Ireland

[GCB3]

My wife and I are heading to Ireland this summer and I plan to visit a number of distilleries (while she’s in museums I!!!). I’ve recently developed a liking to Irish Whiskey! We’re concentrating on Southern Ireland, flying into Dublin and working clockwise round the southern and western coast up to Galway. Then it’s a straight drive back to Dublin to fly home.

Do we have any active members in that general area? If we could work it out, I’d love to make an acquaintance and buy a drink for a compatriot. Feel free to PM me and maybe it will work out. We are really excited about visiting your beautiful, friendly country!

[Shine0n]

I have a good friend on HD from Ireland, his name is...Mmmmm well fUK mate you'll have to look him up, starts with a J and ends with Y. He's not too far from Dublin.

Not sure if he can accommodate folk but he's from there and may be able to help.

Pm me for more info, I'll contact him tomorrow to see if he can help out on some off the grid spots.

[Swedish Pride]

I have a good friend on HD from Ireland, his name is...Mmmmm well fUK mate you'll have to look him up, starts with a J and ends with Y. He's not too far from Dublin.

Not sure if he can accommodate folk but he's from there and may be able to help.

Pm me for more info, I'll contact him tomorrow to see if he can help out on some off the grid spots.

actually , he's on the other side of the island, but i suppose that's still close in US terms.

Many nice distilleries to visit, so I'm told, I've never got to even one.

In dublin there are pearse, teelings, jameson(tour only, the distillery is not in dublin these days), and the whiskey museum ( a bit of fun, but don't expect to learn anything new)

loads more out in the country side
this might help
http://www.irelandwhiskeytrail.com/the_ ... _trail.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I'm in dublin

[GCB3]

Thanks guys. I’ll send PM’s.

Is craft distilling legal in Ireland?

[Swedish Pride]

sure it is.
As long as you don't tell anyone that is

[GCB3]

Just like here!

[Jimy Dee]

GCB3, I am from the South West of Ireland, and make sure to PM me with your proposed interary, or more to the point what your interests are and/or what you would like to do outside of distilleries. I will work with u to try and get the most from your holidays. Bottom line is stick with the west of Ireland, I appreciate u will prob fly into Dublin on the east, but get out of it fast and go kerry (Dingle distillery) then to Clare, onto Galway and up to donegal. I will give u more info via email. Jim

[Jimy Dee]

As for craft distilling being legal in Ireland, it is not legal, but the reality is that one can distill with as good as absolute certainty that the long arm of the law will never ever knock on your door. In my opinion practically no one distills as beer wine and porter are what is consumed mainly. I was talking to a court clerk who spend 30 years attending a judge in court and he never ever saw a prosecution of making poteen. That sums it up. Most poteen is sold for muscle rub for the greyhound fraternity, and it's consumption is not widespread. Essentially, home distillers would have to make it on the public road and flaunt it before anything would be done. So we have a straight run at it. JD

[Swedish Pride]

we're lucky like that Jim

[TDick]

sure it is.
As long as you don't tell anyone that is

That made me laugh.

Im Laughing.jpg (21.23 KiB) Viewed 4449 times

[GCB3]

Thanks. I’ll be in touch!

[GCB3]

My wife and I finally made it to Ireland. We are on the western coast exploring the peninsulas. Yesterday we met Jimy Dee and toured the Dingle Distillery. It is a small, craft distiller producing Irish Whiskey, vodka and gin since 2012. They give a good tour and are very open. Photos are encouraged. It was not just a marketing job.

After that Jimy Dee invited us back to their home outside of Dingle to meet his family and parents for a home cooked salmon dinner. They are wonderful people. It was such an honor to be taken into their home and share a meal at their table. We did get to do some HD talking, but, they are such an interesting lot that we talked about everything under the sun all night. After a fabulous dinner, we walked the kids down to their local beach to play while the adults enjoyed a pint at the local pub overlooking the kids playing in the sand. This was as good as it gets. There were no tour busses there!

What a pleasure to meet such fine folks, across the ocean, who share a hobbie in HD. This site provides so many benefits. We left there last night feeling we had made true friends.

[Saltbush Bill]

What a pleasure to meet such fine folks, across the ocean, who share a hobbie in HD. This site provides so many benefits. We left there last night feeling we had made true friends.

