Rum tale of a holy spirit
When two friends with a passion for home brewing hit on the idea of producing their own rum, they hoped to be able to replicate the success enjoyed by the many small-scale distilleries that have sprung up across Yorkshire to tap into the booming gin market. However the Covid-19 pandemic soon threw their plans into disarray, making it impossible for them to promote their brand and products at festivals and events, as they’d intended. For the last couple of years, Joe Dunning and Campbell Carruth have had to content themselves with producing just 300 bottles of their God’s Own Yorkshire Rum each year, which they’ve mostly sold through their website.
Setting up an artisan, micro-distillery whilst ensuring that they still had a source of income by working part-time – Dunning for the NHS as a radiographer and Carruth as a consultant in the property sector – has certainly not been without its challenges. However, a recent television appearance on the hugely popular Hairy Bikers Go North BBC television series has brought their products to the attention of a much wider audience and looks set to propel their fledgling business to the next level.
Yorkshire may be full of gin makers but now two friends are joining the county’s distilling fame but this time making rum. Lucy Oates reports. Pictures by Simon Hulme.
The pair first met around ten years ago, when they were both living in the village of South Milford near Selby in North Yorkshire.
Dunning recalls: “Our kids were a similar age and at school together, and that’s how we became friends. I’d been into home brewing for quite a few years before that, making my own wine, beer and cider. I’d set up a dedicated brewing shed in my back garden that was all kitted out – I had a better selection of beers than the local pub.”
One day, whilst chatting with Carruth over drinks in a local pub beer garden, Dunning commented that ‘the only thing he’d not tried was distilling’.
“I asked Campbell if I should buy a still and he convinced me, so we bought our first table-top still and started experimenting. We loved the process of distilling, the science and alchemy behind it, and we found that it worked – we could produce a really good spirit.”
The gin market was buoyant at the time, but Carruth and Dunning describe themselves as
‘rum heads’, so they’ve tried to apply the approach championed by the region’s many small batch gin producers to rum-making.
Carruth explains: “No-one was doing it at the time – we were the first in Yorkshire to have a dedicated rum set up. We own the registered trademark of God’s Own Yorkshire Rum.”
Their chosen brand name is not only a nod to its Yorkshire roots, but also acknowledges the fact that they source many of their ingredients locally too. As self-taught rum makers, developing their product range – Yorkshire Spiced Rum, Yorkshire
Gold Rum, Yorkshire Blush Rum and Yorkshire Winter Rum – was essentially a process of trial and error, although Carruth is quick to highlight Dunning’s knowledge of ‘the science behind it’.
“We consider ourselves rum enthusiasts and we went through a process of trying different ingredients and flavours before market testing them with family, friends and our social media network at that time. We wanted to create four strong product types that would have longevity, each with their own characteristics that would be easily identifiable,” he says.
Dunning adds: “We decided to use fresh ingredients from the beginning that would be sourced locally, wherever possible. When we were developing the rums, we tried countless different botanicals and spices, and would
infuse the products with them to varying degrees over many different sessions. It was a process of elimination to settle on the best possible combinations.”
Carruth points out: “We are producing everything from scratch, the techniques that we use are the purest form of making rum.”
However, the many long hours spent honing their recipes and developing their brand was only half the battle. After their company was established in 2018, they then had to go through the complex process of securing a licence before they could officially launch their products the following year.
Since then, the pandemic’s impact on the hospitality, retail and events sector has thrown a series of unforeseen obstacles in their path.
Dunning explains: “We started 2020 believing that it was going to be the year that we got a presence across Yorkshire. We spent time booking stands at lots of festivals and getting our stock levels up. We were also aiming to get into artisan shops and some of the better quality bars across Leeds, York and Harrogate. We were just starting
We are producing everything from scratch, the techniques that we use are the purest form of making rum.
to do that and were not focusing too much on internet sales but, when the pandemic hit, the whole lot was kiboshed!
“Pubs and shops were closed, and festivals were cancelled. We had to have a major rethink and realigned the business so that we could sell direct to the public online.”
It was around this time that Carruth, who had left a full-time job in the property sector just before the full effects of the pandemic were felt, sold his home. Both he and the distillery relocated to Tickhill near Doncaster in South Yorkshire.
He remembers: “I had to get the money that we needed to allow us to survive, it was quite a precarious time. We soldiered on, but it was more about trying to keep going and keep faith that the quality of what we’d created would get the sales coming in and allow us to upscale to a more commercial footing. We’re not there yet, we’re still working from an outbuilding where I’m living.”
He continues: “Thankfully we had the transferable skill set to allow us to negotiate the licensing process, branding and product development. We got that far with loose change really. We have never secured investment and we vowed never to take on debt, our growth so far has all been organic. We don’t have a marketing budget, so we do the social media ourselves and were also relying on word of mouth, which was why we wanted to get out to all the festivals. That’s what made it so hard for us to navigate our way through the lockdowns.”
Although they have been approached by major distributors, an additional difficulty that they face is being able to ramp up production to the required levels. It takes five hours to make 20 bottles of rum in their 60-litre still.
“We’ve had interest from other e-commerce platforms globally but because we are so small we’ve had to turn down these opportunities,” says Carruth.
Although the friends and business partners are hopeful that they will be able to start spreading the word about their products at festivals and events this year, as well as forging links with potential stockists for their products, their appearance on The Hairy Bikes Go North undoubtedly gave them a welcome boost.
They were approached by the programme’s production company last year, who had found them via social media, and were featured in the Christmas special, which aired in December but was filmed last summer.
It saw the popular TV chefs, Dave Myers and Si King, visiting Carruth and Dunning’s distillery and using their rum to make frangipane mince pies
For a special Christmas meal based on regional produce.
“They spent an afternoon and evening filming here, and there was rum involved. The Hairy
Bikers really liked the authenticity of our products, they saw the different stages of the process and that it was all done by hand to create that quality and depth of flavour,” recalls Dunning.
Their prime-time television appearance generated 1,000 pre-orders for their rum in just two weeks so they’re now busy trying to produce more stock.
Dunning adds: “At the moment it’s all hands on deck. The demand is definitely there if we can get bigger. We’re now looking at raising the capital that we need to make this a sustainable, commercial business.”
■ www.godsownrum.co.uk