PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES
The Midleton Distilleries complex was commissioned in July 1975 on a new site next to the Old Midleton Distillery. It is located in East Cork on the outskirts of the town of Midleton. (Pop. 10,000 approx.). The Midleton Distilleries complex occupies a 45 hectare site and comprises a number of modern industrial buildings with associated large scale warehousing. It lies adjacent to the Euro-route between Cork City and the port of Rosslare.
Distances from: Cork City 22 km Rosslare 200 km
HISTORY
The Midleton plant is described as a complex since it is a number of distilleries in one. It was designed to take over the work of four former distilleries - Bow Street Distillery (Jameson), John’s Lane Distillery (Powers), the Old Midleton and Watercourse Distilleries.
Today, Midleton Distilleries produce the component spirit for all the Irish Distillers Group whiskey brands.
PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES
Pot Whiskey Distilling:
Malted and unmalted barley are used to produce Pot Still Whiskey. Brewing is carried out through a Lauter Tun type brewing system. After brewing, fermentation takes place in dedicated vessels, called Fermenters.
Distillation is carried out through the use of copper Pot Stills. A number of Pot Still Whiskey types are produced, all involving triple distillation.
Grain Whiskey Distilling:
Malted barley and maize or wheat may be used as the cereal source on this brewing system. The brewing technology is of the continuous cooking type with a crushed mix of cereals exposed to high temperature. This is then cooled and after conversion, allowed to ferment.
Distillation is carried out through three columns. The first separates the alcohol from the fermented wash, the alcohol obtained at this stage is then allowed forward and distilled successively through an extractive distillation process. By varying operating conditions a Grain Whiskey and/or a Grain Neutral Spirit is obtained.
Feeds Recovery (Distillers Dark Grains Plant)
The residual spent grains from the brewing operation and the spent wash and other residual liquids from the distillation operation are processed through the Feeds Recovery Plant. Solids are initially mechanically pressed through a screw press and the liquids are centrifuged through decanters. Liquids with 2.5% total solids are evaporated through a quadruple stage evaporator.
Final condensate from this is sent to the Waste Water Treatment plant. The concentrated solids are fed in liquid syrup form to rotary disc driers. This syrup together with spent processed grains are then dried to 12% moisture. This dried grain is passed through a pellet machine and the product obtained is sold as Distillers Dark Grains to animal feed compounders. Annual production is more than 20,000 tonnes p.a.
Pressed Wet Grains and/or Syrup may be produced.
Spirit Store /Maturation
Immature whiskey, is transferred from Distillation to the New Spirit Vats, reduced to 63% (v/v) and is later filled into oak casks (Barrels) to start the Maturation process and held for at least 3 years to mature.
Grain Neutral Spirit is transferred from Distillation to one of the Grain Neutral Spirit Vats for transfer to bottling (off site).
Types and Barrel capacities:
Barrel Type |
Capacity (Litres) |
American barrel |
200 |
Hogshead |
250 |
Butt |
500 |
The filling capacity is 900 American barrels per day and disgorging capacity is 800 American barrels per day.
Maturation is carried out in 28 warehouses. The maximum capacity of each of the warehouses is 32,000 American Barrel equivalents. The total number of casks held on site is in excess of 600,000 .
TRANSPORT
Midleton Distilleries has its own transport fleet for the shipping of Bulk Whiskey and Grain Neutral Spirit to Irish Distillers Group bottling plants and a number of other customers.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Midleton Distilleries is accredited to the ISO 9002 Quality Management System since 1994 and I.S. 343 Food Safety Standard. An audit of the Quality System is conducted by N.S.A.I. (National Standards Authority of Ireland) three times annually.
WATER
Total water consumption per annum is 750,000m3. This is obtained from the following sources:
Source |
Amount Per Annum m3 |
Towns water supply |
31,000 |
Dungourney River |
410,000 |
Cavern Water |
310,000 |
- Potable Reverse Osmosis treated water is used to reduce the alcohol strength of the spirit from the Distillery prior to maturation.
- Water required for the process is abstracted from the Dungourney River which runs close by the plant.
- Cavern water is used for cooling and is obtained from the limestone caverns beneath the Distillery.
ENVIRONMENT
An Integrated Pollution Protection Control Licence issued by the Environmental Protection Agency controls all environmental activities. An on-site wastewater treatment plant processes all process effluent prior to discharge to the Local Sanitary Authority trade effluent sewer. Current licence limits on treated effluent are 60ppm BOD, 60ppm suspended solids, 10ppm phosphate, 15ppm nitrate, 0.5ppm heavy metals. The WWTP has a capacity of 650m3 per day. The site is accredited to ISO 14001, the international environmental management standard.
SAFETY
Midleton Distilleries is a top tier establishment under the Seveso II Directive (96/82/EC). This legislation is aimed at preventing major accidents involving dangerous substances and limiting the consequences of such accidents for human beings and the environment.
In addition, the site is also certified to OHSAS 18001, the international safety management system specification.
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