Craft Rum Dept: Montanya rum updated

[mamajuana]

Montanya rum out of Colorado have change quite a bit since their initial releases. Sporting updated packaging and age statements. They have 3 rums.

The white rum aged 1 year in a barrel that held their Colorado Whisky. The gold rum aged 1 year in a barrel that held their Colorado whisky for 2-5 years. It goes into a wet barrel. They also have an exclusive edition said to only be available in Colorado aged for 3 years first in their Whisky barrels then finished in barrels from Sutcliffe Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon and Port.

I picked up their white and gold expressions at a small shop when I saw them as I've never seen to my recall Colorado rum in NY.

Everything seems done well, pot still small batch distillation, aging in craft whisky barrels. They use USA made raw sugar and molasses shipped from LA.

The questionable part though is that they say they use a small amount of "caramelized honey" in these first two rums. This seems rather odd at first thought. Instead of using the typical coloring of standard products they use this Honey. They say this honey brings out the flavors of the rum and barrel more. This almost sounds like plantations saying that sugar is like salting the rum to add flavor but they use this honey instead.

They say the rum in the same breath is free of sweeteners and additives. But this honey This seems like an additive and sweetener to me. Though I've not had a rum I recall stating they added caramelized honey instead of a more standard colorant.


I will hit these with the Hydro and test them out. At least they give a full disclosure. Their transparency information : http://www.montanyarum.com/transparency/ . Too be honest prior to purchase I had no idea about this honey situation.


http://www.montanyarum.com/home-rums

The Gold batch I have is the same on their home page #295 the white is 1 past the front page at 289. So I imagine these are the first batches of their updated rum.

[Capn Jimbo]

"They say the rum in the same breath is free of sweeteners and additives. But this honey This seems like an additive and sweetener to me. Though I've not had a rum I recall stating they added caramelized honey instead of a more standard colorant. "

You are exactly right. There are no other rums that I know of that use "carmelized honey", although a few cheat by using carmelized sugar. Here's the truth:

There is only one standard colorant - legal - that is used in all brown spirits: E150a. It is essential to understand that caramel color is NOT carmelized sugar (or honey).

The first - color - is basically sugar that has been burnt to a crisp, black, very bitter and very, very potent. Thus it takes only a couple of drops - literally - to color a bottle of booze. The latter - carmelized sugars or honey - is FOOD caramel. These sugars/honey is baked and slowly browns - the end product is meant for food and is very, very sweet.

What these cheaters do is to misrepresent these food caramels (like caramel candy) as a colorant. Yes adding a browned food caramel does add color, but (a) it takes a lot more, thus (b) adds a LOT of sweetness and smoothing/blanketing effects. The point?

Food caramel is sweet and a flavoring; legal caramel coloring is incredibly bitter, concentrated and potent. The use of "carmelized honey" as described (to add flavor) makes these flavored/altered rums. In Richard Seale's book this is yet another common and fraudulent practice.

I'll say it again: all we require is honesty in labeling of flavoring and additives, and honest statements of age. This one should be labelled "Honey Flavored Rum" (the primary flavorant is required to be named).

[mamajuana]

Yeah. I was kinda pissed when I found out about the honey additive. The bottle has no statement at all about adding honey. The bottle does have a true age statement on it. It does tout pure pot distillation, mountain spring water, and USA first press sugar cane, all things craft rum lovers are into. I felt like this was a bait and switch and double talking in the worst possible way on their website. They act as if the honey is local its ok and better than the legal colorant.

I contacted them per their transparency statement and asked the exact time in barrel for each batch. The gold was held for 13 months and the white for 12 months. The back of each label states it has been aged for 1 year. I also should be getting a bottle in of the exclusive. The website states two age statement on the single batch. One states 3 years while the other is 2.5 years. They have no info about adding honey to the exclusive apparently.

[mamajuana]

Hydro Test

So today I cracked open the Montanya Platino. It was hand numbered batch #289. The age statement is one year and the producer confirmed 12 months of aging in oak.

First thing I did was hit it with the titanic 30-40% hyrdro.

It measured 37.1% ABV on the Hydro and 18.7C in temperature. This corrected to 37.6% ABV. So we have roughly about 10 g/l in additives.

Tasting

The rum itself does have an astringency wafting through the sweet breezes of cream soda and bubble yum.

The palate is a different story somewhat. Not as heavy in the mouth as the long clinging beaded legs on the glass would make you think. It's really rather light. There is some vanilla and underlying sweetness that leads to some strong black pepper and an moderately long finish for a white rum. A bit of fire in the throat.

I would say this starts out in the mouth and palate like Atlantico Plantio and finishes like an Eclipse silver, the older bottling.

Overall not a terrible white rum. But considering the additive issue not being upfront on the bottle I can't really recommend this.


