A foreigner visitor's aspect on some Irish distilleries

[Tsolias]

Hello all,

this is my first "new topic" post, and the reason is that during my trip to Ireland on March 2009, I managed to visit some distilleries and want to share my point of view with you.

1. Old Brusna/Locke's Distillery Museum - Kilbeggan

Almost an hour's drive from Dublin, this was my first stop. Really excited when I got there, took a lot of pictures from the outside, the magnificent water wheel and the tall chimney are the registered trademark of the place. No guided tour, one can wander around for as long as he likes. Many interesting old heavy machinery and equipment, corroded old copper stills, rusted cast-iron mashtuns, etc. Old wooden boxes with dirty old miniatures covered in spiders web, a lot of dampness-humidity, the whole place smells "old" and looks kinda deserted and haunted by the ghosts of old craftsmen. Nice

A warehouse with casks -among them one filled in honour of Barak Obama - is in exposition, separated with a glass from a room, like an old Far-West saloon, which is the place where you are served a free dram of Kilbeggan blend. In a room nearby lies the brand new small still to revive the art in this historical place.

The staff (2 ladies in particular) was friendly enough, but not well informed/educated (they insisted that Cooley distills 3 times - the "Irish Whiskey tradition" thing).

There is also a restaurant and a small bar-shop where you can drink and buy the Cooley goods. I thought of taking the Kilbeggan 15yo but found it expensive and only took a couple of miniatures .

Α small distillery with historical interest, really worth a visit by any whiskey lover-fanatic, but it needs some more attention.

Although Tullamore is very close to Kilbeggan, the time has passed and I had to return to Dublin, so I didn't go there.

2. Old Bushmills Distillery

A totally different place from Locke's. A working distillery, now in the hands of the giant Diageo. Again very excited when I got there from Dublin, with just a stop for a while in Carrygfergus. Shame on me, but I left Belfast and Derry for a future journey.

Beautiful scenery, the old dark-brown buildings and the two pagodas are amazing. The entrance hall, high-roofed, with lovely caskchairs, mirrors, signs and stuff makes your wait for the tour congenial.

During the guided tour, you realize the old times here have passed by. Stainless steel and computer controlled automation have replaced wood and hands (as far as they could). You get to see all the stages of whiskey making, with the stillroom, a warehouse and the bottling line (they were bottling Jameson at the time) to be the most interesting. I could use more time in the warm stillhouse I must say, but remember, this is a working distillery, how would you feel like in your work if every half an hour you had strangers invading the place?

Also, I would like to have a remote control and press the "slow motion" button for the guide Sorry, but English is not my native language.

Finally, the tour ends in one of the old buildings, in a room converted to bar and restaurant, where you can enjoy your free dram and more of the Bushmills range, sitting next to a well preserved old still, while looking at old signs, advertisements, and pictures on the walls. Before leaving, you better get something from the distillery shop, a bottle for sure. (I must admit that I don't fancy the 10y.o. or the 12y.o. "distillery reserve" I tried there, but I am a fan of Black Bush and liked very much the "1608 - 400th Anniversary")

Outside the distillery now, I took a walk in the Bushmills town, the smell of the peat smoke from the house chimneys was a great surprise to me and absolutely fantastic. I also had a great dinner at the nearby "Bushmills Inn" hotel. Just Great.

3. Old Midleton Distillery

Another museum distillery,this was my last stop. Very well preserved, the company has done a great job down here in County Cork. It is a huge distillery, with big buildings, stone walls with beautifully red painted window shutters, a very nice courtyard with a green grass garden and a polished old still standing gracious. Needless to say about my excitement again, seeing this only in photos before and now being there.

Inside, a waiting room with various memorabilia in show again, portraits of the firm founders on the walls, a nice mini exposition of the whiskey making process and a bar. Next to it, the shop, with a large selection of goods, where you can buy without taking the tour. The tour now, it lasts 45 minutes, with the first 15 being a video presentation on a big screen (firm history and evolution). The rest of the time, the tour guide (a lovely young lady when I went there) takes the group of visitors through the distillery buildings and inner yard. Many interesting old equipment well settled with the main attraction being the vast old copper still, the biggest one in the whole world. Among other rooms, you pass through the old malting floors and the cooperage where you can see the different types of oak casks used in the whiskey industry.

