An Alaskan fisherman turned ‘mad scientist’ now distills his popular rum on a MS Coast farm
An Alaskan fisherman turned “mad scientist” has found a new calling — making rum inside a distillery hidden on a horse farm in Gulfport.
Eli Underhill and his wife, Amy, left the wilderness and frigid temperatures for warm and sunny South Mississippi a few years ago, where he traded catching salmon and cod for experimenting to create a unique rum spirit. He is the brains and brawn behind Circle Hook Distilling, and she handles the marketing and branding while also tending to their animals just down the road.
Sometimes their beloved pony Chantilly — nicknamed Tilly — tries to sneak in the 1,200-square-foot distillery to snack on sugar cane.
“She never misses a meal,” Eli Underhill said.
It’s easy to see why Tilly would want a sweet treat from Circle Hook. When you walk into the spotless distillery, you are immediately reminded of a pancake breakfast or a syrupy scented candle that burns when the weather gets cold.
The smell comes from the molasses Eli uses to make his award-winning dark and light rum. What makes Circle Hook unique is the blend of molasses and cane syrup that goes into the boiler — most rums use one or the other as a sweetener.
The original rum is sweetened with the grade B molasses and Steen’s Cane Syrup.
“Eli tries to get the best of both worlds with that blend,” Amy Underhill said.
Eli spent years researching fermentation and spirit trends before deciding to open a distillery jin Harrison County. He said there wasn’t much education on research out there about rum distilling, and he learned much of what he knows from studying the wine fermentation process.
His wife jokingly calls him a “mad scientist” for figuring out how the process on his own.
“I believe in my husband, but I was really surprised at how good it was,” she said.
The process starts with well water from the farm —which Eli Underhill says is a key ingredient for both sweeteners and yeast. The weekslong process ends with sweet rum. Circle Hook’s original dark rum is aged in American oak barrels and is made for sipping over ice. The light rum is not aged and is perfect for a summer cocktail.
The water is key because of the high PH level — and the well water used for Circle Hook rum is about 10,000 years old.
“Deeper wells have sweeter water,” Eli Underhill said. “We couldn’t do this if we were in the city.”
Making rum during the COVID pandemic
The Underhills began producing rum in February 2020.
“While the world was in lockdown, we were making rum,” Eli Underhill said, adding that at first “each batch was an experiment.”
Eli first experimented with the levels of cane syrup and molasses to find the right balance.
The entire process to ferment the rum can take up to two weeks, Eli said, but “nothing is rushed” in his distillery. From there, the light rum is bottled and the dark rum is placed in barrels for up to 12 months.
“Seventy percent of the flavor comes from the barrels” on the original rum, Eli said.
Where to find Circle Hook rum
The Underhills have received several awards for their rum, and it was recently featured at the Mad Vines & Spirits table at Taste, Rattle and Roll in Gulfport.
White Pillars restaurant in Biloxi has cocktails featuring the rum, and you can buy bottles at most liquor stores on the Mississippi Coast.
The rum is available only in Mississippi for now, and the Underhills are working on a premium batch using products exclusively made in South Mississippi, including sugar cane from Poplarville.
Eli Underhilll wanted to try to grow his own sugar cane, but Amy Underhill jokingly said she put her foot down.
“You can be a fisherman, you can be a distiller, and you can be a sugar cane farmer,” she told him. “But if you want to be married to me, you have to pick two of the three.”
You can find a liquor store close to you that sells Circle Hook rum by checking their website.
