You know what you like. You’ll love it for less.

mainebeverage.com

12_MBC_0308_StatusAchiever_PortlandMagazine_FNL.indd 1 5/3/12 3:18 PM The M a d e I n M a i n e Rum Diaries The next old thing: New & Old Rum Makers by colin s. sargent ns o mm o

raft distilling in Maine has become the newest revival of one of Maine’s oldest industries. Bob Bartlett, Keith Bodine, and Ned Wight agree that, for them, they cktail; wikimedia c

Co Cparticularly enjoy the mystique and the unique challenges of forging the true spirit of the New World–Caribbean molasses perfected as Made in Maine rum. f the o Keith and Constance Bodine of Sweetgrass Farm Winery & Distillery in Union were ales

T the first to have a Maine craft rum to hit shelves. Their Three Crow Rum is a wonderful- ly French-toasty, warm spirit that began as an experiment. “We started with gin and ap- urtesy ple brandy, but all of our neighbors liked to drink rum. My neighbors kept asking why o Neal Dow, Portland’s mayor from 1851-1852, is p: c I don’t make a rum. So I decided to do a barrel,” Keith says. “That’s how it started. Last

o revered and reviled as the “Father of .”

m t Unfortunately, his stockpile of at City Hall year it was so popular we sold out of what we thought was going to be a couple years’ o fr led to the Portland Rum Riot in 1855. supply. We’re not going to release a rum again until next spring, when we open up O c t o b e r 2 0 1 2 3 3 M a d e i n M a i n e J.B. Brown’s sugar refinery was a vital component to Maine’s rum-producing history, serving to store molasses before being refined into sugar.

Fancy a drink at work? Portland’s City Hall had a rum room to store the contraband during Prohibition.

Do What I say, Not What I Do–Adjacent to the ‘sentimental’ announcement of Kitty Ken- tuck’s death from intoxication–and violence– is an ad for “The Delicious Tonic,” gin.

GETTING YOUR RATION–Beginning in October, Portland’s New England Distilling will sell Eight again for the year. Now I see how much you Bells Rum at RSVP in Portland, Bootlegger’s in Topsham, and other liquor stores in the state of Maine. Three Crow Rum has sold out for the season, although it “would be worthwhile to take can do and how wide a category rum is. It’s a a peek at your local liquor store’s shelf, to see if there are still unsold bottles,” says Keith Bo- fun drink for me to make.” dine. Rusticator will be available in the spring. “Hannaford and Shaws only reset their liquor What is it that rum has, though, that brings a once a year,” says Wight, “but Eight Bells is on the list for next year!” little extra smile to the face? Rum, particularly in DOWN TOOLS AND UP SPIRITS–Ned Wight’s Eight Bells Rum refers both to the beautifully its ‘brown spirit’ variety, retains a connection to stormy painting Eight Bells and the practice of timekeeping aboard ships before the advent an imagined, salty-aired past that its drinkers of cheap clocks. An hourglass would be turned every half hour and the ship’s bell rung on the likely have no actual connection to, and that turning, adding one ring for each turn of the glass. At ‘Eight Bells’ the cycle would reset, mak- couldn’t matter less. Whether through old paint- ing it a four-hour cycle–putting the most rum-appropriate ‘Eight Bells’ at the stroke of mid- night. Rum was actually customarily served to sailors aboard ships at 11am and 5pm–six bells. ings that show the Sons of Liberty around a table with hot rum drinks in their hands, through sto- Know Your Enemy–Neal Dow’s cousin, John Neal, was an author, lawyer, and civil rights ad- ries of the local Rum Riots, or even Pirates of the vocate. He and Dow had a falling out over Irish entrepreneur Catherine Landrigan, aka ‘Kitty Caribbean movies, rum brings an extra fun and Kentuck,’ who purchased property in 1851 from Neal, who would defend her against prose- cution under Dow’s administration. While Neal described her as “a poor, but generous, kind- flair packaged along with it that no other drink hearted Irish woman,” Dow countered she was the proprietress of “a notorious groggery.” seems to quite possess. Dow attributed his cousin Neal’s fondness for Kentuck to her being “handsome, once,” writ- Consistently throughout rum’s history, the ing that “her [more recent] friends were truly friends in need.” drink has been connected with subversive ele- Untitled Document 3 4 p o r t l a n d m o nthly magazine Thomas M. Tryniski 309 South 4th Street Fulton New York 13069

