There are two types of Irish whiskey – malt whiskey distilled in a traditional manner in pot stills and grain whiskey made in modern distilleries using tall distillation columns called patent stills.  Over 90 per cent of all whiskey consumed is a blend of pure malt whiskey and grain whiskey.  As a rule of thumb the more expensive the whiskey the higher the percentage of malt.  A substantial part of Cooley sales are single malts, that is pure 100 per cent pot still malt whiskey made in one distillery.  The explanation below focuses on the distillation of malt whiskey.

Malt Whiskey is made from barley that is allowed to germinate. Malting is the process of causing the barley to sprout and then, when growth has reached a critical stage, stopping it by drying in a kiln. During this germination, enzymes are produced some of which convert the barley starches into the sugars (the liquid is called WORT) which will later be fermented to form alcohol.

Moved to separate tanks the sugars in the "Wort" are fermented by the addition of yeast to produce low strength alcohol or "Wash". 

The "Wash" is distilled in large copper kettles called "Pot Stills".  The unique character of each whiskey is decided at this stage.  The shape of the pot, the size, length and thickness of the neck of the stills, the distilled strength of the new whiskey and the skill of the distiller all affect the whiskey. Cooley distils in two smallish pot stills. The smaller stills give more character to the malt. The first distillation produces "Low Wines" the second distillation is called "Feints".

The new whiskey is filled into oak casks, each containing about 200 litres.  The oak allows the whiskey to breathe.  Cooley uses American oak casks that have held bourbon for four years.  The casks are shipped to Lockes Distillery where a cooper using age-old techniques checks, repairs and rebuilds the casks.  The filled casks are then placed in a warehouse to age.

Maturing the whiskey is an arcane process.  The oak, air, time, liquid and seasons of the year all combine together to produce a unique product. The barrels and the liquid absorb the summer's heat.  As the oak gently expands the whiskey seeps into the wood; as the wood cools, the whiskey retreats absorbing some of the vanilla caramel and other oak flavours.  This cycle will be repeated many times as an Irish summer climate change. The soft moist Irish climate also softens the oak causing it to allow the whiskey to penetrate the wood to better absorb flavour.   Cooley uses some of the oldest whiskey warehouses in the world.  Not alone is the location of a warehouse vital but the siting of individual barrels within a warehouse can produce whiskeys of differing characteristic and flavour.  The location, colour, shape, height and fabric of the warehouses also affect maturation. The 18th century granite warehouse in Lockes Distillery, Kilbeggan is a gem.  Whiskey has matured and mellowed within its walls for over 200 years.  Cooley has over 40,000 casks maturing.  The whiskey lies undisturbed for long periods.  Cooley malts are matured on average for six years though we hold ten-year-old malt.

Whiskey is deemed to be ready for consumption when it is "Nosed" by a blender.  It is at this stage that the wide varieties of whiskeys available to the public are created.  Tops of the range are the super premium aged single malts.  "Single malts" mean pure malt whiskey from a single distillery.  About 1 in 15-whiskey drinkers prefer single malts.  All other whiskeys are blends of malt whiskey and grain whiskey.  Grain whiskey uses un-malted barley or maize and is distilled in tall column stills at higher levels of alcoholic strength than pot still malt whiskeys. 

Casks of mature whiskey are sent from the warehouses to be bottled at Cooley. Casks are dumped (emptied) in large troughs and depending on age will be blended or mixed in stainless steel vessels to generate a consistent batch for bottling. At this point the whiskey is at cask strength, which on average is 60% alcohol by volume. However most bottling strengths is 40% therefore demineralised water is added to reduce the strength. Demineralised water is very pure water without the salts or hardness that is associated with tap water. Once the water is added and the strength confirmed the whiskey is filtered to remove any wood debris and then chill-filtered to remove the effects of cloudiness at very low temperatures. An argument revolves around chill filtering that by filtering out some of the oils and esters at low temperatures, you lose some of the taste features of the product.

Consistency plays a key part in the bottling process. We must not only look at the clarity of the product, but also its colour. Regardless of how careful the final selection of casks are for blending and then bottling, there will inevitably be colour differences between batches. The bottler adjusts the colour by adding a natural caramelised sugar solution.

The final stages of bottling are similar throughout the industry. The spirit is passed through very fine filter pads to the bottling line filler. The empty bottles are pre-cleaned with air or product to remove any fine dust particles. The filling process involves drawing spirit into the bottle to meet strength tolerances and capacity tolerances. These are typically to a strength tolerance of -0.1% +0.2% and a fill tolerance of -0% +0.5% of the nominal volume as printed on the label. 

Regular quality control checks are carried out to ensure that strength and fill are within tolerance. After filling, the bottles are capped and sealed using heat-seal application and then labeled. After labeling, every bottle is marked with a code number, which indicates the batch of whiskey used, the line number, date and time of bottling.

The packaging of bottles is carried out manually, as is case ion. Every case packed passes over a weighing machine that is set up such that, should one bottle be short, and alarm will sound and the line will stop. Once pattetisation and stretchwrap is applied, the stock is held under bond (duty free) awaiting shipment to international destinations. 

 WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

"There is no such thing as a large Irish"

 "Too much of anything is good for nothing. Too much good whiskey is barely enough". - An old Irish toast

"A sovereign drink - the chronicles declare if it be taken orderlie - beware of surfeit. Sip it and you'll find it sloweth age and brighteneth the mind. It keepeth heart from whirling, teeth from chattering, tongue from lisping and throte from rattling, It keepeth heart from swelling, guts from rumbling, The hands from shivering and the bones from crumbling".

"The light music of whiskey falling into a glass - an agreeable interlude". - James Joyce

 "Health and long life to you, Land without rent to you, A child every year to you, And may you die in Ireland". - An old Irish toast

 "Locke's, Mellow and pure as Nature's breath". - Winston Churchill

"William McCarter, managing director of the Fruit of the Loom plant which had been in his family for 55 years before the US take-over, also handed over a specially-labelled bottle of Tyrconnell Irish Whiskey. We left him and the First Lady sipping whiskey, probably about two in the morning. Next day on leaving for Dublin the President confessed he'd had a little too much of the whiskey" - When the President Calls; T Birney, J. O Neill: Guildhall Press . The visit of President Clinton to Ireland, 1998. 

"Dr WG Grave, the famous cricketer, always drank a double Irish whiskey every match day both at lunch and at the close of play".

The official web-site is www.cooleywhiskey.com

Send mail to brittonmj@clear.net.nz with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: March 26, 2010