Featured Local Business | brix distillers

From ready-to-drink to your own custom barrel, Olly Ross from BRIX Distillers will take you through rum history, rum making, rum tasting and the ultimate; spicing and owning your own big barrel of rum.

Sydney’s Rum History

Back in colonial times, there was a permanent regiment of the British Army called the New South Wales Corps, nicknamed the Rum Corp due to their monopoly on the rum trade. In 1808, a group of the Rum Corp marched to Sydney’s Government House to overthrow Governor William Bligh. This was later to be known as the Rum Rebellion.

**Bringing Rum Back**

BRIX founders Damien Barrow, James Christopher and Siddharth Soin, wanted to bring rum back to Sydney. So, with their background in hospitality, extensive rum research and the nous to restart the Sydney rum market, BRIX was born.
They kicked off in 2018 at their Bourke Street location in Surry Hills with a 1200 litre copper still known as ‘Molly’ (short for molasses), eight 1000 litre fermentation tanks, added their extensive BRIX rum line and cocktails, paired a menu of rum-inspired big burgers and ribs, and stocked their bar with another 160 rums from across the globe, including from Guadeloupe.

**Why ‘BRIX’?**

According to the Macquarie Dictionary, ‘brix’ is the concentration of sugar in solution according to the Brix Scale. Sugarcane from Bundaberg Queensland is what kicks off BRIX’s rum-making, and getting those concentrations perfect is key to creating their molasses-based rums. Molasses is what is left after the sugarcane is crushed and boiled, and the crystallized sugar is removed through a process using centrifuge. The high graded molasses is then mixed with carbon-filtered Sydney water plus flavoured yeast (like Caribbean rum or French champagne) in the fermentation tank, then moved to Molly, the distiller, to make the alcohol.

Molly completes a few distilling cycles separating what is known as the heads, hearts and tails of the mix, with the hearts having the stronger flavour and alcohol content.

Ready-to-drink

Spiced Ginger Beer & Native Finger Lime, Peach & Ruby Grapefruit, and Spiced Orange made from Australian cane spirit blended with natural flavours, carbonated and ready to drink! These are delicious and are also available on tap at their Bourke Street distillery. And of course, you’ll find them chilled ready to drink at our Neighbourhood Cellars stores.

**Award-winning**

BRIX Gold Rum has won the World’s Best Pot & Column Still rum three years running at the World Rum Awards. We’ve tried it, and definitely think they deserve the accolades! It’s tasting notes reads:
“Earthy and vegetal in with the stewed tropical fruit sweetness. Silky and mouth filling with a gentle heat. Lovely sweet spices.”

Others in their range include:

BRIX White – Crafted in Surry Hills from premium Australian molasses, sourced from the cane fields of Queensland and Northern NSW.

BRIX Spiced Rum - Infused with Native Australian Lemongrass & Bush Currants, roasted Aussie Macadamias, locally grown mangoes & grapefruit, cinnamon & vanilla.

BRIX Trail Mix 2021 Release – a collaboration with Three Blue Ducks and a limited release. Commencing with Brix shiraz barrel-aged Rum, it includes sustainably sourced ginger, cumquats, honey coffee grounds, orange peel, native riberry, Kakadu plum, mango and vanilla.