Additive issues

10 G/L is not massive like some others out there but it is significant and its the highest tested on my Hydro, I tend to avoid rums that don't pass the bullshit meter. This one pulled the wool over my eyes so to speak, I guess I trusted American Craft rum a little too much.

They say the honey gives the gold some of its color. This is rather questionable as the Platino has added honey also but is Crystal clear, no sign of honey or any color at all. Being used to making Mamajuana which contains pure honey I know how pure natural honey looks in a bottle and it ain't like this.

My thoughts are they may be using Granulated crystallized honey. Crystallized honey is available and more Economical for mass production but also contains cane syrup. It actually contains more cane syrup than Honey which is consistent to my experience with this product. It is also sold by the company they get their honey from. This would have minimal impact on the color of the rum and blend in much more effectively.

Link to product:

http://shop.honeyville.com/granulated-honey.html

Up next

Up next will be the gold. Bets are on as to how much sugar it will test for. My bet is more.

[Capn Jimbo]

Mama...good stuff...


Thanks for the tests. Lest anyone have any doubt, the amazing (and very thorough) tests by Che (link below) showed that even 1 gram can be distinguished, and 5 grams has notable effects. One of the (minor) misleading effects of the sugar tests is this:

While ALKO and the Swedes in fact are able to test for sugar almost exactly, Drejer's protocol for tests assumes that for aged rums, from 1 to maybe 3 grams may actually be the effect of (legitimate) wood extractives. Thus you will see reports of say 0-3 or 0-5 grams. These are considered to be relatively "pure" (ie non-sugared) rums.

Che's tests were better in the sense that he took known "pure" rums, and then precisely added sugar in known increments, from 1 - 5 - 10 etc., up to 50 grams and then compared these to the original unsugared rums. By doing so we learned the effect of just the added sugar, and NOT the minimal wood extractives of aging.

His tests were stunning: 1 gram noticeable, 5 grams - changes noted, and at 10 grams? What he called "serious" changes began.


Flat Ass Bottom Line

Ten grams is a LOT - do not believe otherwise. Even in what seem to be minor amounts, sugar has significant and seriously altering effects - which is exactly why it is used. A study of the Master Sugar List reveals that there is a definite, positive correlation with sugar. The higher the cost, the more likely and the more sugar is often added.

Look forward to your test of the "gold"...




*******
Note: be SURE to check Che's terrific analysis and testing of two pure rums altered with sugar. You'll be shocked at how little it take to mess up a good rum...

http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtopic.php?t=1134

[mamajuana]

Yes indeed. The 10 G/L was noticeable and the only US craft rum to date that has measured noticeable additives. They just did a major overhaul on their product and labeling but it was absent of this information. They tout themselves as being obsessive about craft rum production. My thoughts as a craft rum lover are they need to drop the additives totally. If they can't make a great rum with the equipment they have then they need to totally rethink their production methods. I have had craft rums without any aging that are better minus the additives, think owney's and byram river.

[mamajuana]

I got around to testing the Oro their gold rum aged for 13 months...The results are devastating to US craft rum. It measured for 18 G/L of added sugars. The highest to date of any US Craft rum I've tested.

[The Fat Rum Pirate]

I'm not really sure why you are so surprised.

The main reason the rum market is the way it is is largely due to the American palate. Note the El Dorado 15 Year Old releases which were released in the US market - the European market got the Rare Collection instead.

No surprise at all to see "Craft Rum" having sugar added. So so typical of US marketing and BS. There is no Craft Rum movement in the US. Just yet more opportunities to part the stupid from their cash for unaged or very young product.

[Capn Jimbo]

An interesting viewpoint and another good observation from the Pirate...


To add insult to injury you have the influence of the ADI (the so-called American Distilling Institute). These are the guys that sell equipment and guidance to new distillers (mostly whisky and gin), assuring them that they have solve the #1 problem of new distillers - ie how to avoid tying up capital for years of aging.

They have convinced these newbies that you can achieve 7 years of aging in just a few months by using small or micro barrels. This of course is simply not possible, but the ADI persists in promoting the simplistic surface area theory.

Then you have consultants like Luis Ayala who is convinced that sugar is legal under the 2-1/2% Alterations clause (it is not), and there you have it.

Micro-barrels, over-oaked, lack of complexity - but covered up, smoothed and made palable with sugar. Shame on them...

[mamajuana]

To get back to this... I tend to disagree completely with the pirate here. I find his comment to be not only insulting to hard working American entrepreneurs but clearly uneducated in American rum.

If there is no movement in this process why has there been so so many distilleries in the US now making rum after repeal of draconian laws?

Never in our history in America since before the Revolution has there been so much American made rum. It's not all bad eggs. There are many examples of fine American made rum. In many cases there are also well aged additive free examples.

My point in these postings are to point our deficient American producers.

In closing here the American domestic rum production is very active and on the rise while the UK is lagging far behind.