Distillery
The name Illegal Tender references Australia's colonial Rum Currency period. In the early days of Australia's colony there was not enough physical currency so bartering was common. Rum was very popular and became a substitute currency. Governor William Bligh attempted to ban using spirits as payment and the Rum Rebellion of 1808 kicked off.
Ingredients
Brown sugar is used as the base for the rums. Brown sugar was picked after trying molasses, raw sugar and cane juice to get the flavour Codie liked.
The water used is rain water sourced onsite, it is said that the lower mineral content of the natural rain water plays a part in the final flavour of the rum.
Fermentation
Illegal Tender state they have a proprietary blend of yeast and secret methods in order to get more alcohol from their fermentation. The industry stand being 7% to 8% they claim be be able to push up to 60% higher so around the 10% to 12% range.
The brown sugar, rain water and yeast ferment for around 2 weeks, this is a longer style ferment as other style of rum can be in the 1 to 5 day range.
Illegal Tender have 3 fermentation vats onsite, I can't find any reference to their size. I did see them on a video interview and the fermentation vats look big.
Distillation
Illegal Tender uses a 1200L hybrid pot column still with four plates, it is called The Beast.
The fermented wash is run through the still two times. The first run is a stripping run to extract the alcohol, the column stills plates are not engaged for this run.
The output from the first run is mixed with rain water, feints which are some of the discarded output from a stripping run and lee's which is the residue left behind after fermentation. These are added in to craft the flavour profile the distiller is chasing.
This second distillation run is run over 3 to 5 days, the column stills plates are engaged for the second run.
Maturation
The 1808 Barely Legal, is an unaged cane spirit it is bottled and ready to go at this point.
For the spiced cane spirit, it is barrel aged for a month in ex Vasse Felix French Oak Shiraz cask and flavoured with Kakadu Plum, Lemon Myrtle, Quandong, Wild Rosella, Wattleseed and 15 other Spices.
The Distiller's Cut is aged in medium charred ex Vasse Felix French Oak Shiraz for at least two years.
Bottling
A production run seems to be around 500 bottles per batch and Illegal Tender said they have a capacity of up to 3,000 bottles a month.
All the rums and cane spirits produced are sugar free, the Bushtucker Spiced was called out specifically as NATA certified sugar free.
Other Products
Illegal Tender also distil gin and a coffee liqueur.