The RAILEAN Distillery is located in a sleepy little town along the shores of Galveston Bay in San Leon, Texas. Affectionately referred to as a “small drinking community with a large fishing problem” in reference to the numerous dive bars dotting the Galveston Bay landscape, this small city once served as a stronghold for the infamous pirate Jean Lafitte. The area is also home to a thriving population of wild parrots called Monk Parakeets, which is the official RAILEAN mascot.
Armed with a fascination for pirate lore and a passion for rum, founder Kelly Railean is a pioneer in the American Craft Rum Revolution, producing four unique styles of American Rum including an unaged White Rum, barrel aged blended Reserve XO Rum, single barrel Small Cask Rum, and a Spiced Rum.
We spoke to the Founder and President, a jack of all trades, Kelly Railean and asked her what it takes to make it in this highly niche competitive market. We appreciate Kelly being straight forward and imparting so much of her own knowledge on us.
Kelly, how did you find yourself in the world of spirit distillation?
KR: I began my career in the alcohol beverage industry in 1996 – I was a sales rep for a wine, beer and spirits distributing company. I am Level 1 certified in the Court of Master Sommeliers, I mostly sold wine for about 11 years, when I quit my job in 2007 to open Railean Distillers, LLC with my husband Matt.
Please tell me how the distillery came about? Tell us about the name.
KR: We started the company in 2005, built it and had most of our permits and such by 2006, we opened the doors in 2007 – I had to quit my job with the distributor before we could open, Texas Tied-House laws.
My husband’s undergraduate degree is in Chemical Engineering, he has been making alcohol for the oil & gas industry, and chemical companies for over 25 years (not alcohol for consumption!). We really love rum because we are sailors, we had a sail boat for many years (until Hurricane Ike took care of it in 2008). What do sailors do? They talk & dress like pirates and they drink a lot of rum! We collected rum, and one night in 2005 we were hanging out at our favorite bar – The Buccaneer in San Leon, Texas. We were sampling rum & we were complaining that some of the rums were really not good….somehow that bad rum we were sampling turned into “we can make better rum than that”.
At the time there were only 2 distilleries in the state of Texas. We loved the Buccaneer Bar so much that we bought the land just a few blocks away to build our distillery. Sadly, the original Buccaneer Bar was also destroyed in Ike in 2008. When our liquor laws changed in 2013 to allow us to sell bottles & cocktails, we built a big bar/tasting room and we named it The Buccaneer Bar after our favorite dive bar that was destroyed.
The Railean Distillery (Railean Distillers, LLC) is named for us – Kelly & Matt Railean.
Is there anyone else involved in this business with you?
KR: I run the day to day operations of the distillery with my VP – Kenny Bradshaw. My husband (Matt Railean) has a full time job in the oil & gas biz, he takes care of most of the paper work, taxes, legal stuff, and he helps out on the weekends. Kenny has been with me for about 2 1/2 years. Kenny has really taken to the distilling, spirits and bar business – he has a history of working in the boat business – sales, retail and management. James Bradshaw helps out on the distilling side of things and is a fantastic bartender, and Monica England is my bar manager/bartender. We also have a few part timers and volunteers at the bar and tasting room. The distillery is located on Eagle Point in San Leon, we are surrounded by Galveston Bay, so boating is a big part of life for us folks who live here. The town of San Leon is dubbed “A small drinking community with a large fishing problem”.
What has been the part you’ve enjoyed most?
KR: I enjoy creating new products, sampling the barrels of product, leading the tours, and I really like bartending and meeting all the folks who come to check us out. I also like getting my hands dirty, doing a lot of manual labor, and bottling a couple hundred gallons of product! I also like working out in the market: giving spirits seminars, speaking engagements, meet the rum maker events, charity events and stuff like that.
What does your job entail?
KR: My job entails everything – I ran the distillery by myself Monday-Friday from 2007-2012, before we got so busy that we couldn’t keep up with just me, and then my husband and I both working/distilling on the weekends. The only thing I don’t do a lot of anymore is fermentation, Kenny usually takes care of all that – thank goodness, filling and cleaning the fermentation tanks is my least favorite thing to do! I distill, clean, blend product, barrel, bottle, label, bartend, drive the fork lift, load and unload product & raw materials, order raw materials, stock the bar & distillery, I do TONS of tours (both public and private), and I work with the distributors, retailers, bars and restaurants. I also do tons of marketing and it seems the paperwork never ends. Pretty much everyone at my place is trained to do almost everything! Kenny can do anything I can do, and James and Monica mostly work the bar – but from time to time they help out in the factory & do drop in tours, we all work out in the field a bit, and everyone pitches in with marketing & whatever else I need help with.
What spirit expressions do you currently produce? and how are they all different.
