Daytona Beach, Florida

Located just north of bustling Daytona Beach in the city of Holly Hill, Copper Bottom Craft Distillery is a family-run business that produces small-batch rum and vodka from unrefined sugar cane.  This city has historical ties to rum: it was once home to famous rum runner Bill McCoy and Three Chimneys in nearby Ormond Beach is known as the oldest successful British sugar plantation and rum distillery in the United States.

Instead of using molasses to make rum, Copper Bottom uses raw, unrefined sugar which is fermented and then distilled once in a copper kettle still and then sent through a copper column still.  To make their Silver Rum, the final distillate is proofed down with filtered water and there are no additives for color or flavor.  It is a light, clean rum with notes of vanilla and butterscotch.  For the Gold Rum, the same distillate is aged for about 18 months in once-used bourbon barrels and has a more complex, oaky flavor with enhanced vanilla notes.  

Copper Bottom also partners with local craft breweries to obtain beer barrels which are used to produce their limited release Beer Barreled Rum series.  These are typically limited to one batch of approximately 350 bottles and each series inherits some of the unique characteristics of the beer that the barrel previously held.  The labels are hand-written and indicate the type of beer barrel used, ABV, and the name of the brewery.

Copper Bottom Vodka is made using the same raw sugar but is distilled using a taller, stainless steel column still.  It is light and fresh and makes an excellent base for high-quality cocktails.