Kudos to Facundo Bacardi Masso

Have a look on this documentary. Yeah - I know, it is very long. However it really explains, the gigantomanic madness, of creating Bacardi rum.

And yes - I am still not a huge fan for Bacardi. However I just understood now, how Mr. Facundo understood [and adapted] to the alcohol industry and I am pretty impressed:

Yeast management:

Beers as well as wines and other alcoholic beverages used already cultured yeasts to Facundo times [Bacardi was founded 1862] - however rum just used wild yeast. Mr. Bacardi-Masso adapted cultured yeast for his rum.

Barrel management:

Every barrel is different. Facundo understood that, and not only implemented a consistent blending process, but also implemented standards, how to use and process the oak [bourbon] barrels.

Distillate blending [and this I really understood just now]:

Bacardi is produced by two different distillates - the only one column distillation [you cannot say one time distilled, as column distillation is not batch distillation which quantify the number of distillations], which results in the so called aguadiente and the multi-column distillation which they call redistillado. Even this I have heard before... however in fact, it is very similar to the blended whisky industry - where you have rather "low" distilled whisky [malts] and "high" distilled whisky [grain whisky] - which is blended together. Yes, the processes are definitely different - however I still guess, that Facundo understood the process of Scotch blending and used it as inspiration.

Filtration:

Again - filtering alcohol through charcoal wasn't really new. I guess Professor Dimitri Mendeleev introduced this process the first time and standardized with that modern vodka.
However Facundo after my knowledge the first, who filtrated an oak aged spirit [and made it even clear]. As well - he was definitely the first who used it in the rum industry.

Maybe some of my readers know a bit better about the man Ron Facundo Bacardi-Masso and his history!?

Where did the Catalan got his deep knowledge about the processes around the world [the internet was created much later on, duh]?

Anyway - it is a mystery for me... maybe somebody can help!?

Comments

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