Photo: Mark Teiwes

We can only wish them the best of luck and look forward to trying their rum.

Rum’s in the family – Ipswich distillery inspired by privateer ancestor

It seems Andrew Cabot has inherited not only his name, but some business sense and a taste for rum from his ancestor.

Andrew Cabot, a merchant and privateer who lived 1750 to 1791, rolled barrels of molasses off sailing ships down the pier to his Beverly rum distillery.

Six generations later, Cabot’s descendant of the same name has started a rum distillery in nearby Ipswich, using forklifts to heft pallets of cane sugar and custom-made tanks in his Mitchell Road operation.

Beverly natives Andrew Cabot and Nelse Clark have started Privateer Rum, a distillery of single-malt whiskey and rum inspired by Cabot’s ancestor. The duo, who have been friends since elementary school, aim to use top-of-the-line ingredients to create a premium product — something they feel is missing in the American rum market.

“We’re not producing it the simple way, we’re producing it the hard way,” Clark said. “We believe in an artisanal and handcrafted (product).”

“There’s a great joy in making something wonderful and doing it the way you want to do it,” Cabot said.

Construction is almost complete at the Privateer Rum distillery, a 6,600-square-foot former wood shop in a Mitchell Road warehouse. They hope to have a finished product to distribute over the summer.

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for passing along the article.