The tour ends as usual in a bar, where you are served a free dram of Jameson and 6 persons of your group have the chance to attend a mini tasting session, where they get familiar with the differences between Irish and Scotch whisk(e)y.

The thing with this old distillery is that it is so big, with so many interesting things to see and take pictures, that the time is not plenty enough. I attended the last tour of the day, which started at around 16:00, and we were about 20 people. Of them, me and a young couple of Americans during the tour couldn't catch up with the rest. I couldn't hold myself and asked the guide why were we in such a hurry, since this was not a working distillery but a museum, and one wants to spend some more time, take pictures easy and so on. She replied simply by telling me "sorry, this is the schedule, if you have a problem talk to the manager at the end of tour". I would do so for sure but after 5 minutes she came to me and said that she understands and she would allow me to take another tour next day for free if i stayed in town the night. But I couldn't.

Of course I also went at the Old Jameson distillery in Bow st. Dublin but I did not take the tour, just had a dram and stared at the beautiful bar, walls and then walked around the shop. Cozy.

So that's all folks, sorry if I made you a bit tired reading all this, but I needed to share my experience with you. Let me know your opinion.

[DavidH]

Thanks, Tsolias, I really apreciate your taking the time to describe the visitor experiences at these places. Would you believe that although I live in Ireland I have never been to any of the ones you list? I'm ashamed

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Excellent post Tsolias ... a nice descriptive piece on the 3 main Distillery attractions. It's great to hear other peoples stories on these places. Thanks for sharing

I really like Kilbeggan and actually prefer it's virtual dilapidated state. I reckon it will take many many years before they have enough money to improve the condition. The museum part is actually not run by Cooley but a local group who began restoring the old distillery 1982. I must say they have done a great job.

I was at the distillery last Saturday (4th time this year ) and the mini stills were running. I can see where the confusion about the whiskey may be coming from. We all know that all Cooley spirit is twice distilled but the new spirit coming from the Kilbeggan stills will be 3 times distilled in total. I was lucky enough to taste the new spirit warm from the spirit safe . It was really nice and very drinkable at 73% They are going to release a packaged selection of miniatures of the new spirit in various stages before legal maturation.

Been to the other 2 also but it's been a long time since I've done the full Bushmills tour. Hopefully we'll get to do it next year.

[rshd301]

Did a tour myself in August.

Arrived in Dublin at lunchtime, set up the caravan and headed out to Kilbeggan. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. To start with, since we'd only just come down from the North, I had no Euro but foolishly thought, with it being a visitors centre/museum that it would accept credit/debit cards. Unfortunately they don't, nor did the staff know where I could get cash and when I did track down a cash machine it was out of order. I ended up in Tullamore to get a cash machine still working. Back at Kilbeggan the old machinery was interesting enough but a bit rough and ready. I do appreciate that it's run by a local group and doesn't have the finance from a big distillery. What really disappointed me was the lack of samples on offer in the tasting area. Basically you got a Kilbeggan (rather small measure) and that was it. I had hoped maybe a Locke's or a Kilbeggan 15 yo. What I had paid to get in would have paid for a full bottle of Kilbeggan.

A few days later I did the Midleton tour. Very slick and polished and likewise, very interesting. Fair enough, I only got a basic Jameson at the bar at the end but when I quizzed the girl at the bar in reception, she gave me samples of Redbreast 15 yo and Midleton Very Rare for free. Very charitable.

I've been to Bushmills on many occasions in the past. Again a very slick tour but I would question the accuracy of the information they give out. For example, the guide kept going on about the distillery being in existence sine 1608. I understood that the area of the north coast was granted a licence to distill, not just Bushmills. He also said that Bushmills does not contain any artificial colours or flavours. I understood that caramel is added. There were a few other bits which I've forgotten but the bar at the end offered regular Bush, Black Bush and the Anniversary Bush which was nice.

I would like to see something around the Cooley distillery as I feel they have plenty to offer compared to the big two. Maybe some day.