Tasting HAMPDEN ESTATE'S Entire Core Range: 8 year, HLCF Classic, Pagos, & Great House 2023

[@welshtoro3256]

I remember when those first distillery bottles hit the market. The HLCF was 8 years old but it's now 4. I still love it though. Quite clearly a marketing ploy to get folk to buy more of 46% offer. I live in England for most of the year and have been extremely fortunate to have had access to great rums for many years. We were able to buy excellent independently bottled rum even when the distilleries weren't offering anything. When whisky started to blow up, about ten years ago, folk started to hear about cask strength, naturally presented, rum being bottled by the whisky independents. Luckily for me, only a small handful of the whisky geeks paid any interest to rum. However, I had friends in the States and Canada pulling their hair out because they just couldn't get their hands on the stuff. Nearly all of it was sent to the U.K, France and Italy. It took a while for the penny to drop but, eventually, distilleries like Foursquare and Hampden realised that folk really rated their whisky when presented this way. Plenty of excellent reviews of their rum but none if it bottled by them. I have some of those old Kill Devil Hampdens and the funk is off the scale. They're single casks though, so I'm very pleased that Hampden bottle their own and they are generally available. Anyway, that's enough of the history. I just found your channel and it rocks. Of course, I have to sub to anyone that loves Hampden and your review is really excellent. I've had Hampden aged in all kinds of casks but the base spirit is never compromised: Over ripe/rotting/fermenting bananas and pineapples, paw-paw (papaya) and a kind a kind of steaming tropical vegetal mulch. Yummy. Oddly enough, I find that Rum Fire has a purity (nail varnish stuff - I'm a bloke so it's all the same). It's as though oak fires up the funkiness. I know this from the single casks and those individual casks (usually bourbon) can really ramp up the funk. By the way, I had my doubts about Pagos when I first opened it but I really like it now. It improves with some age and oxygen too. I like what the sherry influence brings to the table. It's well made. I've always had a bit of an issue with Great House and the price. It's too expensive. I have to give a couple of shout outs to folk you may well know but, if not, I think you will enjoy their rum (especially) and whisky content. Whisky Journey who is reviewing amazing rum; Chris Goodrum at the Good Dram Show how has a lot of good rum reviews including the two Hampdens when they came out and Scott over at Different Spirits. The most incredible rum review library is at Whisky Fun by Serge. I'm sure you know all of this anyway but it's great to meet a fellow rum enthusiast. Love the cat. I'm a cat guy Got two. WT

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Thanks so much for the thoughtful comment and for subscribing! I'm happy that the US rum releases have started to catch up with the UK's. And that distilleries are releasing more and more bottles that appeal to us rum nerds. Do you have a favorite Hampden release? I agree that the Great House is too pricey... I'll happily enjoy it if someone else is buying haha. And thanks for the shoutouts! A couple of those channels are new to me, so I’ll be sure to check them out. It's awesome to meet another cat-loving rum enthusiast too!!

[@RumCzar]

Let's take the show to Jamaica!

[@RobynSmithPhD]

That would be amazing!! It's on the bucket list!!

[@RumCzar]

Yes! More of this!

[@differentspirits4157]

I am so jealous of that shirt. EDIT: great video, now that I've actually watched it 😂. I'm totally looking forward to that HCLF deep dive!!

[@RobynSmithPhD]

A friend sent me these samples and I did not expect them to include the shirt too! It was a lovely surprise!

[@joeyl669]

11:05 The coconut husk is called coir this sounds like an awesome rum brand tho too

[@johanlarsson2718]

Great video. Hampden is my favourite and this was a great lineup. Love all of them.

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Hampden is the best!!

[@LectorRecords]

Really like this video. I’ve been looking everywhere in north central Florida for the 8 year. No luck so far. I have found a bottle of Great House 2023 but the price is $130.00. Oh well, the search continues. Thanks

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Thanks so much! $130 for the Great House is about what I can find it for too... it's kind of pricey though. Have you checked online for the 8 year? I see it's available on internet wines for $80 and they ship to FL!

