. For this reason, many distillers have to monitor this process and add cooling lines to their fermentation tanks.

As a final note about fermentation, it’s important to know that the amount of time something is fermented also matters. Short fermentation leads to subtle flavors and long fermentation allows for funkier flavors. This is all done at the discretion of the master distiller to create their own unique brand.

Sugarcane spirits are unique in that there are many ways to create them through distillation. This means that all sugarcane spirits can be distilled using different types of stills.

Pot stills are typically found making molasses driven Jamaican rums, but you can find them in other locations as well. Pot stills imbue incredible amounts of flavor and usually result in overproof spirits. Pot stills function like giant kettles that boil off alcohol first that is trapped in a giant neck at the top where the alcohol is condensed and returned to liquid form.

Column stills, or continuous stills, are drastically more efficient than pot stills. Instead of having to reload the pot still after each batch - you could continue to add product to a column still and it would run until you ran out of product to put into it. Alcohol vapor is collected from plates layered along the column as it rises to collect the vapor and turn it back into a liquid.

Finally, you’ll also discovered hybrid stills in rum production that combine pot and column stills together. While hybrid stills are a relatively new invention in the world of distillation, you’ll find that Cuban and Puerto Rican rums have been using these hybrid stills for far longer than anyone else.

The world of sugarcane spirits is an immersive one. There are hundreds of spirits within this category so it’s okay to feel a little overwhelmed when learning about them and tasting them.

The good news here as that they are all remarkably different and easily differentiated from one another depending on how they’re made and where they come from! As you taste through the categories, take your time and appreciate how this one product, sugarcane, can be utilized to create so many amazingly different spirits. There’s no wonder that it’s one of the fastest growing spirit categories in the world.

Tasting sugarcane spirits isn’t so much that it’s a challenging experience, but more so that there are so many styles available that it would take forever! You will notice however that each style of sugarcane spirit offers something unique and brings new things to table for the world of spirits. When tasting these spirits, you’ll be looking for the following concepts to help you identify them.

- Dry or Sweet? (How much sugar?) Is there added sugar?

- Smooth or Rough (Alcohol content!)

- Clean or Dirty (What texture does it have?)

- Is it light and delicate or bold and aggressive?

- Does it dissipate quickly or linger?

- Is it fruity, earthy, vegetal, malty, or floral?

- What was it made from? Sugarcane juice or Molasses?

We recommend placing the following side by side and tasting them to get a full spread of the different styles of gin that are out there. The best way to do this is to get several glasses and pour one ounce samples of each. To taste, take a small sip. Then take a second sip and let it swirl around your mouth and tongue before swallowing. Then, take a third sip and repeat step two. Don’t worry, you don’t have to swallow all of these spirits (you can if you want to!). Many of us professionals will swish the spirit around our mouths and then spit it out into a separate receptacle. We always make sure we’re as responsible as possible when tasting spirits so we don’t get inebriated when trying multiple spirits or drinks. Don’t forget! - take a sip of water between each new sample to cleanse your palate!

1 - Appleton Reserve

2 - El Dorado 12 Year

3 - Avua Prata Cachaca

4 - Batavia Arrack

5 - Clairin Sajous

6 - Rhum Clement Premiere Canne

7 - Aguardiente (Any!)

Want to get extra crazy? Have a friend place them in front of you without you knowing which are which. This is what we call a “blind” tasting because you won’t know what you’re drinking until the very end! This allows for the most non-judgmental tasting approach to find out which is your favorite!