Jameson production process

[AlecM]

Can anybody help me out with details about how Jameson is made? I know very little. I just know I really like the end product. What are fermentation times, are Midleton stills used or did they take a copy of the Jameson stills when they moved production to Cork. What is the length of the spirit run for Jameson whiskeys are do they vary them depending on version, what sort of condensors are used etc.

Thanks in advance on any light you can shed for me

[Fionnán]

hey Alec-- standard Jameson, like the vast majority Midleton blends, is a mixture of column still product and Irish pot still whiskey from the Midleton pot stills. The only thing they really have in common with Bow Street is that they're very large and bulbous but the Midleton system was far more closely modeled on the old Powers distillery. The column still base is also the stuff used in the bushmills blends as Bushmills dont operate a column still. As for specifics, they tend to keep it under wraps at IDL but there are a range of pot still styles ranging from light through the mod pots to trad, which is the heaviest. These are created by controlling the amount of reflux in the stills for oilier or lighter spirit styles. Various blends (and single pot still whiskeys!) will contain mixtures of those styles combined with mixtures of sherry vs. bourbon barrel employment etc. And then of course, there's the question of pot still vs column still spirit in the blend. Jameson Gold, for example, has some trad pot in it. Regarding fermentation, they run an extremely long fermentation at midleton of around 70 hours, controlling the temp between roughly 28'C and 32'C, resulting in a wash of around 10%. Hope that helps.

Unfortunately you cant get ahold of the column still base on its own but, if you're eager for a little vague technical taste clarity on the styles, try the single pot stills that form the spine of the midleton blends. The old single cask releases that were done for the airport and CWS in the last years (excluding the most recent crop of diverse casks for various outlets) were all drawn from the light end of the spectrum, Redbreast would be a little denser, Green Spot and Powers John's Lane would be heavier still and, if you can get ahold of it, the limited edition Jameson 15 (only Jemmie SPS in memorable times) is an example of trad pot bottled as such.

[AlecM]

Thanks very much, that is interesting. Funnily enough I have been eyeing up some Single Cask Midleton bottlings, only from CWS and TWE one, and have a whiskey resolution for 2014 to buy more. Will look out for the Jameson 15 too!