[@LectorRecords]

@@RobynSmithPhD Thanks, I’ll check them out. Ps. Have you heard how the distillery fared through the hurricane??

[@RobynSmithPhD]

@@LectorRecords I haven’t heard… I hope they’re alright! It seems like Jamaica was hit hard, but their Prime Minister reported that the damage wasn’t as bad as anticipated.

[@kawonewilliams1949]

I'm just coming across your channel today. This is wonderful. I enjoy your takes on the flavor profiles of the rums and your explanations. I know there are a bunch of other channels that make cocktails and talk about spirits, but i found your video to be refreshing. Thanks for putting in the hard work. Keep it up. I'll be checking out some of your past videos. Cheers 🍸

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your kind words!

[@mvanlierwalq]

great video, very informative.

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Thanks so much!!

[@jessealexander4329]

Have you done any more ferments with your dunder/muck?

[@RobynSmithPhD]

I haven't! I've been so busy with other things (terrible excuse), BUT I have molasses and am planning to do more very very soon!

[@jessealexander4329]

@@RobynSmithPhD awesome well excited to see you're results. I have been experimenting with yeast grown from kombucha. Couldn't get S cerevisiae to ferment because of high VA. The kombucha yeast took a long time to kick off but I'm hoping S Pombe is the main player. The ferments smell great so far!

[@RobynSmithPhD]

@@jessealexander4329 That's so awesome! This is for a rum wash? Are you using an actual SCOBY? Or did you somehow manage to isolate the yeast from the bacteria? Where did you get the SCOBY? S. pombe is known for being slow at fermenting!! But I think some of the yeast species typically found in SCOBYs (ex: zygosaccharomyces) can also ferment pretty slowly, however, I'm crossing my fingers that it's S. pombe! Fission yeast is so cool!

[@jessealexander4329]

@@RobynSmithPhD Yeah it's for rum, chasing the high flavor ya know... 😉 so I made a 10 brix pied de cuv with sugar go ferm and fermaid O (Scott labs products) and then added 10%ish of GT synergy raw kombucha. Took a few days but started to see tiny bubbles so dumped it into the rum wash. Took forever to come to population but its doing well now. Has a nice frothy head, which Stephen Shellenberger has pointed out before on his fission ferments.... there was a sweet VA cherry like aroma at the start of the fermentation but there's not as much noticeable VA now. The previous batch I added the kombucha pied de cuv at the end of a wild yeast rum wash ferment and it continued to ferment while the control stalled out and stopped dropping brix. So that was neat.

[@jessealexander4329]

@@RobynSmithPhD yeah looks like there is every yeast and their brother in a kombucha culture so who knows what I have. But it's definitely stuff that can tolerate high VA where S cerevisiae can not. And the yeasts are out running the bacteria.

[@Fedorevsky]

Thanks!

[@RobynSmithPhD]

No problem!

[@RumCzar]

Ppl say I'm crazy, but the H-8 is my least fav of all the H's. To me, it has a vomit ester, like old romano cheese. I want to luv it, but.I.just.can't. Pity me!

[@RobynSmithPhD]

Ooh I wasn't getting any butyric acid notes, but I'm certain there are trace amounts of butyric acid present. Maybe your palate has a lower detection threshold than most for butyric acid! It could also be the batch. Luckily there are lots of other Hampden expressions for you to love!

[@RumCzar]

@@RobynSmithPhD Can you roll other rum-likes into ur channel like cachaca and clairin?

[@joshuagoodsell9330]

I pronounce it "caramel" 😂

[@Miata822]

Good stuff. Jealous of your olfactory vocabulary.

[@RobynSmithPhD]

It's all practice!

[@MrJhchrist]

Muckrobiology :)

[@RobynSmithPhD]

My favorite of all the biologies!

[@youtube_growth-manager]