Rum Review: Pusser's Blue Label British Navy Rum

The second standard reference style: aromatic, robust and full flavored - it's absolutely dunderful. To our ships at sea! May they sink very slowly!

How do you rate Pusser's Blue Label Rum (five is best)?

5
0
No votes
4
5
50%
3
3
30%
2
2
20%
1
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 10

da'rum
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Post by da'rum »

I only drink the 75% version as it is the one that I liked the most. It is sweet though and I was thinking that it must have sugar added.
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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

I can't speak to DDL, but the use of dunder originated in Jamaica...

Dave Broom was perhaps the only author I know of who gained access to many rum making processes not usually accessible, not least the creation and use of dunder. Just a bit of background:

Unlike most commercial rums whose ester count is around 50 (or less), the Jamaicans are rightfully famous for making the first fine rums from their now classic pot stills using two thumpers/retorts. Their goal was to produce high ester, extremely complex heavier rums, with the number of esters ranging from say 100, to 1700 esters!


How was that achieved?

To keep it simple: extremely long fermentations adding a bit of dunder as a "starter". Ordinary rums elsewhere may ferment the molasses for 24 hours or so, but in Jamaica the ferments (a) include dunder from the open dunder pits (aka mock pits) as an added starter, whose acids help introduce many hundreds if not thousands of esters, and then (b) to slow ferment the molasses for up to a couple of weeks!

The now ester rich wash is now distilled in their classic set-ups to produce extremely complex and relatively heavy rums.

A word about the dunder pits. These are literally open air pits, which contain the leftover and highly acidic products of distillation. No fruits or veggies. In time, many thousands of gallons are added, and the mass becomes quite putrid, as you would expect. No one would ever even think of drinking this or adding it to anything. It literally smells sour, rotten and horrible. But something else magical happens while this mass is rotting away and continues to ferment: thousands of new and unpredictable esters are created from these acids.

A word about Jamaican ferments: New ferments are typically and mostly molasses, some cane juice, occasionally some fruit (Jack Fruit?)

Thus the use of a bit of dunder added to new fermentations, acts as a starter and introduces these many new esters that would not otherwise have developed. That's the point, and why Jamaican rums were prized from the very beginning.


Flat Ass Bottom Line


Most don't realize that a spirit is really made in the ferment, and that is where the dunder is introduced, for the sole purpose of encouraging and causing the ferment to create more esters. Distillation creates NO new esters, but merely captures more or less of them. Aging is another matter as the various interactions with the wood does also add new flavors/esters and the like.

I have no evidence that DDL uses dunder. D... if you have a cite on that, that would be great. DDL's only pot stills do not have thumpers/retorts per se (although they do use double pot setup, the first feeding the second), but instead use a column/rectifier to do the job. Broom makes no mention of the use of dunder by DDL, but instead notes they have one "high-ester" still.

Keep in mind that Tobias of Pussers uses the British Royal Navy historical formula, which includes rums from the major British colonies. If the blend includes Jamaican product, that is probably the source of any perceived dunder inspired ester richness.

When we (and I'm guilty too) refer to nosing "dunder", what is meant is that we are noting the extremely complex, high ester nose of a dunder-fermented rum as produced in Jamaica, or dunder-free but high-ester rums produced by DDL and elsewhere.
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Mon Oct 05, 2015 11:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
mcbent
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If you like tough love then Pusser's is for you.

Post by mcbent »

I suppose if it was 1755 and you had just been conscripted from a drunken night at a tavern in England and found yourself a couple of days out to sea, then this rum would be right on time! However, in modern society there is no need to buy this. First, the smell reminds me of paint thinner. There are other rums that do this but it has been so long since I have poured out their bottles that I can't think of one. There is not fixing the taste. I tried some Vernor's Ginger Ale but that didn't help. Added lime and that didn't help either. Loud, alcoholic. Drunken, trapped sailors are the perfect audience.
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