Bushmills Irish Whiskey

A Master Distiller shares his passion

SD!: What exactly does a Master Distiller do?

CE: A number of things. It’s not just me making whiskey; there’s a great bunch of people at the distillery. One of the key aspects of my job is to ensure that the operation runs smoothly. Everything happens in this one place. We make the spirit, age it and bottle it. We have 170,000 barrels and a bottle plant on site.

Photo: Colum Egan

Another crucial part of the job is to ensure that the whiskey we make today has the same taste as the last 10, 20, 100 years. It’s a connection with the past. I take that very seriously. I learn from the past and also look to the future. Our 1608 Whiskey is the most recent example of this. I was tasked with making a whiskey to celebrate 400 years of whiskey making in the Bushmills area. We got our first license to distill in Rowte (an area of about five square miles around Bushmills) on April 20, 1608. I wanted it to be a little different and quirky—keeping the Bushmills Irish personality alive. It also has a connection to the past. We had whiskey in the warehouse from years past made with crystal malt. Instead of air drying barley with peat smoke in the last stage, we let the barley simmer in its own juices, then blast it with hot air. The crystallized sugars remain throughout the process, giving the whiskey a vanilla, caramelized taste. Mixing the old and new makes me feel I’ve made my predecesors proud.

SD!: What makes Bushmills different than other whiskeys?

CE: Water, distilling and barrels. Originally, it was sited at this location due to a stream of clear water. They dammed it off, making it a rill (a stream that’s been dammed). We mix that water with barley to get a coarse flow (grist), then pass it through a mill called a lauter tun, drawing the natural sugars from the barley. Once separated, you end up with wort which is natural sugar and water. During fermentation, or washback, yeast is added to create alcohol, about 16-18 proof. We distill in copper stills in the shape of an onion with a long, narrow neck. The shape is crucial to the flavor and character of the spirit. The long neck allows the alcohol to turn to vapor, touch the side of the neck, condense and fall back into the still. This reflux creates a lighter, smoother whiskey.

Photo: Bushmills distillery, courtesy of Bushmills

The wash is put into the first still and comes out at an average of 40 proof. After the second still, it’s 140 proof. Most scotches are finished at this point. We do another stage to take it to 170 proof. This makes it a nice, light, fruity alcohol. It’s much smoother than other whiskeys and you don’t get that burning sensation in your throat. After distilling, it’s still called a spirit. You can’t call it whiskey until it’s been in oak barrels a minimum of three years. Bushmills is typically aged five years.

Putting 170 proof spirit into an oak barrel can be a volatile process. We add pure water, taking it down to about 124 proof. This allows the spirit to expand on warm days into the wood and contract on cooler days. The spirit goes in clear and comes out golden brown from the wood. We don’t use new oak because it’s just too strong and would overwhelm the flavor. We get our barrels from Kentucky and fill them within a week because you don’t want barrels to dry out. These bourbon barrels are charred on the inside giving us toasted wood notes.

We also use former Oloroso sherry casks (butts) after their sherry has been in them for two years, seasoning the oak. Once in the barrel, the whiskey draws out the subtle sherry notes.

We use the barrels three times and, of course, the first use gives more of the wood flavor than the last. So each whiskey is different. Because of this, Bushmills has a range of single malt whiskeys. It’s great for people who are new to drinking whiskey, but also has enough complexity for those who’ve been drinking it for awhile.

SD!: How did you become a Master Distiller?

CE: I took engineering in college. After graduation, I had a job managing 40 people. That’s where I developed people skills, which are very helpful now. I worked with General Mills where we made shreddies (Shredded Wheat) and that’s where my olfactory skills really developed. My sister was always finding jobs for me and she sent a job notice for packaging at Anheuser-Busch in Canada. I got it and eventually worked on the brewing side. Then my sister found a job back in Ireland for me with a distillery. I worked in blending and bottling.

One day the boss from Bushmills walked into my office in Dublin and asked me if I wanted to train under their current Master Distiller and eventually become the MD. It was my dream job! I said yes immediately. He suggested I might want to talk with my wife about it. So I called her and didn’t say I wanted it, just that it had been offered. And she said no! She had grown up in a large family right in the Bushmills area and had moved away at a young age. She wasn't sure she wanted to go back. We hung up and I couldn’t believe it. Five minutes later she called and said "take it."

I feel I was destined to be the Master Distiller at Bushmills. All the jobs I had gave me the skills to do it, my wife is from the area and it just felt right when I walked into the distillery. Then I found out that the rill is named St. Colum’s Rill. They’d been expecting me for nearly 400 years!

Connie Adams/April 2009

  Return to the HOME PAGE       This online magazine is a production of Mixed Media.