This small distillery in Melbourne (capital of Victoria in the south-east of the country) offers long-fermented rums distilled in a home-made hybrid still and heavily esterified. A name to watch.
The Killik story began around 15 years ago with two brothers, Benjamin and Callan Pratt, who were very enthusiastic about using different types of distillation and brewing techniques. They first explored distillation by producing rum and corn whisky in their small “backyard distillery” and fell in love with rum in particular.
As there was no real market for rum in Australia, they then set about opening a commercial brewery. This brewery focused on Lambic-style beers, which rely heavily on fermentation and unique flavours that can’t be found anywhere else.
In 2020, the commercial brewery they owned was converted into a rum distillery and the lessons learned from fermenting and producing sour beers were transformed into one of Australia’s first high ester rum distilleries.
A distillery in Melbourne
The Australian rum scene is quite immature and I think getting into rum production was probably one of the biggest challenges, but we looked at market trends in the US and rum was on the rise.
We also like drinking rum with a high ester content and what it represents. Making rum in Melbourne hasn’t been as difficult as you might think because we have access to locally sourced liquid molasses, which is available in abundance in Queensland.
Melbourne is not known for its sugar cane plantations (as there are none), but the only option is to buy molasses and ferment it to obtain a unique product. Melbourne’s climate can change dramatically, our summers are dry and hot up to 40 degrees with little humidity, and our winters are cold down to 2-3 degrees. This obviously affects the characteristics of the casks and the flavour profiles.
A complex fermentation
Unfortunately I can’t say much more about the fermentation, but I can tell you that there are two fermentation cycles and the wine goes through a column still and an iron still to add complexity.
Our casks are American EX oak, and we also have some fun casks in the distillery that can be a little more unique than the others. We have quite a few old distilled rums that are waiting, I think, for the national rum industry to take a closer look.
I’d like to describe our OP white rum as a tribute to Hampton Rum Fire, and if we’re in the same conversation as him, we’ll be very proud of it, but a very good high alcohol rum with strawberry and cream aromatics and the balance we’re showing, we’re really happy and proud of what we can offer the market.
The cuvée to taste (with the 1802 bar) : SBS Origin Australia KLK
Kilik’s products are not yet widely available in Europe, so it’s hard to get an idea of the overall quality, but independent bottler 1423 SBS has launched a very promising cuvée: SBS Origin Australia KLK, white rum.
We tasted it at the 1802 bar with Donovan Chouari. He really enjoyed its candy-tagada strawberry flavour, we didn’t so much. But in any case, it’s interesting and a little reminiscent of Savanna’s work with its high ester Herr.
70 cl – 57 % – 59 €