Navy Strength vs. Gunpowder Proof vs. Overproof

Navy Strength vs. Gunpowder Proof vs. Overproof

Strong rum has many names.

Post by Thomas Heie Nielsen

You've probably heard the terms Navy Strength, Gunpowder Proof and Overproof. Often these terms are used interchangeably. But what do the different terms actually mean and how strong is Navy Strength? That's what I'm going to dive into. I will therefore take you on a sailing trip on the seven seas. It will be a historic voyage with storms, foam spray and gunpowder smoke and, of course, plenty of strong rum. So cast off the mooring lines and trim the sails.Let 's set sail.

Let me make this clear right away.In the rum school I went to, Navy Strength is 57.18%. But there are other schools that say otherwise. Let's take a look. Disclaimer. It gets nerdy.

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UK is probably best known for the concept of Navy Rum and Navy Strength. The reputable and well-informed site Cocktail Wonk writes very confidently: "Britain's navy released their rum at 54.5%. Navy Strength is 54.5%. Period. " And that's where the sailing trip could end. But let's dive a little deeper into the glass and a little further into the story.

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We start in Jamaica in 1655. Britain kicked the Spanish colonists out of Jamaica, taking control of the island and the sugar and rum production. They quickly fell in love with the powerful and funky Jamaican rum. Soon the sailors' daily rations of brandy were changed to rum. The daily rum ration was half a Imperial pint, equivalent to almost 28.5 cl. per man, per day. Every day! And it wasn't the sweet, watered-down rum. It was strong and dry rum at the high end of the percentage scale. It was usually drunk neat and straight away. So it's no surprise that the sailors were a bit of a drunkard most of the time.

Before 1816, the purser - called pussers - on the big English ships didn't have an accurate method of measuring the alcoholic strength of rum (or gin). But they did have a rule of thumb. Take a few grains of gunpowder and add it to a small amount of pure rum. The grains of gunpowder and the rum were mashed together into a black paste. Then you heated it up with the sun through a magnifying glass. If the liquid ignited a flame, the rum was proof. If the rum was too weak (too watery), it could not ignite and was not approved. If, on the other hand, the rum (gunpowder grains) exploded, it was because the rum was overproof.

The high strength of the rum is partly due to the tax rules of the time. You paid taxes and duties per barrel of rum, no matter how strong the rum was. Therefore, it was always important to have as strong a rum as possible on the barrels, as once the rum had arrived in port and taxes and duties had been paid, you could water it down and thus sell more bottles and make more money.

But it was also about the fact that if an accident happened and water got on the gunpowder, the gunpowder could still ignite if it just got a splash of rum. In other words, a relatively high percentage of alcohol was used in rum for reasons of economy and war and not really for taste, even though rum tastes better when it's not watered down so much.

In 1816, Bartholomew Sikes invented the hydrometer. This truly formalized the measurement of alcohol in rum and other alcoholic beverages and made it accurate. A hydrometer is indispensable for measuring the density of liquids and is used to determine the percentage of alcohol. Bartholomew Sicke's hydrometer was actually used in England as the standard measuring device for alcohol percentage until 1980.

The system took historical concepts with it and was therefore based on the proof (and overproof) system (not the American one) that thirsty sailors had known for centuries. Sikes hydrometer measured 100 proof at just over 57%. This is where we start to approach what we know today as Navy Strength. To be precise, the Sikes hydrometer measured 100 proof at 57.142858%. A rum that is 57% is proof and anything above that is overproof.

But Britain's navy, like the rest of the English people and mainland, was quite conservative. They knew better and they didn't want any of that newfangled nonsense. After all, they had been experts on rum for centuries. So the Admiralty of the British Navy collected 100 samples of Navy Rum, all measured to 100 proof using the traditional gunpowder method. Then they measured each of the 100 samples with the new hydrometer. The average of all samples was 95.5%, which equates to 54.5%. Thus, the Navy Strength was determined to be 54.5%, slightly lower than Sike's 57.14%.

If you want to convert proof to a percentage, you have to divide by seven and multiply by four. However, the American proof system, which still applies in North America, doubles up on percentages. Thus, an 80 proof rum in the US is 40%.

