THE HOME OF AUSTRALIAN CULTIVATED RUM.

Husk Rum is about provenance and a sense of place, connecting us to this land and its elements - the salt sea air, fertile volcanic soil and pristine waters. From the Gondwana rainforests and mountains of the caldera, to the surf, sand and rocky headlands of the coast, Husk Rum reflects the environment and lifestyle of the North Coast of NSW.

Since 2012, Husk has pioneered a new style of Australian rum - made from fresh cane juice, grown onsite at Husk Farm Distillery.

All Husk spirits are made from part, or all, farm to bottle cane juice. The most rare and special rums carry the mark of ACR (Australian Cultivated Rum). This stamp is a guarantee of quality, integrity and authenticity - pure, single rums made from 100% single estate cane juice, non-chill filtered and with no added flavours, colours or sweeteners.

FROM FARM TO BOTTLE…

1. HARVEST

Husk Rum starts and finishes in the paddock - we are farmers as well as distillers.

Life and landscapes in the Tweed Caldera revolve around the annual cycle of the sugarcane crop -  and so it is at Husk Farm Distillery.

Each year begins as the wet, hot summer months herald the start of the growing season. As the days shorten and the nights cool into winter, the harvest season begins. Over the next six months hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sugar cane will be harvested and crushed in the valley.

To make Husk Rum we harvest our small crop of select cane varieties green and transport it about 400m to our mini-sugar mill that we designed and built specifically to make rum. Here it is immediately crushed and transferred to the fermentation tanks for inoculation.

2. FERMENTATION

Fresh cane juice, unlike molasses, is alive.

Cultivated fresh cane juice cannot be stored like molasses. As soon as cane is cut, indigenous yeast and bacteria start to consume the sugar in the juice.

From this moment it is a race against time to crush the cane, extract the juice, filter it, adjust the pH and brix level and pitch the distillers chosen cultured yeast strain. For best results this must be done within hours to ensure the indigenous yeast strains don’t become dominant causing unexpected flavours.

From that point there is intense competition between the cultured yeast and the indigenous yeast. It is a challenging process which, when done well, produces a complex fruity and herbaceous wash for distillation.

This is where the direct connection between the place of production, its geology, soil types, water, climate and geographic features, and the rum come together to give Husk Rum its terroir, its unique character.

3. DISTILLATION

A blend of art and science.

Our fresh fermented cane juice produces a complex fruity and herbaceous wash for distillation. All our spirits are distilled in our 6000L Scottish Forsyth still. Built in Rothes, Scotland to our specifications that were drawn up over six years of experimenting, traveling, tasting and learning, it is the only Forsyth still to venture into the Antipodes.

A true marriage of art and science, this still provides our distillers a level of control to produce both full bodied pot still rums for ageing as well as lighter, fruity more elegant spirits designed to be sipped unaged.

4. MATURATION

The subtropical climate of the Caldera Coast is excellent for maturing rum. The physical and chemical processes of maturation increases in warmer climates so a 3 year old rum matured in sub-tropics may be comparable to an eight year old cold climate aged whisky in terms of flavour development.

The large temperature variations we get from summer to winter and day to night cause the rum to expand and contract rhythmically forcing the liquid in and out of the wood, so our barrels work hard.

The aged expressions of Husk Rum are not chill filtered, carbon filtered nor is any colour added. We screened the liquid to remove barrel char to retain the 100% natural colour and flavour which is imparted from the wood during maturation.

Husk Rum is a contemplative rum to be enjoyed with kindred spirits or in peaceful solitude.

5. FARM TO BOTTLE… TO FARM AGAIN

With a big focus on sustainable land management, most of the waste we produce at the distillery gets put back into our 150 acre property.

Our waste disposal team consists of around 50 very spoilt cattle. They eat all the distillery waste - stillage, spent botanicals, cane tops and the high protein yeast left behind after distilling rum. This supplements their diet during the winter harvest months, when the nutrition in the grass is at it's lowest. The result is the fattest, happiest cows in the valley! 

We are the caretakers of 12 hectares of remnant Gondwana rainforest which is at the rear of our farm. Any leftover bagasse (what is left behind after we juice the sugar cane) that the cattle can't eat is used to mulch rainforest regeneration plantings which are dotted across the property, or used as a compost base.