A report on Midleton Distillery Trip 7th October

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Hi all, I promised to try and do a report on our Midleton visit so sorry about the delay but it ended up over 3 pages so I’ve had to have a rethink and just give a quick synopsis which was still a full page long .

I was kindly invited to Midleton along with Leo and Rich Nagel. There we also met up with the affable Ian and Lindsey Buxton. At 3.30pm we were met by our hosts Brendan Buckley and David Byrne of IDL. It was arranged that we would get a tour of the distillery. We first visited the Still house and it was in full operation at the time and the four large 28,500L pot stills (2 Wash, 1 feints & 1 sprit) were creating a fair bit of heat. Liam O’Leary the distillery manager explained the workings of the still house which was very interesting. The wash still is fed in such a way that it can be charged with wash on a regular basis. Hence they are able to run a 24hr operation if desired. There was also 6 column stills but work in a 3 column configuration so grain is triple distilled too. Wash can be siphoned off into one of these configurations if required. Mean while the other configuration is solely for processing regular grain spirit.

The Brew House was the next stop ... this comes across as a very modern set up. It all starts with the 1 tonne silos’, 1 for Malt one for grain. This is then fed into the ultra modern Huppman wet mill which is of German design usually for the brewing industry but is customised especially for IDL. It has a double mill which is constantly computer controlled so it can judge how well to mill. There is a fine line between breaking open the grains too much or too little. The milled grain is then fed into converters which are large square heated vats that cook the porridge to breakdown release the sugars. Then this is pumped into more conventional wash backs but again of a quite modern design and the wash is separated from the grist. The wash is pumped in to large industrial size fermentors like you would see at say Guinness’. This is where the wash becomes a low alcohol beer and is eventually pumped into the wash Stills, absolutely fascinating stuff.

Our next stop was the warehouses ... Warehouse 35B to be exact. This is one of the new warehouses and these are big. All casks are palletised in these warehouses and are stacked 6 high, 9 to a pallet and each warehouse contain thousands of casks each so quite impressive the scale. The new Warehouses have a high embankment built around the perimeter to act as a massive fire barrier to protect the town of Midleton, so every safety precaution has been taken should such a travesty happen. It was here that we were met by Master Blender Billy Leighton to talk us through a few whiskeys. We were delighted with a taste from each of a Bourbon, Sherry and Port cask PPS whiskeys. What a delight and what a treat ... these 3 whiskies were absolutely wonderful. The Port cask was probably the winner of the day for most as it was just pure luxury from a whiskey ... velvety and rich and decadent. The sherry was wonderful to with it’s rich fruitcake flavours and PPS spice however what really blew me away was the quality of the bourbon. It was a 19yo and was possibly the best example of a bourbon cask I have ever tasted. The reason I was so impressed is I’m not generally a bourbon cask person but this too was rich and full with Vanilla sweetness, spice and ripe soft flesh fruit. I’m not saying it was better than the others it’s just that it was so good of a Bourbon example it really stood out for me. This was the end of our distillery tour and I have to sincerely thank Brendan, David, Liam and Billy and all our group for making it an enjoyable afternoon. Unfortunately I could be here all day explaining the whole day and the excellent atmosphere and hospitality that was afforded to us by IDL but I’d only bore ye all to death if I have not done so already.

Leo might fill ye in on his 1915/18 Jameson 5star which took centre stage later that evening as we met for and recieved a report from Master of Science David Quinn on it's authenticity. It was opened and we had a grand night of Whiskey (RB 15, Jameson Distillery, Jameson 18 and Jameson RVR) and chat which was another wonderful experience in itself. The highlight of the whole day was just talking to the all the IDL guys openly and freely. Thanks once again to all for a very memorable trip

[DavidH]

This is a real treat on a Saturday morning! Thank you for taking the time, IWC

There was also 6 column stills but work in a 3 column configuration so grain is triple distilled too. Wash can be siphoned off into one of these configurations if required. Mean while the other configuration is solely for processing regular grain spirit.

