Major Conund Rum

About this recipe

A conundrum: how do you make a dark, spiced rum without a molasses wash, a pot still and a year in a barrel? Major Conund's answer is to build it in two halves. The spice comes from an infusion of six botanicals in strong neutral spirit; the rum's dark, burnt-sugar depth comes from a syrup of caramelised sugar and molasses. Mixed, filtered and bottled, the two become something that pours like a blackstrap rum and tastes like a ship's galley at Christmas.

It is bolder than most spiced rums. A full teaspoon of black pepper and a thumb of fresh ginger give it a warm, peppery bite; nutmeg and allspice bring a baking-spice sweetness; clove and cinnamon do what they always do. The caramel keeps the sugar from tasting simply sweet, and the molasses adds the faintly bitter, liquorice-dark note that makes it a rum. Lemon zest and vanilla, added at the end, lift the top.

Strength and yield

The 750 mL of spirit holds 600 mL of pure alcohol. The syrup - 750 mL of water, the dissolved sugar and molasses - brings the batch to just under 1.7 L, which loses a little to evaporation while the syrup boils, a little to contraction as the spirit is diluted, and a little more to the spices and the filter. You can expect about 1.6 L at about 37.5% ABV: two 750 mL bottles and a dram for the cook.

For a bottle at 43%, as on the label, make the syrup with 500 mL of water instead of 750 mL.

Strictly speaking, rum is distilled from sugar cane or its molasses; this is a quick rum-style spirit built on a neutral base. For a rum made from molasses from the start, see SBB's all-molasses rum - which also makes a superb base for this recipe in place of the neutral spirit.

Ingredients and calculator

Method

1. Prepare the botanicals. Lightly crush the peppercorns, if using whole ones, and slice or grate the ginger. The cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves go in as they are.
2. Infuse. Put the cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, allspice, cloves and ginger into a jar with the spirit, close it and leave it for two weeks, stirring or shaking daily. Or, the quick way: stand the closed jar in a pan of hot water and bring the spirit to 54 °C - no hotter, and never boiling - then pulse it with a stick blender now and then over 20 minutes. Do this away from any flame: see the note below.
3. Caramelise the sugar. In a heavy pan over medium heat, cook the sugar and molasses together, stirring, until the sugar melts and turns a deep amber and smells of toffee. Don't let it blacken, or it will taste bitter.
4. Make the syrup. Take the pan off the heat and add the water gradually, a little at a time. Stand back: the caramel will spit and may seize into lumps. Return it to the heat, bring it to the boil and stir until everything has dissolved.
5. Cool the syrup. Let it cool completely, to room temperature. Never add hot syrup to the spirit.
6. Mix. Combine the cooled syrup with the infusion, spices and all, and stir in the lemon zest and vanilla.
7. Filter and bottle. Strain out the larger pieces, then run it through a coffee filter. It can be slow; change the filter when it clogs. Bottle and seal.

The warm infusion, safely

Spirit at 80% gives off flammable vapour even at room temperature, and far more at 54 °C. Warm it in a closed jar standing in hot water - a sous-vide bath or a pan on an electric hotplate is ideal - rather than in an open pan, and never over a gas flame. Work in a well-ventilated room, keep the jar's lid on between pulses, and use the stick blender only briefly, away from any heat source. If in doubt, take the two-week route: it gives just as good a result.

The spirit

Use a clean, well-cut neutral spirit - from a Birdwatchers or Wineo's wash, run through a reflux still - diluted to 80%. The infusion extracts most strongly at high strength, so don't dilute it further before the spices go in. A stronger spirit makes a stronger rum; the calculator shows by how much.

Distilling is legal only where it is licensed: check your local rules before making your own spirit.

Serving

Try it neat over ice first, to taste the spice. It is superb with ginger beer and a squeeze of lime, stirred into hot apple juice on a cold night, or as the rum in a punch. Like most spiced rums it softens over the first few weeks in the bottle.

Troubleshooting

The caramel set hard when the water went in.

That's normal. Keep it over the heat and stir; it dissolves again as the water comes to the boil.

It tastes bitter or burnt.

The caramel went too far. Take it off the heat at deep amber, before it smokes.

It's cloudy after filtering.

Fine spice dust. Let it settle for a few days, decant the clear rum and filter it again.

Too peppery.

Halve the pepper next time, or let the bottle rest: the heat mellows over a few weeks.

Variations

• Stronger: 500 mL of water in the syrup gives about 43% ABV.
• Rest before filtering: leaving the mixed rum a day or two before filtering gives the lemon zest and vanilla more time to come through.
• Oak: a tablespoon of toasted oak chips in the infusion adds vanilla and a golden-brown colour.
• A real rum base: use a molasses rum at 80% in place of the neutral spirit for a heavier, more authentic result.

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