Rum in The Beehive State
Famous for cinematic views, iconic road trips, and historically strict alcohol laws, Utah has now carved out a compelling rum scene, a testament to the state’s industrious spirit. Utah’s geography spans the Rockies, Colorado Plateau, and Great Basin. The populous Wasatch Front, along the western Wasatch Range and its Greatest Snow on Earth ski resorts, is the state’s core. East lies the Wasatch Back, including Park City. To the northeast rise the Uinta Mountains, home to Kings Peak (13,500+ feet). Arid West Utah is the Great Basin, featuring the Bonneville Salt Flats (a remnant of Lake Bonneville and the Great Salt Lake). South/southeast Utah, part of the Colorado Plateau, showcases vibrant sandstone formations like Kayenta and Navajo, the Colorado River’s canyons including Canyonlands, and sculpted formations such as Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon’s hoodoos, and Capitol Reef’s Waterpocket Fold. Southwestern Utah’s Dixie offers a warmer, distinct geology. Despite its aridity, Utah boasts stunning waterfalls like Bridal Veil and Stewart. Key attractions include Antelope Island, Monument Valley, and the scenic High Plateaus, which are also part of the Colorado Plateau. Utah’s National Parks, known as the Mighty 5, Dark Sky Parks, and its road trip potential are also significant.
Utah’s 1800s distilling started with Mormon settlers around 1849, primarily focused on alcohol like Valley Tan whiskey for medicinal and trade purposes, despite emerging religious temperance. Rum production was absent in these early settlements due to the prohibitive geography for sugarcane cultivation and Utah’s remoteness from established trading routes. By 1917, Utah enacted Prohibition, leading to widespread illegal distilling. Post-1933, strict state control heavily limited legal distillation, a regulatory environment that persisted and made obtaining distillery licenses a lengthy and complex process. Utah’s first legal small distillery since Prohibition was High West Distillery in 2006. High West in Park City, paved the way for modern distillers, including rum. Later, around 2013, a few rum distilleries started up. The time getting licenses and opening a distillery in Utah’s unique legal system is a long process. The law doesn’t allow distilleries to sell directly to consumers or restaurants and bars without having to have a distributor.
Your next road trip is here, the Mighty Five parks await, and so does the mighty Utah-made rum scene.
Salt Lake City Metro
A blend of urban and immediate access to stunning natural landscapes set against the backdrop of the towering Wasatch Mountains, which is home to world-renowned skiing in the winter. To the west is the Great Salt Lake, North America’s largest inland saltwater lake. This central hub provides access to the Mighty 5 National Parks to the south, Temple Square and Antelope Island. Your rum adventure starts here.
Salt Flats Spirits
Started in 2019 by Steve Pruitt, who also owns Salt Flats Brewing and has been involved in motor racing since 1975, including as a team owner. The brand’s name and racing-inspired theme refer to the “Spirit of America” land speed record car, founded in 1963, and the spirits are created in a former world-class race facility that used to be home to an American Le Mans professional race team. Salt Flats Spirits makes a line of bottled spirits distilled where the high desert meets the Wasatch in Salt Lake City, including vodka, bourbon, whiskey, gin, and Parabolica Rum, a white rum distilled from Black Strap Molasses. Parabolica refers to the iconic and challenging corner on the Monza circuit in Italy. You can visit the distillery & tasting room to try the rum, and the taproom sits in the brewery.
Find out more Salt Flats Spirits
Waterpocket Distillery
Situated along the industrial outskirts of Salt Lake City, Utah, it was launched in 2017 by a husband-and-wife team, naming their operation after the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef National Park. Driven by a desire to resurrect Old-World liquors, their focus includes Rum, Amaro, and Liqueurs, embodied by their open wild motto. Their Waterpocket Añejo Rum is the result of nearly 3 years of fermentation, distillation, and barrel ageing, crafted from Louisiana blackstrap molasses and turbinado sugar fermented in open-top fermenters and aged in a combination of ex-bourbon and French white wine casks. At the heart of their production is a custom-crafted double pot still system from Mueller in Germany, with their large 500-litre pot still (“Witch”) primarily used for rum, featuring advanced column technology for a refined and flavourful distillate.
Find out more on Waterpocket Distillery
Dented Brick Distillery
The concept of the Dented Brick Distillery began in 2011 and opened in 2016 in South Salt Lake. The craft distillery produces a variety of spirits, including barrel-aged whiskey, rum, gin, and vodka. They produce Antelope Island Rum, which is named after Antelope Island, a small island in Utah’s Great Salt Lake. The distillery sources its water from an on-site artesian well. The Dented Brick name honours a well driller who discovered the distillery’s artesian well water source, a key ingredient in their spirits. Notably, the land was once home to Hugh Moon, Utah’s first Distiller of Record in the 1850s, whose legacy is celebrated in Dented Brick’s Hugh Moon whiskey.
