Jameson’s Midleton Distillery in Cork makes some of the most well-known whiskey in Ireland: Jameson, Midleton, Spot, Red Breast, and Powers. It’s also one of the distilleries that saved Irish whiskey, so touring Midleton Distillery is a must for whiskey aficionados. Plus you’ll learn some surprising facts about Midleton Distillery. Here are some of my favorites.
The best way to get to Midleton Distillery is to drive. Located about a half hour drive from Cork, the drive is quick and easy. (You can even take a detour to the scenic town of Cobh, like we did.) There’s a parking lot onsite, so it’s super easy. (And if you’re looking for somewhere to eat nearby, I highly recommend Finin’s Restaurant.)
5 Surprising Facts About Midleton Distillery Cork
Several tours are offered at Middleton, ranging from simple to extravagant. (Check out this skip-the-line version.) We took the Behind the Scenes Tour, towards the extravagant end of the spectrum. It starts with a short video, then a two-hour tour with premium whiskeys throughout it. Coincidentally Alex and I were the only people on the tour! It was absolutely incredible: informative, entertaining, and exciting. Plus our guide, John Madden, was a whiskey expert, so it was fun to nerd out with him.
Here are some surprising facts about Midleton Distillery I learned during the tour.
1. Midleton Distillery Makes 40 Whiskeys!
The tour starts with a history lesson as you walk through the historic buildings. Originally built as a woolen mill, the Murphy family opened the distillery in 1825. The buildings on the tour stopped making whiskey in 1975, when production moved 200 kilometers away to new buildings. The older buildings opened as a visitor’s center and whiskey museum in 1992.
Keeping with Irish whiskey tradition, all whiskey made at Midleton Distillery is triple-distilled. And they make a whopping 40 whiskeys here! The most well-known brands are Jameson, aged in Oloroso sherry casks (I had no idea!); Red Breast, a single pot still whiskey; Powers, named after James Powers (who founded a distillery in 1791); the Spot whiskeys, all wine-cask aged; Method & Madness, fun and experimental whiskeys; and Midleton Very Rare, annual vintage releases. Each brand has multiple bottlings, adding up to 40 different whiskeys.
Midleton’s production is staggering. But they still manage to source all their grain from a 200 kilometer radius of the distillery, and use the Dungourney River as the water source. (It reminds me of Jack Daniel’s Distillery, which has a surprisingly “craft” approach even though its output is huge.)
2. Midleton Distillery has the Largest Pot Stills in the World
The easiest way to make a lot of whiskey is to use big stills. And Midleton Distillery has the largest pot stills in the world, holding a whopping 32,000 gallons! The historic stills (pictured above) are no longer used, but the stills used today still hold the “World’s Largest” title.
They also use a column still, and while the tour doesn’t take you to it, it’s visible from the campus — it’s several stories high! The column still is used to distill corn mixed with malted barley (still triple-distilled, of course!). Together the stills produce 73 million liters of pure alcohol per year.
3. There’s a Micro Distillery Inside Midleton Distillery
Working with such large stills makes it difficult to experiment on new whiskeys without making a ton of experimental whiskey. Enter the Micro Distillery! There’s a micro distillery inside Midleton Distillery that’s an exact replica of the working distillery, so it’s the perfect place to train distillers and experiment with new projects.
Started in 2015, the micro distillery is also where the Method & Madness whiskeys are made. Our guide described them as “daring and delightful” whiskeys, and the experimental nature is obvious by their releases. (Like the Mulberry Cask or Oats and Malt releases.) The micro distillery makes about 400-500 barrels a year, including all Method & Madness whiskeys.
There’s also a gin still in the micro distillery. They make gin using 16 botanicals, focusing on Black Lemon and Irish Gorse flower. It’s bottled as Method & Madness gin.
4. Midleton Distillery’s Angel’s Share Equals 34,000 Bottles PER DAY!
The downside of making a lot of whiskey is a lot of Angel’s Share. Angel’s Share is the colloquial term for the whiskey that evaporates during the aging process. It varies based on location (humidity and climate determine how much alcohol vs. water evaporates). For Ireland, the typical Angel’s Share is about 2% per year.
The “percent per year” amount gets thrown around a lot in whiskey discussions, but I’ve never thought about it in terms of how many bottles or barrels it means. One of the most surprising facts about Midleton Distillery is that their Angel’s Share Equals 34,000 bottles of whiskey per day!
That means that the first 70 barrels of whiskey produced each day only make up for yesterday’s angel’s share. Mind-blown!!
There are 35 warehouses at Midleton Distillery and 45 others nearby. The tour took us through one of them, containing 1,000 barrels aging on their sides. (The modern warehouses have seven stories of palletized barrels.) That’s a lot of whiskey!
5. Each Barrel is Used Three Times — Up to 70 Years!
Midleton Distillery is one of the few distilleries in the world with an on-site cooperage, where barrels are maintained and repaired. The current cooper is a 5th generation cooper!
They source 200,000 barrels from the US each year from different distilleries in Kentucky. Each barrel is used three times, and depending on the length of each time it’s aged, that can mean up to 70 years! Imagine if those barrels could talk…
Visiting the cooperage was one of my favorite parts of touring Midleton Distillery. Our guide showed us how barrels are made and even how trees are cut to make staves. Plus we got to enjoy a dram of Jameson Black Barrel, a very fitting whiskey for the cooperage!
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There were dozens of other surprising facts about Midleton Distillery that I learned on the tour. In all honesty, I’ve visited a lot of distilleries around the world but the Midleton Distillery tour was easily one of the best. I highly recommend visiting if you’re in the area. Book the Midleton Distillery Cork tour here.
And besides the tour, the tasting room at the distillery is worth a stop in itself! They offer tastes of all their whiskeys, including in whiskey flights. I got to taste some fantastic whiskey there, including the Red Breast 27! So don’t forget to save time to hang out in the tasting room.
Related :: How to Plan a Whiskey Trip to Ireland, A Guide to Distilleries in Ireland, and More Distilleries in Ireland
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