St. Patrick's Day

So it has worked out perfectly that today is St. Patrick's Day and the next stop on our trip through Ireland is Jameson Whiskey.

This it at the entrance to Jameson 

In this building is where they stored the barley. It is the tallest building on the site.  Before they installed a pulley lifts were installed, the men had to manually carry the 224 lb. sacks to the upper floors. each floor held 250 tons of grain.  Here they dried the barley after putting it through the malting process.

This is the oldest building dated back to 1794 when it was built as a woolen mill. A military barracks was located here during the Napoleonic wars. the building was then purchased in 1825 by the Murphy family and  became a distillery. This is where they grounded the barley and malt.

The water wheel was made in 1852. it is 22 Feet in diameter and made of cast iron. It is one of the few working water wheels in Ireland today.  

This is the machine they used to make mash. they put the appropriate amount of barley and malt in the mash tub and added boiling hot water to it. It then was stirred with large rotating rakes. 

The liquid was then know as "Wort" and was then sent to the washbacks for fermentation.

Fermentation: Yeast was added to the Wort, and sugars in the wort were converted to alcohol, a process that took about 3 days. the liquid was now know as "Wash" and was 8% alcohol (16* Proof)

This is where the fires were under the still. it got very hot here and was one of the most dangerous jobs to have here.

This is a pot-still. they are made of copper. Wash was feed first and larges pot still that could hold 32,000 gallons. alcohol boils at a lower temp than water so as the wash began to boil the first vapors that gave off were alcohol vapors and these were collected. the vapors are then condensed back into a liquid. and run through the process twice more. which makes it very pure 80% (160* Proof) 

It is then stored in barrels that have been previously used for storing bourbon, sherry and port. they come from America, Spain, and Portugal. They are what gives the whiskey its flavor and color. It is also not consider whiskey till it has stored for at least 3 years.

The barrows you see with glass are there to show us the different ages the lightest one is a 5 year and the oldest is 25 i believe. they lost over half the barrel to evaporation with the oldest one which is why it is so pricey.

Here Andrew is getting ready to compare a Scottish whiskey, Jack Daniels whiskey, and Jameson Whiskey.

he is official!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!