GCB3, I think I know how you feel, A while back I went to America for 4 weeks , while there I was shown the sites by members of this and other distilling forums. They also fed me, gave me home made booze to drink, and all gave me a bed for at least one night, mostly more.
Being taken into peoples homes and lives like that is a true gift for a traveler , you learn and see things and also meet people that you would never learn, see or meet on the tourist trail that most folk follow.
Each of those people know who they are, they will be welcomed into my home at anytime that they choose to travel in the future.

[Bushman]

I will be there in September, I purchased a map that shows 140 distilleries Going to be a great trip!

[The Baker]

I will be there in September, I purchased a map that shows 140 distilleries Going to be a great trip!

Love to see you if you happen to be passing through.

Geoff

[GCB3]

This, along with the Pacific NW, is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. That is specially true of the south west coast. If you make it to this part of the country, Co. Kerry, you should look up Jimy Dee. He is a great guy.
Hope you enjoy the trip. We’ve had such a great time, I’m pretty sure we’ll be back.

[Bushman]

Just toured Teeling Distillery yesterday. Unfortunately my camera wifi isn't allowing me to download my pictures onto my iPad to share at this time. Teeling's is the first distillery to open in the last 125 years here in Ireland. They are selling whiskey although they haven't been open 3 years yet as the two brothers father sold a distillery but kept all the alcohol.

They make all their whiskey from barley they malt themselves. They have a huge vessel for maki g the wort then it goes in stainless or wood fermenters. They distill their whiskey in a 3 step process using 3 very large copper pot stills (didn't ask the size). The first run is a stripping run and from here every thing goes in the second still for their first spirit run. Not sure if they are removing feints at this point but for sure in the third still where I was told the feints go back into the second still with the next run.

Barrel aging is a 3 year minimum process in Ireland. Teeling uses used barrels (rum, whiskey/bourbon, and wine). They have less than 30 hours until they can bottle their first batches. To keep their whiskey taste as consistant as possible 100 barrels will be blended together for the final proofing and bottling.

I enjoyed the tour and sampling at the end. I am here with my wife and her cousins from Norway, was hoping to meet up with Swedish Pride but with my wife's busy itinerary I am lucky I saw the distillery.

[The Baker]

Just toured Teeling Distillery yesterday.
... They make all their whiskey from barley they malt themselves. They have a huge vessel for making the wort then it goes in stainless or wood fermenters. They distil their whiskey in a 3 step process using 3 very large copper pot stills (didn't ask the size). The first run is a stripping run and from here every thing goes in the second still for their first spirit run. Not sure if they are removing feints at this point but for sure in the third still where I was told the feints go back into the second still with the next run ...

Thanks, Bushman. Let's see if I have this right.

So once the system is fully running, the distillate from the first still is running into the second still. (just into the top, not underneath the liquid as if it were a thumper).
And the second still is operating, with its own heat source.

And the same with the third still.... ? And the stillman watches the time and the temperature and the taste to turn the tap at the third still outlet to keep the feints aside.
Maybe even to send the feints directly to the second still as it is operating.

They would save a lot of (whatever) fuel that way, as the liquid in the second and third stills would be close to distillation temperature....

Or do they operate the first, running the distillate into the second.
Maybe at the same time running the third.
THEN start the second which has been charged with the distillate from the first and the feints from the third...

Geoff

[TDick]

I remember on "Moonshiners" Tim visiting Teeling to "consult".

Here is a brief explanation of how it's made without Tim's input:

How Irish Whisky Is Made

[DetroitDIY]

My wife and I finally made it to Ireland. We are on the western coast exploring the peninsulas. Yesterday we met Jimy Dee and toured the Dingle Distillery...

Beautiful place. My wife and I went there for our honeymoon. Chanced upon the Dingle Music (always thought it was Flad, but googling is just now... maybe Trad). Slept in the car as all the B&Bs were filled for the festival. Swam in the Western most beach (damn that was freezing!). Returned a few years ago for our 20th. I do love Ireland. If I return again, I'll see about connecting with the HD crowd who's about at that time. Still working through a nice bottle of Jameson Distillery Reserve from Middleton that I brought back, a fabulous drink.

[GCB3]

Hey Bushman. Sounds like you had a good trip. We did not make the Teeling facility. In Dingle they did triple pot stills. The guide said they start with 5;000 L around 7-9% and end up with 500L approx 60-63%. That seems like a pretty efficient operation. It’s a good, up close tour and they were very open to questions.

Ireland is a must see part of the world and I certainly hope to go back.