KR: We make 7 rums:
Railean White Rum – no oak barrel aging, double distilled – no flavor or sugar added – 40% ABV
Railean Reserve XO Rum – 1st aged spirit made in the state of Texas, barrel aged an average of 2-3 years, 15 gallon barrels, most barrels we have used before, no color, flavor or sugar added – 40% ABV
Railean Small Cask Rum – single barrel aged rum, 15 gallon new oak barrels, aged for 3 1/2 – 4 years, bottled 1 barrel at a time no color, flavor or sugar added – 40% ABV
Railean Spiced Rum – barrel aged in our previously used barrels (15 gallon), aged 1-2 years, all natural spices, all natural cane syrup to sweeten, no artificial color or flavor added – 40% ABV
Railean Coconut Rum – double distilled, no oak barrel aging, all natural coconut & all natural cane syrup to sweeten, nothing artificial added – 40% ABV
Railean Lime Rum – double distilled, no oak barrel aging, all natural lime & all natural cane syrup to sweeten, nothing artificial added – 40% ABV
Railean “Grand Cuvee” Sugarcane Rum – double distilled, made from sugarcane juice instead of molasses, aged 6-9 months in 15 gallon barrels, our previously used barrels, no color, flavor or sugar added – 40% ABV
We make vodka and whiskey
Railean Vodka – corn, triple distilled, nothing added – 40% ABV
Railean “Kelly Jean” Whiskey – 100% Corn Whiskey, Light Whiskey, aged in 15 gallon, new, oak barrels, aged about 2 years – 40% ABV, and no color, flavor or sugar added
And I make 100% Blue Agave Spirits!
Railean “El Perico” Blue Agave Blanco – double distilled, no barrel aging, no added flavor or sugar, 40% ABV
Railean “El Perico” Blue Agave Reposado – double distilled, barrel aged in 15 gallon barrels, previously used barrels, aged 6-9 months no color, flavor or sugar added, 40% ABV
Railean “El Perico” Blue Agave Anejo – double distilled, barrel aged in 15 gallon barrels, previously used barrels, aged 2 1/2-3 years, no color, no flavor an no sugar added, 40% ABV
What are your maturation conditions like?
KR: I use 15 gallon barrels, heavy char, that I purchase from several cooperages here in the USA. My Small Cask Rum & Whiskey are made in new barrels, everything else is aged in barrels that I have previously used. The Reserve XO Rum has an occasional new barrel in the blend. We use our barrels for 8-10 years and then we sell them to local breweries. I do not buy old whiskey or bourbon barrels. We are in southeast Texas, on the Gulf Coast, we have a hot & humid climate most of the time, great for aging barrels!
Although we have had months of drought some years, that was not great for evaporation, the “Angel’s share” was much more than it usually was for a couple of summers.
What three words do you want people to associate with your rum?
KR: Words to associate with Railean Rum – American Made, Handcrafted, Family Owned & Operated, Fermented & Distilled On-site
Walk us through the distillation process briefly. Is there a flavor profile you’re looking for before bottling the rum?
KR: Our still is a single batch, hybrid pot/copper column reflux still with 7 metal bubble cap trays of separation. I can run the still as a pot still (for aged spirits) and a column still (for un-aged spirits & vodka). I can open and close, or adjust the trays of separation in my column depending on what product I plan on making. I have to do 3 distillations to make vodka (95-96% ethanol coming off the still). Using a single batch system allows us to pull off the “lights” and the “heavies” from the still and separate the middle cut or “heart of the spirit”. Distillation, fermentation and following the same practice every time we distill is how we can maintain our product’s quality and consistency.
Fermentation and following a strict recipe when it comes to raw material, yeast, temperature, and about a hundred other things….is also how we control our product quality & consistency. Speaking of fermentation, we actually ferment & distilled ALL of our products! So many “distilleries” these days simply buy already made vodka, whiskey, rum, grain neutral spirits, whatever….from a monster factory and then they do something to it (or they just bottle it!) and call it “their” product that they “made”. I purchase domestic corn mash, 100% blue agave nectar, grade A unsulfured sugarcane molasses & sugarcane juice (from Louisiana, the cane is grown in several states around the Gulf Coast)….we then ferment & distill ALL of our products on site.
Where do you see your distillery 5 years from now?
KR: In 5 years, I see our distillery with another still (or two!), more fermenters, a thousand more barrels, a bunch more employees and in nearly every state in the nation! There really is no category for domestic, American made rum. There is Puerto Rican rum, Jamaican Rum, etc…. Ask someone to name a domestic rum, and most people can’t even name one. I plan on being THE American Made Rum. We use an American Made bottle, American Made label and American Made raw materials (except for the Blue Agave, which we then manufacture into Agave Spirits here in the USA).
Our products are also handcrafted, we don’t simply purchase bulk ethanol from monster ethanol facilities, we really do ferment & distill all our products. I don’t have investors, I haven’t sold out to a marketing company…we are truly family owned & operated and handcrafted, and in this day & age that is very unique.
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
KR: Challenges: the 3 tiered system, extremely high excise taxes, caps on what we can sell to the public, out of control government regulation, private labels at big box store chains, not being able to sell direct to bars, restaurants & liquor stores, convincing the general public that places other than Puerto Rico can make really good rum, layers of regulation, and most importantly – the tax cover over that applies to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
Rum distilleries in Puerto Rico & the US Virgin Islands pay their excise taxes, but they get a rebate back for most of their excise taxes. That is why so many rum companies have moved to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and that is also why the prices for rums from these areas cost a lot less on the shelf than other products. I pay @ $2.15 per bottle in excise tax, rums from Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands pay a mere pennies per bottle, that is why they are able to market like crazy, that is why in the USA there is a huge amount of inexpensive rum from these regions on the shelf. That $2.15 in excise taxes ends up being about $5-$6 on the shelf at the liquor store!
The rum business is not a level playing field and most of the general public does not realize that their hard earned tax dollars are going to support companies like Bacardi and Diageo (Captain Morgan). What’s even worse, the majority of companies making rum in Puerto Rico are not even American companies.
