Day 3: Last Day in Dublin

Our last day in Dublin has arrived and we have to finish all the things we want to do.  Since we saw so much on the first 2 days there are only 2 things left:  Jameson Tour and a final dinner.  Since it is also my birthday I got to choose.

The Old Jameson Tour Lobby

Jim marvels at the Chandelier

We walked west along Dorset Street which becomes Bolton Street and finally North King Street.  Navigation is a challenge in Dublin.  At Bow street we travelled south to the Old Jameson Distillery.  The distillery whiich opened in 1780 closed in 1972 when it moved to Midleton near Cork.  

Patrick our tour guide

The first and second still

The third still

The colour changes during aging.  Start at lower left and go counter clockwise.

The tour began with a short video describing unique features of Jameson Irish whiskey:

• Whiskey comes from the Gaelic word "usquebaugh" which means "water of life"
• Irish whiskey has only 3 ingredients: Barley, yeast and water
• The barley storehouse had many cats to catch mice
• The barley is soaked and allow to germinate.  Once germinated the barley is dried or malted
• Malted barley and barley is milled into a coarse flour called grist
• The grist has water added and heated to 65C to form wort.  Coal is used to prevent smoky flavour.  Scotch is heated using peat which adds the smoky flavour.
• The liquid containing sugars is extracted and solid parts are sold to farmers as feed
• Yeast is added to wort and left for 80 hours to ferment to 8% alcohol 
• This wash is distilled three times to boil off the alcohol and remove impurities.  The final product is 82% alcohol
• Ionized water is added to bring liquid to 63.4% alcohol
• It is then aged for at least 5 years in used Bourbon barrels or used Cognac barrels

After a delicious lunch and a visit to the gift shop, we walked back to the apartment.  Marilyn needed some rest as she was coming down with a cold.  Also, since it began to rain for the first time, we spent the rest of the afternoon resting and reading.

The lucky 10 who got to do the tasting test.

Dwight and Jim hiding their disappointment they were not selected.

The Jameson collection.  Some costs thousands!

For dinner we went back to the Old Music Shop Restaurant for a great final meal in Dublin.  After a brief walk it was off to bed early to be ready to leave in the morning.  Dublin exceeded all of our expectations and I would highly recommend that you visit this great city.

Liz, I thought we were in Dublin not Boston