old JJ whisky distillery

anyone else seeing a theme here?

Jameson uses emer irish spring barley to make their whisky

malting
Jameson is a mixture of both malted and unmalted barley (to learn the percentages of each must be invaluable)
the dried barley is allowed to germinate for 5 days then put in the oven
the oven burns anthrocite instead of coal because it doesn't smoke (i think she said they get the anthrocite form russia). this gives the whisky less of a harsh smoky flavor that you often taste in scotch or bourbon made in the states and toasted over coal.

milling
historically they used a watermill to ground  the barley into "grist"

mashing
the grist is brought to the gigantic mashton and mixed with hot water for four hours until it is a porage substance.
the "worst" is drained off and sold to the farmers who grew the barley to feed to their animals

fermentation
yeast is added for 2 1/2 days to the worst. this new liquid is called the "wash".
workers who were tardy to worker were assigned cleaning the fermentation bins. they had to lower themselves in to the huge barrels with a candle. if the candle went out, that meant there wasn't enough oxygen in the barrel and the worker needed to be hoisted out of the barrel immediately.

distillation
it is only 8% alcoholic after fermentaton, the liquid is heated up to the boiling point of alcohol (i think about 80degrees C), the evaporating vapors are captured. this is 22% alcohol.
this is repeated 2 more times
60% alcohol
80% alcohol
this is why Jameson is so smooth, the three times distilled business

maturing

the end product is mixed with pure water to make it 63% alcoholic and reading to start the maturation process.

what we buy in a bottle is typically 5-7 years matured.

they mature in seasoned oak casks (seasoned, means they buy casks that have been previously used, instead of new oak ones that would leave a more oaky flavor.  most of their casks are purchased from burboun brewers in kentuky, but they also purchase sherry and port casks from portugal and spain to give the whisky a sweeter flavor.

marrying and vating

after optimal maturation, the casks are emptied and married (mixed), so all the different casks' flavors blend together into the familir taste of jameson, and more pure water is added to make the alcohool 40%

twas a good day.
i have a feeling i might end up making my own experimental liquors and beers someday... watch out!