[Bushman]

I also toured the oldest distillery in Ireland Kilbeggan. The whiskey was excellent and was made in a pot still twice distilled with a flakestand/worm for cooling. They said that the pot still was the oldest pot still in the world still in operation (191 years old). After the tour I began to wonder what type of solder (if any) held the still together. Below is a picture of the still as the original stills were run by steam engines for heating. They closed and when they reopened their operation became smaller.

[Soft batch]

We toured the Tullamore DEW "distillery" this spring. Although it was a entertaining tour (by a German no less), good samples and good food, it is just "on the sight of" the original location - not an actual distillery. We went to New Grange also - didn't realize there was the Slane distillery very nearby. Oh Darn, We'll just have to make another trip... since the grand kids live there.

[Bushman]

We toured the Tullamore DEW "distillery" this spring. Although it was a entertaining tour (by a German no less), good samples and good food, it is just "on the sight of" the original location - not an actual distillery. We went to New Grange also - didn't realize there was the Slane distillery very nearby. Oh Darn, We'll just have to make another trip... since the grand kids live there.

I found a distillery map before going. Lists 140 distilleries, next time I decide where we go and what we do on vacation

[Boneman]

Can't make this stuff up. Funny as hell.

28 years ago, my Dad in law (John) was suffering from Alzheimer's. He couldn't speak but still understood what was being said and would respond in his way if you asked yes or no questions. If you made him mad, the cuss words came out clear as a bell, but other than that, he shook his head yes or no or mumbled gibberish.

The M-in law and a few friends took a well earned trip to Ireland. On their way back, she stopped at the duty free store and purchased 4-750ML bottles of Tullamore Dew and brought them home. This being her hubby's all time favorite whiskey, immediately hid all of those bottles. If she needed a little more sleep, she would give him a few shots the night before and all would be well.
Little did she know, John found all of those bottles of joy and hid them himself. When the Dew came up missing and after his 5 daughters searched the house with no luck, they concluded he had to have found and drank them or the MIL forgot where she hid them all.
Unknown to them, they were still hidden. On Thanksgiving that year, the wife and I walked in to a thankful house and I was greeted by John (F-I-L) who was exhibiting a little more agitation than usual because his girls just weren't paying attention to him. He walked up to me, grabbed my arm and dragged me to the back room. A room filled with piles of clothes and clutter the like of which are seen on the TV show Hoarders. only not nearly as bad This man who served his country, had 5 daughters, work for GM for 20 years, forced to retire and end up like that can still outwit them, reached into a 5' tall pile of clothes and pulled out one of those bottles of Dew and offered it to me. I said thanks but no thanks, I drink Rum John and he fisted me in the chest with it and got real mad. SH*T, DAMN and the F-word came out clear as a bell! OK! I took a pull off it and that's the day I converted from Rum to Irish whiskey! We pulled on that bottle all day long until the wife noticed i was buzzed but with no liquor in the house, how? I said shhhhh but she just wouldn't let it go so she asked Dad! He went ballistic, looked at me and the cuss word flowed again! He took off to the room, they all followed him and caught him downing the last bit!!! Probably out of fear they would take it away from him. They all started laughing and all was forgiven but still couldn't figure out where he hid it. Thinking it was the last of it, we went on to have a great day and John had a great nap!
When Christmas rolled round, the Thanksgiving event served to be a good topic of discussion and funny comments until John gave me a mischievous look that I took as "I have something to show you" and turned and walked away. Curious, I followed and low and behold, he reached into the closet, moved the access to the crawlspace and pulled out ANOTHER bottle of Dew!!!
I never had a verbal conversation with that man but have never understood anybody as well as I did him. After 20+ years, I still miss him.

Eventually, the MIL passed away and everything had to go to sell the house. I helped clean out that room. We found 3 of the empties and when I opened the crawlspace, I found the last bottle. It's now well over a 20 year old bottle sitting on a shelf in my man cave. I think I'll break it out on Christmas and see what my new son-in-law thinks about it...keep the tradition going, kind of.
Thanks for the thread.

[Bushman]

Enjoyed the read, just lost my mother-in-law last month. She spent her last months in memory care.

[Swedish Pride]

nice share boneman, to John!

[fizzix]

boneman,

[Soft batch]

Great story Boneman!

[GCB3]

That’s a great story, Boneman! Irish Whiskey is wonderful stuff and good inlaws are priceless. Thanks for posting that.