DropWorks is shaking up the rum scene — and it’s right on Nottingham’s doorstep
We speak with the distillery’s founder about innovation, creativity, and natural flavours...
When you think of rum, you probably don’t think of Nottingham. But nestled away in Worksop is DropWorks — which is Europe’s largest rum distillery.
I went over there to speak to the founder Lewis Hayes and to see how it makes delicious spirits here in our county. I’m no scientist or spirits expert, but I came away utterly amazed at how much goes into the process, which made sampling the good stuff even more special.
If you’re looking for things to do in Nottingham, DropWorks not only sells its rum, but also does tours of its distillery throughout the year (dropworks.co.uk/tours). And, if you’d like to read more features about brilliant people doing wonderful things in our county, subscribe to The Notts Edit to receive our articles in your inbox for free.
There’s a science to it — DropWorks Distillery is making game-changing rum in Nottingham
By Eve Smallman
Photos by DropWorks
Whenever I go to a bar and order a drink, I rarely tend to go for rum. But as I’m standing at the bar at DropWorks Distillery, sipping its Clear Drop Rum neat, I think I could choose it more often — if it tastes as good as this.
When I say I’m at the bar, I’m talking about the one that sits just next to the enormous distillery. It’s Europe’s largest rum distillery, and it’s absolutely incredible that it’s right here in Nottinghamshire, at the renowned Welbeck Estate.
“There is a rum out there for everyone that drinks alcohol and that likes drinking cocktails or spirits,” says founder Lewis Hayes. “There is a rum for them, even if they don't know it.”
This is why the industry veteran went for creating a rum brand over anything else. “Rums can be really difficult for people to buy, there’s not wide knowledge around them, and they're misunderstood,” he says. “But rum is the broadest spirit category, so I wondered why people don't know that. I thought we have to do better as an industry and we’ve got to make quality rum accessible.”
Its versatility meant that Lewis knew he could make rums such as lifestyle ones, heavy style ones, and aromatic ones, depending on what people wanted.
As I walk through the distillery and weave through various vast metal containers, climb up the stairs and peek into one, and peer at the huge copper pipes, I’m amazed at how much of a science there is to it all.
“We had to physically build the distillery because we didn't want to buy someone else's rum and wanted to control as much of the process as we could. The batch distillation that we do in there is only possible because of the quality of the equipment we purchased,” explains Lewis. “At the time it felt like it went on forever, but it was worth it.”
The amount of effort that went into this and the amount of effort that continues to go into the rums has definitely paid off. One of DropWorks’ big highlights so far is the amount of awards it has been winning. The Clear Drop is a triple gold medal award winner, securing Gold in the London Spirits Competition, the Spirits Business Rum and Cachaca Masters, and Gold for Taste at the CLASS Bartenders Brand Awards.
“Everyone thinks that their baby is beautiful, but they're a bit biased, right? So when you enter into blind tasting competitions and you're winning gold medals, when you're going shoulder to shoulder with distilleries that have been doing it for hundreds of years… It's quite exciting to be winning against those,” Lewis smiles.
Lewis tells me that the Clear Drop is lighter than vodka and that it’s more versatile. This has to be my favourite one that I tried. “You’ve also got Barrel Drop, which sings a little to the whiskey drinkers, Dark Drop which has more fruit in it that’s appealing to brandy drinkers, Funk Drop which is aromatically challenging, and Spice Drop which talks maybe more to a gin drinker,” he explains.
Its Spice Drop is one of its most popular ones — and it's spiced without using actual spices. “When it comes to what we do, we like to be absolutely clear that we're on the right side of what the law actually says,” Lewis tells me. “For example, you cannot flavour rum and call it rum — that makes it a rum based spirit drink and, at that point, it's not a rum.”
While Lewis says there are many people breaking that rule, DropWorks not only sticks to the guidelines but actually produces its Spice Drop rum with natural flavours only. When I’m shown around the distillery, I’m given two types of molasses to try — one being raw molasses and one not. I could immediately taste the incredible sweetness and earthiness of the natural one, just from a tiny sample of a wooden spoon.
From here, the molasses are fermented with DropWorks’ own wild yeast strain (which you just can’t recreate anywhere else as it draws in air from the Welbeck Estate), distilled from the 8-plate column, and then the rum is “flash aged” by being rested with heavily charred wood chips. This contributes to the overall flavour — the American oak chips add a sweet note, while the French oak chips give a warm, spicy aroma.
“There are only a few rum distilleries like us that do distillation with double pots, which is how scotch is made,” explains Lewis. “You can't find rum made that way in the Caribbean — when they talk about a column of pot, they just mean retorts, so they do not have the raw material flavours carrying over.”
Another innovation is its Barrel Drop, which it has just launched after a year of distilling. “That's unprecedented — the quality of the rum that we're producing means that we can get away with getting something out there quickly for people, so they can really see what we can do,” Lewis explains.
This uses a range of different yeast strains, all its different stills, and a lot of different rums which are all aged individually. “Essentially, we wanted to try and make a rum and raisin ice cream flavour without additives,” explains Lewis. “One of the barrels that goes into this is a genuine innovation as it’s a hybrid cask, with an American oak body which is famous for vanilla in particular, and then the head and flat ends are made from Portuguese oak which is famous for raisins and prunes.”
Its creative thinking and careful craftsmanship mean that DropWorks is very much at the forefront of the rum scene in the UK — and incredibly, it’s nestled away right here in Nottinghamshire, in Worksop, at the historic Welbeck Estate. This has a heritage spanning 400 years and has played a huge part in the county’s milestones. Still today it’s a working estate, with numerous artisan food makers, makers, and artists forming its community.
“Being at Welbeck, we get so many awesome benefits, such as the family aspect of it, the space that they've given us, and the support from the farm shop,” says Lewis. “We also have our own water source directly underneath the distillery and we’ve got tunnels for ageing casks, too. It's very much a modern relationship.”
DropWorks is very much following this lead of collaboration and community within the rum scene itself and hopes to do more of this within Nottingham. “We've got a huge variety of casks in the warehouse and I’d love a chef to come up, taste different ones with me, pick a barrel, finish it with something else, and have it exclusively for them to serve in their restaurant.” DropWorks has also previously collaborated on cocktails with Hockley-based bar Pogo in the past, and Lewis is keen to do more of this with other cocktail bars in Nottingham.
“It's nice to be able to do something in the area you live and feel that, in some way, you're giving back to the community you're in,” Lewis explains. “We’ve put distilled in the heart of Nottinghamshire on our bottles and on every cork. And, when we go international, every single one of those bottles will say Nottinghamshire in bold, right on the front.”
Whether you’re looking for a new addition to your own bar, a lovely locally-made gift, or just love trying new spirits, DropWorks is worth trying out. “We have had people from the Caribbean literally fly over to try and work out how we are doing what we're doing,” Lewis finishes by saying. “We are shaking up the rum category, and it's happening right on Nottingham's doorstep.”
dropworks.co.uk
@dropworks.distillery
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