My name is David Watson, I own D.E.W. Distillation L.L.C. The origins of Cypress Creek Reserve Rum began in the year 2000. When I
went to the island of Mauritius in the Indian ocean on a treasure hunt. Diving on sunken ships is a lot of fun, but no treasure was
found. While relaxing in this island paradise, it was realized that there is a fine Rum made there. My brother , Daniel , had the idea of
importing the Rum made there to the USA. This sounded like a great idea to me also and we proceeded in finding out what was
involved in importing Rum. One thing led to another and it was decided to make our own Rum instead of importing. But as things
progressed, my brother and I decided to go in different directions with the business.
I decided to build a small distillery of my own. Countless hours spent on the internet provided the base information to get started
making Rum. Then comes the experimentation phase. This took years to go through. My main priority was to make a quality Rum
completely from scratch. With everything being done at one location. I set to work setting up a distillery, in Wimberley, Texas, on my
property.
I have spent most of my life working as a welder. The last 20 years has been working as a rig welder offshore. An offshore welder
must be able to build anything metal. I built some, and installed all, of the equipment and tanks in the distillery.
I bought a 600 gallon stainless steel tank to use for a still tank. I then designed and built the head and condenser out of copper.
There is an offset head type design on the pot still. It does make some fine Rum. That is what counts. It is heated with a propane
fueled steam generator. The water used for cooling is reclaimed and then used in the fermentation tank.
The Rum is distilled twice. There is a stripping run and a finishing run. Unlike vodka, Rum needs to retain certain flavors that multiple
distillations would remove. I believe that a pot still gives more control on the distillation process. After distilling. I filter the Rum through
activated carbon for smoothness.
My wife, Laura Watson, does most of the labeling and bottling. She also does the paper work, which is quite extensive. The
government requires everything done in the distillery to be recorded. How she makes sense of my notes I have no idea.
To make the Vanilla Flavored Rum we start with the finished white Rum. Laura takes this Rum and adds fresh gourmet quality vanilla
beans, which ages for a period, to make an extract that is used to flavor the Rum. We use the Tahitian variety of vanilla beans for our
Rum. This variety has a complex floral scent and is more aromatic than the Madagascar variety. This transfers into the taste of the Rum
extremely well.
The fresh spring water used to ferment and cut the Rum is an asset that cannot be over looked. The Texas Hill Country has water
perfectly suited for making liquor. Certainly this is one of the reasons that so many in the wine and liquor industry have located in
central Texas.
Enjoy the spirit of the Texas Hill Country as you partake in these fine Rums.
----David Watson
went to the island of Mauritius in the Indian ocean on a treasure hunt. Diving on sunken ships is a lot of fun, but no treasure was
found. While relaxing in this island paradise, it was realized that there is a fine Rum made there. My brother , Daniel , had the idea of
importing the Rum made there to the USA. This sounded like a great idea to me also and we proceeded in finding out what was
involved in importing Rum. One thing led to another and it was decided to make our own Rum instead of importing. But as things
progressed, my brother and I decided to go in different directions with the business.
I decided to build a small distillery of my own. Countless hours spent on the internet provided the base information to get started
making Rum. Then comes the experimentation phase. This took years to go through. My main priority was to make a quality Rum
completely from scratch. With everything being done at one location. I set to work setting up a distillery, in Wimberley, Texas, on my
property.
I have spent most of my life working as a welder. The last 20 years has been working as a rig welder offshore. An offshore welder
must be able to build anything metal. I built some, and installed all, of the equipment and tanks in the distillery.
I bought a 600 gallon stainless steel tank to use for a still tank. I then designed and built the head and condenser out of copper.
There is an offset head type design on the pot still. It does make some fine Rum. That is what counts. It is heated with a propane
fueled steam generator. The water used for cooling is reclaimed and then used in the fermentation tank.
The Rum is distilled twice. There is a stripping run and a finishing run. Unlike vodka, Rum needs to retain certain flavors that multiple
distillations would remove. I believe that a pot still gives more control on the distillation process. After distilling. I filter the Rum through
activated carbon for smoothness.
My wife, Laura Watson, does most of the labeling and bottling. She also does the paper work, which is quite extensive. The
government requires everything done in the distillery to be recorded. How she makes sense of my notes I have no idea.
To make the Vanilla Flavored Rum we start with the finished white Rum. Laura takes this Rum and adds fresh gourmet quality vanilla
beans, which ages for a period, to make an extract that is used to flavor the Rum. We use the Tahitian variety of vanilla beans for our
Rum. This variety has a complex floral scent and is more aromatic than the Madagascar variety. This transfers into the taste of the Rum
extremely well.
The fresh spring water used to ferment and cut the Rum is an asset that cannot be over looked. The Texas Hill Country has water
perfectly suited for making liquor. Certainly this is one of the reasons that so many in the wine and liquor industry have located in
central Texas.
Enjoy the spirit of the Texas Hill Country as you partake in these fine Rums.
----David Watson
| All rights reserved. |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |