DBA – Jameson Tour

Welcome to Jameson Whiskey distillery. Tasting time!! #dublin #ireland #whiskey #jameson #january #tasting #tourism #travel #landmarks #blackandwhite #tour
Jameson Whiskey Building in Dublin, Ireland.

In the last few weeks, I’ve enrolled in the complete bartending course at the Dublin Bar Academy. It’s a 3 week intensive course, designed to teach us everything about being an expert bartender. This includes 30 + cocktails; cocktail flair; history of all the different spirits and how they’re made; master class including tastings for whisky, tequila/mescale, over 30 different liquors, coffee barista, as well as tasting all the cocktails that we are making. There are exams every day and then a comprehensive exam and a practical behind the bar (double and triple orders) exam which involves making 10 cocktails in under 10 minutes. There are also visits to Guinness and Jamesons for a behind-the-scenes bit of information. This post shows off some of the pictures from the Jameson Whiskey tour, from here in Dublin.

Jameson potstill for whiskey. #dublin #ireland #potstill #whiskey #morning #tour #tourism #travel #landmarks
An old Copper Potstill

First off, a little history of Jameson’s. Jameson’s Irish Whiskey (Ireland uses the spelling “ey” to designate the difference between Scottish Whisky) was started in 1780 by John Stein, where it was run under a different name. Stein hired John Jameson as the master distiller. John was from Scotland, and married into the Stein family. After several years, he bought the business from Stein in 1805, renaming it Jameson’s Irish Whiskey. He and William (possibly his brother or son – unclear from the records) expanded the distillery which was in Dublin, practically doubling it in size. However, between the Irish revolution, American prohibition, and poor economic times (the scottish whisky industry expanded greatly using continuous stills while the Irish still used pot stills or a combination) nearly put Jameson’s out of business by 1923.

Having barrels of fun being ill this weekend. I just wish it was a whiskey barrel. Ha ha.  #dublin #ireland #jameson #february #whiskey #barrel #whiskeyinthejar
Jameson Whiskey Barrel

In the 1960’s, Jameson’s joined with several other Irish distilleries and moved production from Dublin to Middleton to the largest distillery in Ireland. Today, Jameson is made of a blend of malted and unmalted barley, and produces mostly blended whiskey. They dry their malt in a gas fired kiln, which means that they don’t have a peaty flavor to the whiskey. Instead, the whiskey is flavored from a combination of the barley, malting / distilling process, ageing in various barrels (including sherry, burbon, and wine casks), and the blending processes that combine whiskey of various ages, from different casks, and varieties by their three master blenders.

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Model of the Malting process

Now about the tour. The tour starts out and takes us through the old warehouse rooms where they stored the grain. Grain bags were up to 100 pounds each, and were brought into the plant during the harvest time, then hoisted into the malting house. The malting house was several levels – with a fire on the bottom, and floors for heating the grain at the top. The intention was to heat the grain to force it to germinate and covert starch into sugar. Once germinated, the grain was put onto tiles which had holes in them in order to dry it out and stop the malting process.

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One of the tiles with holes for drying.

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Our class listening intently.

Once the grain is malted and dried, it is ground up and mixed with warm water, added into a big vat and yeast is introduced. The yeast is mixed in and the fermentation process begins. It is now known as “Mash”. This goes on for a few days, as the yeast changes the sugars into three byproducts – alcohol, Carbon Dioxide, and heat.

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Mixing the yeast with the malted barley

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The Mash mixing machine

Once the fermentation process has completed, the solids are separated from the liquid.

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From here, the wash liquid is fed into the first copper pot still for distillation. Distillation heats the wash up to 78.3 degrees Celsius which allows the alcohol to separate from the water (the water is later re-cycled into heating for the plant and/or water for crops). From the pot still, the alcohol is then collected as it cools and turns back into liquid. This liquid is then distilled two more times to concentrate the spirit – and it is saved in the locked spirit safe. The spirit has gone from 40% alcohol after the first distillation to 60% at the second and nearly 80% at the third. The flavors have been concentrated, and like all alcohol at distillation, it is clear.

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Our tour guide and the last 2 copper pot stills

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The spirit safe in the front

Now the key with the 80% alcohol is that it’s really not drinkable by most people. I’ve tried both the 60% and the 80% spirit (pre-aging) and they are both quite flavorful, but the 80% is so strong that even the smallest sip makes your lips and mouth go numb from the potency. So, for consistency purposes, clean fresh water is added to dilute the spirit to about 42-45% alcohol. The spirit is then put into oak barrels (most are reused from old Burbon casks, sherry casks, wine casks, etc.) and aged. In Scotland and Ireland, the spirit must be aged at least 3 years to be called Whiskey. (In the US the aging requirement is 1 year.)

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The Angel’s Share

Each different type of cask imparts varying flavors (from what was in them before) as well as some different degree of flavors to make the whiskey have a different taste. Over time, though, a bit of magic happens. The whiskey (like all spirit aged in barrels) starts to evaporate from the casks. The evaporated alcohol is known as the “angels share” and it takes place at about 6% per every 3 years in cooler climates or about 6% every 1 year in warmer / tropical climates. In the picture above, you can see a full whiskey barrel, then after 1 year, 3 years, and 15 years in the last barrel (which is top right hand side). After about 15-18 years, whiskey has fully developed its taste – and there’s no reason to age it any more in most cases. (Some places may change the casks that it is in in order to enhance flavors).

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Smelling the evaporation from the barrel

From there, the whiskey takes two routes – it is either bottled, diluted and bottled, or it is blended with other grain / malt / aged to completion whiskey diluted and then bottled and sold. Naturally, the older the whiskey in the bottle, the more expensive the whiskey because you’re paying for the evaporation as well as the time it has spent aging. ** Note that when looking at a bottle of whiskey, the age on the bottle denotes the youngest whiskey in the bottle blend. So, if the master distiller used a 3 year, a 10 year, and a 15 year in the mix, the bottle will say 3 year aged whiskey.

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Time for the blind taste test

With our tour complete, it was now time for the taste testing. We got a free Jameson whiskey cocktail, and then we were moved into the tasting room, where we tasted a selection of Peated Scottish whisky, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and American Burbon.

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Neula and me saying Slante!

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Colm (flair specialist) in red shirt, some of the guys from class

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Let the tasting begin – it’s not even 11 AM yet!

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With the tasting over, we were certified.

With the tasting over, we got certificates, and then went outside, aiming to take a group photo before heading back to class for an exam, and then more whiskey tasting from the master class – which included whisky from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, USA, and Japan. All of them are certainly different – and by the end of the day, I felt more educated, and plenty more buzzed. 😛

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No, Colm you’re supposed to be taking the picture of the group – not yourself!

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Now that’s more like it. 1 drink, 3 shots of whiskey down (it’s 11 am) and we’re off for more! Talk about a happy group!

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Athenry Castle

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Located in county Galway, Ireland, Athenry (or Town of the Ford of the King) is a relatively small town. The main attractions are the castle which was built before 1240 (the Medieval curtain walls are among the most complete and best preserved in Ireland ), and the Dominican Priory ruins which date back to 1240’s as well.

Clarin River / Athenry water supply

The castle originally guarded the ford (or crossing point) over the Clareen (Clarin) river nearby. It was first built out of wood, and later stages allowed for a stone castle (started in 1235 by the Norman Baron Meiler De Bermingham), parts of which still exist today. Amazingly, there was only one entrance into the castle from the town when it was originally built.
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The castle itself was destroyed in the 1300’s, expanded to include 5 gates around the larger town, and then destroyed again 1570’s and one more time in the 1650’s. Today it’s been restored and belongs to the Office of Public Works, in Ireland, and is known for the stunning curtain walls that still surround the central keep and town.

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The keep itself went through 3 phases of building –

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and when the Office of Public works (OPW) took it over it was a ruin.

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Today, it’s been restored and you can see the difference that has been made – to both the outside and the inside.

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Below you can see some of the ancient window decorations, and one of the window seats they surround…

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And of course, there’s the open “loo” in the castle guardrobe, where you not only did your “business” but also aired out your clothes if you were the lord / lady of the manor.
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From here, it’s only a short walk down the road – to the next attraction – the Dominican Friory Ruins.
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Jeanie Johnston boat

I’m obsessed with travel. Always have been, and thank goodness I have had the opportunities in my life to make this happen. I think because of the enjoyment of travel, I also find it fascinating to see all the different ways that people travelled in the past. One of my favorites is by Tall Sailing ship.

Jenny Jameson Boat

There’s an element of romance to the thought of hopping aboard a sailing ship, battling the ocean, the waves, and navigating the world by the stars. The reality, however, is much different. It was dangerous, it was dirty, it was crowded, it was smelly. And more to the point – people did not always travel because they wanted to. Sometimes they travelled because they had to.

Here in Dublin, there’s a replica tall ship that sits in the harbour – named the Jeanie Johnston.
Back in February, I took my friend’s daughter on a little adventure to go check out the ship and take a tour.

Me & Charlotte

The Jeanie Johnston is an exact copy of a 408 ton cargo ship purchased in Liverpool in the mid 1800’s. As famine gripped Ireland, the “original” ship ferried over 2,500 immigrants from Ireland to North America to start a better life. It was captained by James Attridge. Inside the boat, there’s a museum of how life was with several mannequins in various positions. You go in with a guide, who was pretty cool because he took an hour telling the group lots of stories of life on the boat and the passengers lives before, during, after they arrived at their destinations. This included stories about how people crammed 6 – 10 to a bunk (see the feet behind the mannequin) and slept in shifts to make due as they crossed the Atlantic. The center “tables” were designed for eating, entertainment, and sleeping on.

Inside the boat

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There were plenty of things onboard that were prohibited for the safety of passengers and crew. Things like open flames and fires, fighting, cursing, gambling, spitting, and alcoholic beverages.

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One of the most impressive things was the story about how the captain hired a surgeon, named Dr. Blennerhassett, to travel on the boat – to take care of the passengers – and make sure everyone stayed healthy. The captain did this out of his own pocket and because of this – the boat is one of the very few who can boast that no life was ever lost on board the ship.

For more information, please see:

http://www.jeaniejohnston.ie/

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