One Stop Shop Service
We produce premium, environmentally responsible Irish
spirits, crafted to deliver exceptional taste with unique and innovative flavours.
Our distillery operates a diverse range of Irish whiskey styles, including
triple and double-distilled Malt and Pot Still Whiskey, alongside a
state-of-the-art gin still.
In addition to laying down stock for our own brands, we produce new-make
spirit, whiskey, and gin for brand owners and retailers. We offer a
comprehensive, end-to-end service including distillation, casking, maturation,
warehousing, blending, bottling and labelling.
Our Products
Irish Pot Still Whiskey
Ahascragh Distillery Irish Pot Still Whiskey Spirit uses a blend of malted and unmalted barley, the unmalted barley is essential to pot still Whiskey as it gives the distinct spicy flavour to the Whiskey. As required under the Geographical Indication for Irish pot still whiskey a minimum of 30% unmalted barely and malted barley is used in the mash with up to 5% other grains such as oats, wheat and rye. After fermentation the wash is then triple distilled in copper pot stills. The Irish Pot Still spirit is reduced to customer specifications which has a typical casking A.B.V. of 63.5%.
Irish Malt Whiskey
Ahascragh Distillery Malt Whiskey Spirit uses 100% Irish malted barley. Like the best Single Malts we double distil our Malt but we can also triple distil if required. The Irish Malt spirit is reduced to customer specifications which has a typical casking A.B.V. of 63.5%.
Irish Gin
Ahascragh Distillery distilled Irish Gin uses Grain Neutral Spirit which is distilled and infused with various botanicals and ingredients as required by our customers.
Our Production Process
Through fully automated and digitised processes, Ahascragh Distillery manages and tracks every aspect of production from recipes and ingredients to yield metrics and final liquid to create the very best product with provenance data for every stage of the journey.
Milling, Mashing & Filtration
The incoming grains at the distillery are screened and transferred to storage silos. The grains are then hammer milled, exposing the inside of the grain, to form a grist. The grist is then mixed with hot water in the mash conversion vessel to facilitate the starch conversion process which enables the starches to be converted into fermentable sugars (wort). Following mashing, the wort is filtered using a mash filter press where solids (draff) is separated from the clear sugary wort.
Fermentation
The wort is then transferred to the washback and yeast is added. The yeast converts the sugar in the wort to alcohol which is known as wash.
Distilling
For malt and pot still spirit batch production, the wash is heated in copper pot stills. The heating causes the alcohol to boil and the alcohol vapours rise up the neck of the still and cooled in the vapour condenser. This process is repeated to produce new make spirit which is usually distilled three times in three separate copper pot stills. Different flavour styles of malt and pot still spirit can be altered by changing the timing of cuts during the pot still distillation.
Casking
The spirit alcohol is reduced in the bulk spirit vats with pure reverse osmosis water prior to casking. The malt and pot still spirit is reduced to customer specifications which has a typical casking ABV of 63.5%. Ahascragh Distillery predominately selects American white oak (Quercus alba) Ex-Bourbon casks which typically have a capacity of 200 litres. The distillery also sources a range of other specialist casks including sherry butts, port, rum and wine casks for both maturation and whiskey finishing.
Maturation
During the maturation process in wooden casks the spirit profile changes with both flavour and colour. To be classed as Irish Whiskey the spirit is required to remain in a cask for a minimum of 3 years however many whiskeys are matured for much longer. Through digitisation using QR technology backed by a blockchain, the warehouse manager monitors casks and barrels across locations and records regular operations and movements in the warehouse. Leading edge technology allows optimisation in the maturation process to reduce losses. This innovative inventory management system manages authenticity, production history, deed of ownership (digital deed) and facilitates automated compliance and reporting to the authorities.
