Introducing Sergeant Classick Rum
Common traits run through the entrepreneurial craft distillers we’ve met in this business; a connection to engineering, a passion for tinkering, a background in homebrewing (usually in a garage), and a killer palate.
There comes a moment when these traits coalesce into a desire to distill, and for the Classick family, founders of Essential Spirits and makers of craft rum, grappa, bierschnapps, and eau de vie, that moment arrived during a family trip to France. Dave Classick Junior was just a teen then. His father, Dave Senior, had been brewing beer in his garage, and both he and his wife, Andrea Mirenda, had spent the previous two years contemplating entrepreneurship, a chance to “make their own mistakes.” It was the nineties, craft beer brands like Sierra Nevada Brewing Company were beginning to gather steam, but American craft distillers were still thin on the ground.
“Most people have no idea how much prohibition decimated the distilling industry in this country,” says Dave Jr. “In fact, when we started our business in 1998, we were one of only six distilleries in the entire western region of the US, and even then, there were no domestically produced premium spirits. Any of ‘the good stuff’ were all imports.”
At dinner with friends in France, a guest handed Mirenda a brochure, hoping she could use her marketing skills to proofread the English translations. As it happened, the gentleman worked for the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce, and the brochure was for a still system, the same still system that would become the Classick’s workhorse at Essential Spirits years later. It was there at the dinner table that the Classicks began envisioning their entrepreneurial future in distillation.
In the absence of formal schooling or robust distillation apprenticeships in the Bay Area (and the US as a whole), Dave Sr. spent months in Bordeaux learning the ropes with master distiller and still makers at Stupfler Alambiques. Back home, the Classick family secured a location, created infrastructure, and eventually hosted the Stupfler family to install a custom-made alambic still and train the Classicks in its operation. It is this still that sets Essential Spirits apart—that, and the hands that guide it.
A Still Like No Other
“Our still is what we like to call the Rolls Royce of alambic pot stills," says Dave Jr. "The still was made by a 3rd generation still maker whose father won the highest civilian honor (the Worker of France or Meilleur Ouvrier) for his copper smithing, and whose grandfather worked on the Statue of Liberty with Bartholdi.”
Dave Jr. says that the properties of their handmade pot still create one-of-a-kind spirits that cannot be replicated: “The radius of the curves on the machine, the lyne arm, the ‘gooseneck’, the onion-shaped chapiteau, all of these elements affect the physical properties of the distillate it produces,” says Dave Jr. The still’s analyzer allows the Classicks to double distill spirits in a single run which, as Dave Jr. explains, means they can forgo a stripping run and efficiently capture 85% to 90% of the available ethanol base. This makes their process not only unique, but uniquely efficient.
Using beer as the obvious entree into distillation, and under the influence of their local microbrewing friends at The Tied House who offered to produce wort for distillation, the Classicks began making bierschnapps, a distilled spirit popular in Bavaria but mostly unheard of in the US. “Unfortunately,” says Dave Jr., “because it contained the word ‘schnapps’ in it, most liquor stores that were willing to put our product on their shelves put it next to American schnapps—sugary sweet nightmares in a bottle.”
The uphill battle marketing bierschnapps led to experimentations in grappa distilled from wine produced by Bay Area wineries, and eventually a product line began to take shape, while delving into contract distillation allowed the Classicks to keep the lights on and help other craft spirits producers get their product to market.
Hawaiian Rum
Meanwhile, another idea was brewing in the Classick hive mind. Memories of family vacations to Hawaii and a distinct lack of Hawaiian rum led the Classicks to source premium molasses from Hawaii for their own rum distillations. Unlike most molasses, which is part of a massive and murky commodities supply chain, the Classick’s Hawaiian molasses offers a rare example of traceability.
Experimenting with fermentation in their garage lab led to the discovery of a rum-specific yeast from Guatemala which can withstand high temperatures and the high sugar content of their Hawaiian molasses. “It yielded a rum that was very ester-y and vegetal, yet rich and unctuous, even off the still at a high ABV,” says Dave Jr. The grassy cane notes combined with the burnt sugar and toasted vanilla of the molasses creates a rum that is both mixable and sippable in equal measure.
Starting a distilling operation is all about the long game, and for over twenty-five years, Essential Spirits has made impeccable spirits on their one-of-a-kind still. With father and son Classick carrying the torch, the plan is to continue the operation for generations to come.
“There's a saying the still maker recounted to us,” says Dave Jr. “‘In the distilling industry, the grandparent starts the business, the child runs the business, and the grandchild, they profit. If I can get us to that stage, I will feel very fortunate.”
“It’s pretty simple," he says. "We love what we do, and we do our very best to make sure our spirits will raise your spirits. We’ve been at it a while, which either means we’re lucky, or good. I like to think it’s a bit of both."
Read the full interview with Dave Jr. here.
