How Dead Drop Spirits Kosher for Passover Rum Was Created

Traditionally, there haven’t been too many options for folks who want to drink during Passover. It’s not just one of the holiest weeks of the Jewish year, it’s also — apart from Yom Kippur, of course — the most restrictive, dietarily speaking. The restriction on eating grains that can be leavened extends to spirits fermented from grains, including wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt. So, um, pass the Manischewitz, I suppose. Or maybe a slug of slivovitz (Eastern European plum brandy)?

Well, hold up a minute. There’s a loophole in the Kosher-for-Passover rules big enough to slip a barrel through that has rarely if ever been exploited, and it took a Jewish distiller at a small Illinois-based distillery to take advantage of it. Dead Drop Spirits, led by head distiller Ari Klafter, is making, as far as anyone can fathom, the first aged rum that’s Kosher-for-Passover certified. It’s not been a simple process, but the results are absolutely worth it — especially for those of us who want an alternative to wine or brandy at the Seder table. 

Distiller Ari Klafter’s Approach

Ari Klafter photo courtesy Dead Drop Spirits

Came to Thornton Distilling, which owns Dead Drop, from Privateer, one of the most highly regarded American rum distilleries. “The owner is Orthodox,” Klafter notes, “you know, they really want to do everything kosher — and we talked a little about kosher for Passover. The products that are on the market aren’t that great. Particularly, people can’t find a whiskey substitute.” Rum is distilled from sugarcane or its by-product, molasses. Since sugarcane isn’t a grain, it’s good to go, Passover-wise. The problem is that it’s typically aged in ex-bourbon barrels, and bourbon is chametz, since it’s made with fermented grains. Klafter’s solution: “If we age rum, an American style rum, in new cooperage, you can get something that really has whiskey notes in it. And that’s what we decided to do.”

The Challenges to Making Kosher for Passover Spirits 

Rum photo courtesy Dead Drop Spirts

Making Kosher-for-Passover rum, or any spirit for that matter, isn’t as easy as simply using non-chametz ingredients. The entire distillery needs to be kosherized. “They do not mess around,” Klafter says of the certification process. “We are going to have to spray boiling water in every single piece of equipment. I have a real industrial strength steam wand, so we’ll use that for certain tanks, and then all of our fittings get boiled… After that the rabbis will supervise on-site, they’ll come in a couple of times a week while we’re running stuff. They’ll just show up randomly — I’ll hear a knock on the door, and they’re there.” The distillery also gives the rabbis access to its security cameras, so they don’t have to be on-site at all times. Keeping in line with Pesach regulations also affects Klafter’s ability to blend different distillates. “Say there’s one distillation, like, I don’t love the character of that,” he says. “OK, I can blend it with other new make, put it in a barrel, and see what happens, find a use for it. With the kosher stuff, there’s no flexibility whatsoever. If you get out of compliance, your labels are revoked.” He adds, “It’s a lot of pressure, but in a way it’s really good professionally, because it keeps you on your toes.”

How It’s Made 

Dead Drop’s Kosher For Passover Rum is distilled from dark brown sugar and molasses. This year’s bottling is aged from two and a half to four years in new, lightly charred and toasted oak barrels — the heads of the barrels are toasted with a medium char. “A lot of distillers neglect the cask heads,” Klafter notes, “but there’s so much surface area there that I want to pull flavor, so we pay a bit more to get those toasted." The barrels are supposed to be tampered with as little as possible to ensure compliance with Kosher-for-Passover regulations, but Klafter keeps a kashered whiskey thief on hand for taking samples during the process. They also bottle a small amount of unaged silver rum. Both aged and unaged expressions go into the bottle at 40% ABV, a lower proof than he’d normally prefer, but he wanted “to make it really accessible,” he says. “Distillers can make cool spirits at 80 proof — it’s on the distiller to make that work.”

The first batch of Dead Drop Kosher For Passover Rum was laid down around 2018 and released in 2020 — a grand total of two barrels’ worth, which was all Klafter considered ready to bottle at the time. He’s made more each successive year to meet increasing demand, which exploded in 2021 when Thornton distilling partnered with both kosher winery Kedem and Single Cask Nation on the rum. Klafter describes this year’s kosher for Passover release as “a little Barbadian, a little more oak-influenced, but also a clean profile, a little bit of body. But some of the molasses is actually pretty high-ester, which I love.” The more limited Single Cask Nation release, meanwhile, is “in between a Jamaican and a Guyanese. It’s bright, it’s funky, it’s a little bit leathery.” 

Dead Drop isn’t just making spirits to drink one week out of the year — their wide range of products includes everything from bourbon to absinthe to a bottled Old Fashioned, as well as rums that aren’t Passover friendly. But with Kosher For Passover Rum, Klafter & Co. are making history. And whether or not you’ve ever thought about pairing your bitter herbs or charoset with rum, it’s an opportunity worth taking advantage of.