www.fultonhistory.com

01:03 AM esktop/hello.html2/18/2007 11: 20Settings/Administrator/D file:///C|/Documents%20and% Clockwise from top left: file (3); courtesy New England Distilling; staff illustration N ous, but always vigorous andcruel, sometimes interesting.”heroic, sometimes humor ican Molasses Company in 1928.wrote “Sometimes Charles Taussig, presidentworld. “Where of thewe findAmer rum, we findger-shakings action,” from the Cotton Matherscrave of the rowdiness in a bottle, regardlessof ofLiberty fin have in commonrum-runners, with each slave other–all traders, grated. pirates,That’swhatanddockworkers, even the Sons ments of society, both romanticized and deni stills in the back of public houses, produced produced in Maine was likely produced in not all about the sea. Much of shelvesthe rum in September, agrees that it’s ed Wight, whose Eight Bells Rum hit - - - - vanilla dark 1733, although it was so poorly enforced that tax on rum!” back–the real grumbling had been over the camel’s the broke that straw the just ally up the Boston Tea Party. “The tea Oftax course, was itre also took a splash of rum to firstrev born. They were drinking rum drinks.” timephilosophers where our country was part- between arguments the and rooms meeting the England, New in here erns Wightsays. “Instead, Ilike to think of tav cy. I don’t have much connection toconnection the sea,” to rum, less than sailing or pira that’sme,real“ToessencetheMaine’s of to be drunk on the premises by the patrons. not for bottling and off-site consumption but E and presence. dark rum’s That tax began as the Molasses Act in MolassesAct the as began tax That wonderfully ight smooth sugar caramel rich and provides a rum with touch and B fruitiness ells flavor with

finish tually designed to point out tually designed to point out cinnamon This 1930s postcard was ac This 1930s postcard was ac just how accessible just how accessible alcohol toasted with a of a R was during Prohibition was during Prohibition um warm power I t has of is a . - - - - - , really improved.” have worked to produce rum that had been distiller’s perspective, that would absolutelythat’swhere itfirst got started, butfrom a if sure be can’ttemperature changes.I to rum sloshing around in oak barrels,theoftriangle exposedcould havekept that cheap convoyingto avoid privateers, round trips ignatedforthecrew–and especially when be traded or offloaded–some would be des Caribbean. Not all of the rum would alwaystravelbetween here,WestAfrica, theand part of the triangle trade, where theboats first would good rums. “Rum was an importantthat necessity may have been the mother of is particularly nice for rums.” Wight thinks from the wood–vanillin, in particular,there which are terrific flavor compounds released wood, and further, when rum is stored in it, says Wight. “Oak is a naturally waterproof and so start the loop again. used to purchase more slaves in WestEurope–all of which, Africa,along with rum, was in North America or for guns and fromluxuries this molasses couldin be traded for furs here made Rumdeals. best the get could product) sugar-cane transportable and molassescheapest(thestorablepeoplein these for payment accepting Traders an. Africa to the Spanish colonies ingranted the Caribbethe right to deliver wereslavescolonies her and Britainfrom ships from West distilling industry that had sprung up after That came down hard on the New England tried to add more teeth to collection efforts. the Sugar Act of 1764 cut the tax in half but Rum will be released for the first time af- Bartlett Bob Winery’s Bartlett says drinkable,” viewed as their culture. the rioters decried Dow’s attackcohol on whatwas theyoften their onlyBut forescape, the working and population many of mentsof the of city, solid, al respectable citizens,poses–necessarymaintainto temperathe of course. stocks of brandy set aside forthe ‘medicinal’ law that Dow himself pur was keeping largewas discovered four years afterand sale the ofpassage liquor of was prohibited.Napoleon However,of Temperance,’ it mentalcohol spearheaded production by mayor Neal Dow, ‘the T “Rumwould bestored inoakbarrels,” “It sounds like it was probably un probably was it like sounds “It der the growingthetemperanceder move rum turned violent in the 1850s,he asrough un and rowdy history of Maine , with a laugh, whose Rusticator Rusticator whose laugh, a with , t c O o r e b 2 1 0 2 5 3 ------PROFILES IN STORAGE–Joseph P. Kennedy kept our spirits flow- ing through New England.

ter three years of aging this coming spring from his Gouldsboro facility. “By the 1920s, the Prohibition era, it sounds like it was a much nicer product. Then, rum started going the other way.” In- deed, rum-runners would float ashore casks, probably to the Breakwater Court (now The Colony) in Kennebunkport or to the palaces of Bar Harbor, or meet lob- ster boats anchored offshore just outside the limit. “Maine, Gloucester–anywhere with a large population of fishermen. TEATOTALLERS The in the was successful in ending the U.S. Navy’s rum ration