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Sugar House Distillery
Located in South Salt Lake, Utah, on the west edge of Salt Lake City’s Sugar House neighbourhood, became licensed and operational in 2014 after starting the process in 2013. Owned by James, along with Steve and the Ryan twins, the distillery’s name is inspired by its neighbourhood. Their Silver Rum is made in small batches from Grade A Molasses with hand-selected yeasts, with only the “heart” of the spirit run used. Sugar House Gold Rum is created by ageing the Sugar House Silver Rum in lightly charred American oak barrels. Their production is a hands-on approach with pure mountain water for proofing and no outsourcing, additives, or artificial ingredients. You can visit to tour the distillery and see their rum-making process first-hand and meet the owner and distiller, James. You can try their rum, and they also have rum in their ready-to-drink range. They are the first privately owned liquor store in South Salt Lake since the prohibition era.
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Outlaw Distillery
Inspired by Utah’s Outlaw Trail and figures like Butch Cassidy. Outlaw Distillery opened its doors in 2015, distilling in Midvale, and now they are a mile or so south of there. The small-batch distillery specialises in whiskeys and rums using the best local ingredients where possible – grains coming from Utah Farms. Owned by Kirk and Denise Sedgwick, Kirk built the Still setup himself, and Conor Kelly is the head distiller (pictured). They maintain complete control over their production process, handling every step in-house, from milling their own grains and filtering their water to fermenting their alcohols and distilling all their spirits. Outlaw Distillery Rum is made from fancy molasses, then fermented washes using only rum yeast strains. It’s distilled on a bubble plate column still, and then aged in French oak barrels. Outlaw Distillery Vanilla Bean Rum begins with their rum distilled in-house and then infused with the best raw Tahitian vanilla beans. Outlaw Spiced Rum has notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, cardamom, and allspice.
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Vintage Spirits Distillery
Located in Midvale, Vintage Spirits distillery began producing in June 2021 and opened to the public in October 2022 with their Salty Beach line of Silver Rum, Aged Rum, and Dark Rum as flagship products. Fermentation, distillation, ageing, blending, and bottling are all done onsite. Their rum is made from cane sugar and molasses, with fermentation taking at least 2 weeks. They use a 250-gallon hybrid pot & column still, steam-heated. Silver Rum rests for 5 weeks post-distillation before proofing and bottling. Salty Beach Aged Rum is aged in American white oak for a minimum of 6 months. Salty Beach Dark Rum is their Aged Rum, with molasses added at least 3 weeks before filtering and proofing. You can visit for tours and tastings, and they have a storefront selling their products along with some merchandise (shirts, hats, shot glasses, tote bags, etc.). Utah State Liquor stores sell Salty Beach Silver Rum and Aged Rum. 2Row Brewing and Aces High Saloon serve Salty Beach Aged Rum, while Squatters Pub Brewery and Wasatch Brew Pub serve Salty Beach Dark Rum.
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Proverbial Spirits
Proverbial Spirits started in 2021, and their journey into rum distilling stemmed from a deep appreciation for the spirit and a desire to make something unique for the Utah rum scene. Their award-winning White Rum, Loose Lips Sinks Ships, is distilled on a column still using a mash of 25% molasses and 75% evaporated cane sugar, resulting in a spirit with a touch of funk and a smooth, clean finish at 84 proof. Following the success of their white rum, Proverbial Spirits meticulously tested various used barrels for ageing their sourced rum. They discovered that red desert wine barrels from Kunde Estate in Sonoma, California, specifically from their 904 Dessert Cuveé, vintage 2016, imparted the desired rich notes. A blended rum, with its oldest component aged for 7 years, was then finished in these Kunde barrels for an additional 18 months. The resulting aged rum, Knock on Wood Rum, is bottled at 50% ABV (100 proof) and has complex notes. As a small distillery, Proverbial Spirits does not have a dedicated tasting room, but interested customers are welcome to visit for a look around and shop at their package agency.
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Some rum producers have come and gone. Distillery 36 opened in 2015 in Salt Lake City, it became known as D36 by rum enthusiasts, bartenders and restaurant owners around Salt Lake City. Their Brigham Rum quickly gained a following, and the cane sugar-based rums were inspired by agricole-style rum.
The best place to stay updated is right here and check in with our Utah Rum Map. Salt Lake County is home to more than half of Utah’s 350 bars. On the other hand, Utah County, the state’s second-largest county, has more than 80% alcohol-abstaining Mormons. Therefore, the best places to enjoy rum are found in concentrated areas. Aside from the distillery tasting rooms mentioned, here are some more places to sip Utah rum locally at bars.
Where to Enjoy Rum in Utah
Park City: No Name Saloon, Palomino
Huntsville: Shooting Star Saloon is Utah’s oldest continually operating saloon and a popular spot for Après-Ski
Salt Lake City: Lake Effect, The Ruin, Prohibition, Franklin Ave Cocktails & Kitchen, Water Witch, Why KiKi, White Horse Spirits & Kitchen, Under Current, Zest Kitchen & Bar, Paradise Parlour at Flanker Kitchen & Sporting Club, Bongo Lounge
Utah is a popular travel destination known for its incredible landscapes, national parks, ski resorts, and scenic drives. The state is a hub for outdoor adventures like hiking, biking, rafting, and skiing. Whether you’re looking for a city sipper in the hip Sugar House district or Après ski, there are Utah-made rum options in the mix.
For more general travel advice on Utah Tourism
To see all the rums on our Utah Rum Map
Thanks to the brands for contributing to this article, and permission to use their images. Other image credits to Canva Pro, and user contributions.
