Barnacle Brothers’ Coastal Rum: Isle of Wight’s new small batch spirit - with Seaweed, Samphire and botanicals (Podcast)

Barnacle Brothers is a name you’ll start to see and hear more about of over the coming months. It’s a great story of two young people who have come back to Island and are building an exciting new business.

The new Isle of Wight company has just launched their first product, small batch coastal rum infused with seaweed, as well as botanicals hand-foraged from the Island.

News OnTheWight caught up with its founders, Bruno Lambert and Dylan Lehmann, for a chat at Ventnor Exchange to find out more (jump to podcast).

Inspired by sustainability and the sea
The twenty-somethings both grew up on the Isle of Wight surrounded by the sea and so it’s no surprise that after returning to the Island following University they used that inspiration in the creation of their first venture together.

Bruno studied entrepreneurship at University, whilst Dylan did a Masters in Marine Geography, bringing with him a deep understanding of sustainability and oceanography.

During our conversation we discover why the duo chose rum as the first spirit to launch with, why the carbon-absorption benefits of using seaweed was so attractive, what a seaweed farm looks like and why it’s not possible to have one off the Island just yet,

Choosing the botanicals
As well as two different types of seaweed (organic sugar kelp and sea spaghetti), the rum is infused with a range of botanicals. The Rock Samphire and Gorse Flower is handpicked responsibly on the Island and Dylan explains why they use scissors to do this.

Bruno also expands on the development process of reaching the recipe they have today which also includes all spice, ginger, pink grapefruit and cinnamon.

Supportive businesses
You can hear more in the interview about the design of the bottle and branding, how businesses like The Heron and IW Cocktail Company have been incredibly supportive and where you can try Barnacle Brothers Rum yourselves.