Happy World Rum Day, Tippler Nation! We are celebrating by featuring Suzanne’s, and soon to be your, favorite American craft rum distillery: Mad River Distillers in Vermont!
Rum in Vermont? YES! Rum has long been part of the fabric of New England. In fact there were over 100 distilleries making rum in New England by the mid 1700s! To bring it way-way back, the Sugar Tax had more to do with the American Revolution than tea did. That sugar and its byproducts (ahem: molasses) were used to distill one thing: rum.
Fast forward to 2011 when a few forward thinking Vermonters decided to repurpose Cold Spring farm in the Mad River Valley with the goal of distilling spirits with a sense of history and place. They might’ve started with apples for brandy, but they wound up making some wicked good rum! Meet Mad River Distillers…
“We wanted to make a different style of rum,” explains Mimi Buttenheim, the president of Mad River Distillers. “We love the freshness of Agricole, but cane is perishable, and we didn’t want to distill with molasses like everyone else, we aren’t going for funk, and we wanted to be transparent about our process. So we landed on fair trade Demerara sugar.”
Craft Rums for Whiskey Drinkers
For those of you that aren’t well versed in rum styles, using minimally processed, raw Demerara sugar as the base is usually indicative of rums from Guyana. It is important to note that Mad River makes American Demerara Rum, a distinctly different spirit from Guyanese Demerara Rum, which received a Geographical Indicator in 2021 from the EU.
“We are whiskey distillers and we make a whiskey drinker’s rum: we age in new, charred oak,” Mimi continues, “We like a heavy oak profile. We also love cocktails, we wanted to make a rum you can enjoy neat or in a cocktail.”
Mad River Distillers offer several craft rum expressions, none of which have added sugar or coloring, and have won awards and high praise for their clean, balanced drinkability.
Their charcoal filtered silver Rum 44 and Vanilla Rum are both perfect for cocktails, like classic Daiquiris , while expressions like the PX (Evan’s favorite!) and Maple Cask Rums are enjoyable sippers all on their own, while also able to stand up in a rum Old Fashioned or Manhattan variation.
That’s right: maple cask rum–this is Vermont, after all. Mad River Distillers source their maple syrup from Al Wood in Randolph, Vermont. New barrels are charred and used once by Mad Rivers Distillers. Then, they are filled with Al’s maple syrup, which results in a delightful rum barrel aged maple syrup. Finally those same barrels are refilled with Mad River’s First Run Rum, which is left to age for six months. The result is surprisingly not sweet, yielding a rum that drinks like whiskey and gives you palate weight.
“A lot of consumers think it’s bourbon,” Mimi points out. She recommends pairing Maple Cask Rum with tonic or ginger beer or trying it out in a classic tropical tipple!
American Rum Still Life
All rums and other spirits at Mad River are finished on their Mueller Still, a German designed modified alembic pot still used primarily in the distillation of fruit brandies. After fermentation and the initial run on their stripping still, Mad River finishes their distillation process on the Mueller to retain the aromatics and flavors that began during fermentation. Both stills are housed in their distillery, a repurposed horse barn that was modified and renovated by their head distiller, Alex Hilton, who also happens to be a carpenter.
Why a Mueller? Initially, the founders of Mad River were planning to focus on apple brandy! “Then the founders got excited about distilling anything,” Mimi remarks.
Anything? Wicked.
Distilling It All
Beyond craft rum, Mad River Distillers have certainly distilled, well, just about anything and everything from ginger beer to local fruit! Being able to do small runs is one of the perks of having a distillery and storefront in Vermont, as long as Mad River gets label approval, they can make limited releases.
Their European style apple brandy, The Mad Apple, is distilled from pressed Vermont cider apples. The Mad Apple is a seasonal offering and is also the most expensive bottle they craft. Like their rum, the Mad Apple and Mad River whiskies are award winning. While they all use new charred oak, each mash-bill features a little tweak to make it unique to Mad River: smoked barley, oats, and roasted rye all make appearances in their whiskeys. One of which, the Burnt Rock Bourbon, we tasted live with distiller Alex during our SipScout Craft Bourbon Tasting.
All ingredients are non GMO, with malt sourced through Valley Malt, a husband and wife founded company focused on growing, sourcing, malting, and milling grains in the North East for brewing and distilling. It also happens to be right down the street from where our founder, Suzanne, grew up!
Drink Local Collaborations
If you’ve never been to the Burlington area where Mad River Distiller’s tasting room in but you love drinking local, like all good members of Tippler Nation do, this is a town you can’t miss. The local love and support pulsates and draws you in, so it’s no surprise that Mad River Distillers celebrates that ethos as well. Collaborations with local breweries for their Hopscotch Vermont Single Malt Whiskey series allows them to craft fun distillates out of wort or finished beers. This project was especially useful in 2020 when kegs of beer were on the verge of getting wasted. The current release was distilled with Lawson’s Triple Sunshine IPA. Oh yeah, this area is renowned for some of the best craft beers in the world as well!
“Hops go really floral when you distill them!” Mimi exclaims
Other fun collabs with neighboring Vermont breweries Von Trapp (yes the brewery is related to the family The Sound of Music is based on!) and Stone Coral have also yielded fun results.
“While waiting for our bourbon to age, we made a corn whiskey and lightly aged it for 6 months,” Mimi muses, “Corn whiskey is a little niche and ours does not taste like the stereotypical corn whiskies with name recognition. We changed the mash-bill during lockdown and aged it for longer. It is a limited release at our tasting room.” Yet another reason to visit!
There are a few things they do not distill, however, namely gin and vodka, which makes sense due to their still choice and the fact that they are first and foremost a whiskey distillery. If you are a vodka drinker, do not despair! Mad River’s Vanilla Rum is a stellar swap in vodka cocktails and, despite what the name suggests, the rum is not sweet or cloying in any way.
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Visiting Mad River Distillers
Should you find yourself in the Mad River Valley, make sure you schedule time to visit the storefront, tasting room, and cocktail bar at Mad River Distillers’ Burlington location. Not only do they craft fantastic rum cocktails, you can up your home bar game while you sip. Their store has the largest variety of cocktail bitters in the area and they stock professional barware as well. Last time Evan and Suzanne were at their tasting room they even nabbed a packet of fernet botanicals from a local company to make their own fernet at home!
Can’t make it to Burlington but still in Vermont? Mad River Distillers’ has a tasting room and specialty grocer in Waitsfield that just happens to feature a local cheese counter! A rum flight with a cheese pairing? SIGN ME UP!
For those of us who aren’t venturing to the Green Mountain State anytime soon, there is store locator on their website and, depending on where ya live, you could even get Mad River Rum shipped right to your door!
I don’t know about you Tippler Nation, but we’re excited to taste all the fantastic rums, other spirits, and innovative limited releases that Mad River Distillers can dream up! Head on over to @madriverdistillers and give them a follow, and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page to stay in the know of all things craft alcohol, including our favorite makers!
Have you tried Mad River Distillers’ rum or other spirits? What about visiting Burlington, VT…have you been? Tell us your thoughts or ask your questions in the comments below…
Jena is an event host & contributing writer for The Crafty Cask, as well as an award-winning bartender, cocktail educator, Cicerone Certified Beer Server, and Executive American Whiskey Steward. Based in NYC, Jena has been working in the craft alcohol world for the last 15 years with recipes appearing in Manhattan restaurant/bars & multiple publications. She is the 2019 Nikka Perfect Serve Global Runner Up and a 2020 Cognac Connection winner.