A normal Coffey still has two columns but the ones at Midleton have three, is that right? In other words, wash in at one end, three columns, spirit out at the other. I wonder what the addition of the extra column does.

And when you say wash can be siphoned off, do you mean the output from the wash still? Or the barley wash itself? Either way, what kind of whiskey do you get from that, and what do IDL use it for?

I might have more questions. This is great new info!

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

This is a real treat on a Saturday morning! Thank you for taking the time, IWC

There was also 6 column stills but work in a 3 column configuration so grain is triple distilled too. Wash can be siphoned off into one of these configurations if required. Mean while the other configuration is solely for processing regular grain spirit.

A normal Coffey still has two columns but the ones at Midleton have three, is that right? In other words, wash in at one end, three columns, spirit out at the other. I wonder what the addition of the extra column does.

Yes 3 stills to one output

Not 100% sure if it works in the same way of Wash feints and Spirit ... but would guess yes.

And when you say wash can be siphoned off, do you mean the output from the wash still? Or the barley wash itself? Either way, what kind of whiskey do you get from that, and what do IDL use it for?

I might have more questions. This is great new info!

Probably all of the above but still only makes what they consider grain but this makes for excellent quality grain.

[TheWhiskeyBro]

The three column still process is not unique, however it does produce a very refined high quality grain spirit. If i recall correctly, the first 'wash' column is for the wort/beer and you get the equivalent of low wines spirit which is then put through the second column which is the 'spirit' column and finally they take the spirit and put it through what is termed a 'rectifying' column. The second and third columns have large copper elements to them which also aids in producing a very high quality final spirit.

What I found impressive was the attention to detail, ISO standard processes and the use of large proportion of first fill bourbon (B1s) casks for the grain spirit.

The result is a superior quality grain whiskey which is used in their blends starting from a little under 5 years old. After the experience I have to say I appreciate much more the high quality whiskeys, both grain and pot still, that they use. This goes some way towards explaining the price point of some of the Jameson range.

I also realised that they have been quietly innovating in the background, and in relation to their cask policy, they have been industry leaders in this area starting as early as 1975 in sourcing casks to their own specifications, something I believe only Glenmorangie were doing at the time (who are credited with cask finishing innovation in the early 1980s - please correct me if I'm wrong).

This was confirmed by Barry Walsh (interviewed in the current issue #90 of Whisky Mag) where he says "his appointment began in earnest in January 1975 at the Irish Distillers Central Laboratory in Thomas Street". He set about to research cask maturation and visited all their warehouses around the country and taking samples for analysis. What he discovered was that some of the casks were exhausted and "the whiskey was going in white and coming out nearly white". This was a turning point for the company and "a decision was taken to put a lot of money into rebuilding inventory" and a awful lot of casks were retired. Irish Distillers from that point began to earn a reputation in the industry for the quality of their casks.

[DavidH]

Fascinating.

They are not distilling 24 hours a day, from your description. How much more capacity do they have down there? Any plans for more stills?

I'd love to have tried that port cask. Do they have much maturing in port? It's used in the RVR, if I remember right. Does it go into anything else?

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Fascinating.

They are not distilling 24 hours a day, from your description. How much more capacity do they have down there? Any plans for more stills?

I'd love to have tried that port cask. Do they have much maturing in port? It's used in the RVR, if I remember right. Does it go into anything else?

They are currently at full capacity but whether they do distill 24hrs a day I cannot remember but there are abviously down times too and how long and when again I could not say. The Then once a year they do a complete shutdown over a 3 week period for maintainence and yes there are plans to expand. The impression is that they are looking to double the size of the Still operation.

Don't have any figures on Port but the Majority is obviously Bourbon & Sherry with smaller precentages of other casks.



Thanks Leo for the more detailed version of the colunm stills as my goldfish memory is at it's peak these days thanks to work and baby.

[DavidH]

... but whether they do distill 24hrs a day I cannot remember...

Sorry, I misread what you originally said about 24 hour operation. I was trying to read it all in one big gulp