NEW ENGLAND DISTILLING a n d t h e in 1862. ‘Black Tot Day,’ the last rum PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART PROUDLY PRESENT ration served aboard Royal Navy ships–was in 1970. The Royal New Zealand Navy continued the prac-

HAND CRAFTED ii n n t t h h e e S S P P I I R R I I T T o f WINSLOW HOMER tice until 1990–by then, the con- a n d CELEBRATINGCELEBRATING PMA’SPMA’S WEATHERBEATEN EXHIBITIONEXHIBITION cerns were no longer about the moral well-being of sailors, but about their ability to operate so- phisticated machinery such as, well, guided missiles.

September 22 - December 30, 2012 /file Reserve your tickets today to see legendary works by Winslow Homer 21, 1860 in this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition. h , Marc s land gh

207-775-6148 portlandmuseum.org e Hi h t g in Winslow Homer, Eight Bells—Mid-Day Observation from Harper’s We ekly (detail), 1888, wood engraving on wove paper, 5 7/8 in. x 7 9/16 in., Por tland Museum of Art, Maine. Gift of Peggy and Harold Osher, 1991.70.165. Photo by me yersphoto.com GOOD SWILL HUNTING–George Smith Hunt (b. 1829), great- ss handmade in portlan d, m a i n e great-grandfather to actress Helen Hunt, owned the Eagle Sug- ar Refinery on Fore Street in Portland as well as a fleet of ships

that traded Maine lumber and Caribbean sugar and molasses. e S. Hunt Pa g A high-profile trader, Hunt testified before the U.S. Senate in 1886 that molasses imports should be placed on a reduced Geor ile;

schedule, arguing that it was a raw material and not a finished F p:

product. Raw material for what? His former residence at 165 o

newenglanddistilling .com State Street will forever live in Portland’s psyche in its connec- m t o

tion to the West Indies rum trade. fr

3 6 p o r t l a n d m o nthly magazine M a d e i n M a i n e

They’d bring the rum ashore from the big schooners out of the Caribbean. Bill Mc- Coy, he was the most famous of them.” McCoy’s so-called Rum Row stretched all the way from to Maine, and sent ashore Canadian whiskey and Caribbean rum. “He was famous for not watering down his booze–he’s the guy who popu- larized ‘The Real McCoy.’” Tastes changed during Prohibition, however, and sweeter mixed drinks be- came much more common. After Prohibi- tion, the large breweries and distilleries with alphabet-soup names and produc- Bill McCoy used up to tion in the tens of millions of units took sixsix shipsships upup andand downdown Rum Row, including over the national market, including Maine, Rum Row, including aboard his Tomoka. where family distilleries could only strug- Bill McCoy’s so-called Rum Row stretched all the way from Florida to Maine, and sent ashore Canadian whiskey and Caribbean rum. “He was famous for not watering down his booze–he’s the guy who popularized ‘The Real McCoy.’” n/pbs o ivisi D graphs o t o h P rints & P ngress, Co f o GANGS OF PORTLAND–The family split between cousins and their different perceptions of Ken- ibrary L

f tuck illustrate how class and ethnicity were o aligned in Portland. Many of Portland’s work- /file ing men and women were Irish, and from their

urtesy perspective the Temperance movement, partic- Co 21, 1860

h ularly the heavy-handed tactics of Dow, com- bined both class disdain and anti-Catholicism

, Marc in a nativist, moralist bisque. Dow was certain- s ews; file; N ly not aided by the overlap between the Know- rt land

o Nothings and the Temperance movement. gh

ewp These tensions–mirror those portrayed in Mar- e Hi N h

t tin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York–were carried g

in on as well in the streets of Portland during the useum, ss

M 1855 Rum Riot. ariners M e S. Hunt Pa gle on. “We have to make a craft spirit, as Maine has changed, its rum should shot to nip at the heels of the big producers g p: o something lovely to drink,” says Wight. change, too.” by warming bellies and minds. And isn’t Geor m t

o “We couldn’t compete on economies of And that’s how these new rums carry on that, in a way, the new rum-running? n ile; F p: scale. They can sell rum for less than I buy the tradition of the old spirit of Maine. By o For more, visit portlandmonthly.com/port- ckwise fr m t molasses. But Maine is a more sophisticat- making such a beautiful, artisanal, local >> o o fr cl ed place–it started hardscrabble, and now product, Bartlett, Bodine, and Wight have a mag/2012/09/rum-extras. O c t o b e r 2 0 1 2 3 7