Thus, there are two types of Navy Strength. There is Sikes 100 proof or 57% and then there is the British Navy's 54.5%. Most people today refer to 57% as Navy Strength and 54.5% as Gunpowder Proof because they used the old method with gunpowder to measure 100 samples and then test with the modern hydrometer.

A historical reason for always having Navy Rum on board the ships at 57% or above was that you could be at sea for weeks or months and in that time, the barrels could give angles share. So if the rum was at 54.5% in the barrels when they were loaded onto the ships, they would lose alcohol and they would fail a true gunpowder proof test.

The day rum died. One of the reasons why the British Navy has stuck to 54.5% as Navy Strength, in addition to tradition, may be that the daily tot of rum, which after 239 years of naval history was distributed to sailors for the last time on July 31, 1970 on Black Tot Day, was 54.5%. Today, it's actually possible to taste The Last Last Last Consignment, published by Black Tot Rum. It's a piece of floating naval and rum history.

It's expensive as hell though. I've tasted it and it was fun to taste. But it wasn't actually a great taste experience. Contrary to what you might think, it's very soft and rounded and not complex at all. There was an incredible amount of cask, even though almost 50 years ago, the rum was transferred from casks to stone bottles and plumbed so that they no longer took flavor from the cask or gave angles share. The Black Tot Last Consignment bottlings are today at 54.3%, so it has lost a little alcohol before it was decanted and later bottled.

If we just want to summarize here before we go ashore, the Navy Strength of the British Navy is 54.5%. But the reason Navy Strength is often referred to as 57% is because it was Sikes 100 proof that was measured at 57%. And even though the rum industry in May 2021 was hit with the EU's food directive and some new rum rules, we rum drinkers know that pirates don't have many rules or at least don't always follow them, so you can choose the percentage you like best as your Navy Strength. So either 54.5% or 57%. I know what I will choose. And it's the highest at 57%

At the beginning, I briefly mentioned Navy Rum, which should not be confused with Navy Strength. The term Navy Rum comes from the fact that it was what the British Navy used when patrolling the waters of the British colonies in the Caribbean. The first major British colony was Barbados in 1625, followed by Jamaica in 1655 and then Trinidad in 1796 and Guyana in 1814. The common denominator is that all of these islands are famous for making some absolutely excellent rum. It's strong, dry and tasty. The former English possessions in the Caribbean are also the reason why the particular style of rum produced there today is called the English style.

Every time an English ship went to home port in the Caribbean, it had to be provisioned and of course rum was an important part of that. In fact, I think one of the reasons why mutiny was so relatively rare on the ships was that the sailors were drunk as shit most of the time. But we also know that a lot of alcohol can cause trouble. So it was definitely not easy to run a ship back then and you had to be a hard ass to the crew.

Finally, here are three suggestions for some really delicious navy rums on navy strength:

Velier Royal Navy Very Old Rum 57.18%
Perhaps the best navy rum I have tasted. A rock solid rum based on rum from Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica. This composition is typical of the rum served in the British Navy in the old days. The original navy rum is likely to have been relatively young and unpolished. Velier's version is blended from old, high-quality rums. Jamaica rum is stated to be over 12 years old. Guyana rum over 15 years and Caroniover 20 years. Velier even gives a weighted average of 17.42 years. That's nerdy enough for me. A relatively expensive rum that tastes absolutely excellent.

Pusser's British Navy Gunpowder Proof Rum 54.5%
The rum is a blend of different types of Guyana rums at different ages. It's a complex rum with juice and power. A great place to start if you want to try your hand at navy rum and you shouldn't be ashamed to put it in a cola because it costs less than 400 kr. The bottle states that it is original admiral strength. The rum is also available in a 75.5% version if you want something a little wilder. A real test of manhood.

Black Tot 50th Anniversary 54.5%
A rum that celebrates the50th anniversary of the day when the British Navy stopped their tradition of daily pourings of rum, a tot. The blend consists of no less than 9 different types of rum including Hampden (Jamaica), Foursquare (Barbados), Caroni (Trinidad) and not least a little bit of 42 year old Port Mourant (Guyana). Even though the rum costs just under 1000 DKK for a bottle, it is a great experience and you get a lot of rum (and history) for your money. An experience!