An award-winning rum made by a cyber security expert

Photo by Alex Holyoake on Unsplash

A Costa Mesa man who used to be a hacker makes a rum that got a gold medal.

How does that make sense?

Glenn Wilson started making his own liquor about four years ago. He got the idea when his wife gave him a make-your-own-beer kit.

After hiring a distillery in San Diego to help him make it, he entered into the 2019 San Francisco World Spirits Competition to compete against about 3,000 other entries.

His SoCal Silver Rum earned a gold medal in the white rum category that had 27 total entries. His rum is one of four that received gold and one other received double gold.

The contest is said to be the biggest in the country and many well-known alcohol companies compete in it.

His recipe contains sugar cane, water and two different kinds of yeast -- one being from a 300-year-old distillery in the French West Indies. It is also 40 percent alcohol.

He said he spends more money on the ingredients than the bottle. He does this on purpose so people focus on the taste of the alcohol rather than the look of the bottle.

His product can only be found at two bars in Newport Beach. He hopes to have it in big-name stores soon for about 20 bucks a bottle.

You can see the results for other categories here:


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