144: Adventures in Rum Experimentation at South Africa's Mhoba Distillery

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You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

In this episode we finally caught up with Robert Greaves, founder of Mhoba Rum, the South African cane juice rum distillery that's pumped out a steady supply of distinctive, high-octane ester bombs over the last several years.

Robert's been on our list ever since we heard he not only founded the distillery, but also built most of it himself, from the pot stills to the sugarcane press. He also brought his distiller, Shaldon Engelbrecht, along for the ride, who's behind many of the distillery's current experiments in high ester rum production.

Completing the guest triumvirate is Eric Kaye of Holmes Cay, who is bringing a handful of cool Mhoba releases to the U.S. right now, both under the distillery's label and his own.

We discussed:

What it was like to have Richard Seale try the rum in Mhoba's early days

The unique process behind their "Select" unaged rum

The influence of Martinique and Jamaican production styles on Mhoba

Adventures in extended, high acid fermentations

How their unique new high ester blend "The Shaldon" came to be

The perils and potential of aging rum in peated whisky casks

And much more!

Related links:

The Mhoba website

Rum Revelations' Mhoba travelogue (great pictures and details on the distillery)

All the details on Holmes Cay's latest Mhoba bottles