Earlier this year I visited a friend’s bar back in Oxford where we chatted all things industry and spirits – and, as you would expect, rum. I mentioned to him my love for British distilled rums and, as a coincidence, he told me he was approached by someone making rum in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. And so he put me in touch with Jordan Morris, the owner of Abingdon Distillery, and I managed to set up a distillery visit with him.
Abingdon Distillery started as an idea while Jordan was working abroad in Hong Kong. He noticed the limited selection of gins out there and so he toyed with the idea of potentially making his own until he set up his distillery in his garage in Abingdon in 2018. After a number of trials and 50 batches later Jordan finalised his gin recipe and began producing it in August 2019. He spent a lot of time in the Caribbean where he developed an appreciation for cane spirits, so his endgame was always rum distilling – alongside whisky as well.
He started making rum and whisky at the beginning of this year after he moved his operations from his garage to the heart of Abingdon at the historic Coxeter House building. Thanks to its location, getting to it was very easy and convenient. The distillery itself is pretty small, but it also doubles as a bottle shop and bar for private events.
As soon as I arrived I was greeted first by two adorable and fairly energetic puppies, Merlot and Loki, before actually meeting Jordan – and I have no complaints! Everything was really tidy and well organised and made for some great photos as you’ll see. Now let’s talk about their rum production.
Fermentation
The distillery has 2 plastic IBC’s that are used as fermentation tanks, each with a capacity of 1000 litres. The raw material used is Demerara sugar, with the 1000 litre wash containing around 200kg of sugar and Caribbean rum yeast in order to start the fermentation.
I’ve been told by Jordan that he uses half of the usual amount of yeast for a slower process. He runs an open tank fermentation for 7 days at 36 degrees Celsius and the result is a wash with around 10%-10.5% ABV.
Distillation
Abingdon Distillery has 3 stills, but only one of them is for rum (and whisky) production. There are 2 alembic copper stills, a 30 litre and a 60 litre, that are used for his gins, and then there’s Big Phil, a custom built 600 litre copper pot hybrid with a 6 plate column. Big Phil is equipped with 4 elements for electric heating, but only 2 of the elements are used for a slower distillation.
Due to the hybrid nature of Big Phil, Jordan only needs to do a single run to achieve a yield of 43 litres (hearts) clocking in at around 86.6% ABV for every 500 litres of wash. He also mentioned that he pushes a lot of water through the dephleglamator at the top of the column to create a super tight heads cut point – I’m far from a distilling expert, so I won’t try and explain the process, but I found it very interesting.
Also, just a side note, but Big Phil is very photogenic!
Ageing
Once again, Jordan was generous enough to allow me to taste a few rums from his casks, but I’ve been instructed to keep most of it under the wraps. What I can say is that you should subscribe to his newsletter (at the bottom of the website) if you’re interested in any of his aged expressions.
For example, he just launched Project 99 which is a mix of numerous molasses and cane sugar fermentation processes as he went through his trials to create his white rum a year ago. The resulting rums were blended together and casked at 55% ABV in an ex-Islay whisky cask – this is exclusive to his newsletter subscribers, so you should hop on if interested. I’ve got to taste it and the Islay influence wasn’t overwhelming at all, it was a subtle, yet definite experience.
There were also some barrels from Canada that are very unique and they are set to be launched as part of Abingdon Distillery’s core cask aged rum, but that’s all I can say. They will also have some single cask releases in schedule for next year as well as their Pure White rum in February 2024 – this will be the official white rum of the range which was developed for 6 months until Jordan was pleased with the result.
Currently, the Abingdon Distillery core rum portofolio is comprised of 2 flavoured rums – Wild Oxen Spiced Rum and Wild Oxen Chocolate Rum. The Spiced Rum is made by macerating nutmeg, cassia, tonka beans, fresh ginger, vanilla, orange peel and toasted coconut chips for 2 days in the unaged rum, with the only sugar present in it coming from the toasted coconut. The Chocolate Rum uses leftover cacao shells that are infused in the distillate for 7 days and sugar (around 30g/l) due to the bitter nature of the cacao.
Sustainability
They are using 100% recyclable bottles as well as plastic free eco-packaging for their deliveries, which are also recyclable or even compostable.
Abingdon Distillery is also part of a global sustainability program by Ecologi. They have estimated their distillery’s annual energy consumption along with the staff’s carbon footprint and have offset these by donating towards tree planting initiatives for new forests and mangroves in Madagascar & Mozambique, peatland restoration projects and converting landfill gas to energy around the world. To make it even better, their energy is also sourced from a green energy supplier.
And there you have it, all about my experience at Abingdon Distillery. Before I left Jordan was kind enough to give me some samples of his rums, including the yet-to-be-released white rum and, I have to say, it’s really tasty. It has notes of liquorice, coconut water, white cacao and grassy cane flavours – can’t wait to get my hands on a bottle and so should you.
You can support Jordan and Abingdon Distillery by purchasing some bottles from the online shop or, if you find yourself in the area, you should definitely visit him, Merlot and Loki. To keep tabs on what Abingdon Distillery is up to, feel free to follow their Instagram or simply subscribe to their newsletter for exclusive offers – next year is looking very promising for them!
Many thanks to Jordan Morris, Loki and Merlot for their patience and for answering all of my questions that helped me write this piece!
Cheers!