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Owen Ogletree's Brewtopia Brewsletter
May 31, 2019
Owen is founder/editor of Brewtopia.info, columnist for Southern Brew News and Beer Connoisseur Magazine, lecturer at Knoxville's Brewing & Distilling Center, founder/director of the Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting and Classic City Brew Fest, a BJCP National Beer Judge and Great American Beer Festival judge.
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Follow our craft beer adventures...
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- A Visit to Old Bushmills Distillery in Northern Ireland
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By Don Beistle
Owen Ogletree and I visited the Old Bushmills Distillery one blustery day in March. We had been exploring the cask ale scene in Belfast — happy accident of a troubled history — and decided to escape the city’s late-winter gloom for a day. So we rented a car, hopped on the M2, and lit out for the village of Bushmills on Ireland’s north coast. We left the city toward the end of morning rush hour and reached our destination earlier than expected just as a distillery tour was assembling. So we slipped in among a group of mostly American pilgrims and quickly discovered the Old Bushmills Distillery tour to be a singular experience.
Our guide turned out to be one of the local farmers who grow the barley that becomes the malt that Bushmills turns into whiskey. The tour that followed was no less unconventional than its host. We were led from building to building through the whole process of whiskey-making — from mash tun to pot still to packaging — while whiskey was actually being made. There was no flashy multimedia presentation, no museum of advertising tchotchkes, no distractions from the gritty reality of the work. Just a plainspoken tour guide leading us through the sounds, smells, and swelter of whiskey in the making.
A cast iron mash tun, sliced open as neat as an architectural drawing to show off its sinuous antique mechanism, guards the entrance to Bushmills’ brewhouse. When our guide swung open the heavy brewhouse door, warm air dense with the bready aroma of mash steeping there in a modern stainless steel tun rolled out in a wave. Our group lingered a bit to drive the morning’s chill from our bones before proceeding to the fermentation cellar. Faint whiffs of banana, pear, and circus peanuts perfumed the air around the silo-like fermenters that flanked the room. Eventually, a short walk brought us to the stillhouse and the most impressive experience of the tour.
Our group was shepherded onto a nondescript industrial mezzanine, and a quiet gasp escaped the lips of one visitor after the another as the pot stills sitting below came into view. Glorious copper contraptions, each as big as a truck and shaped like a rococo Christmas ornament, the stills shone dully, their curving surfaces gone almost calico with decades of use and annual patching. To everyone’s surprise we were led down the stairs to thread our way carefully between the stills. A glass-enclosed cube sat in the center of the room, a control station that, with modern displays set amid florid pipework and gleaming valves, could have been lifted straight from Captain Nemo’s submarine. Deeper yet, inside ornately framed glass cases, fresh distillate could be seen pouring like water into sink-like copper grants. Some time around 2025 the rough, white spirit we saw splashing there will be drawn from barrels having almost magically transformed over the years into smooth Irish whiskey.
The cooperage and the barrel-aging sheds that crouch on the hills east of town like giant green sheep were not part of the tour. As the tour wound down, we were surprised to find curtains hung around the bottling line to hide the labels from would-be speculators or industrial spies, but the packaging and shipping area was open to view. The tour ended as it ought with a toast and a taste of Bushmills Original (and a token for one more in a cozy lounge adjoining a small, reasonably priced cafe).
Bushmills is just a 75 minute drive from Belfast on the M2, but it feels a world away as the traffic and industrial landscape of the city give way to rolling, sheep-filled hills and narrow country lanes. In the off season Bushmills is a sleepy agricultural village of just under 1,500 souls, but that number swells in summer as tourists from around the world flock to the scenic Causeway Coast and Glens district. As you approach the village, hints that the farmland is also tourist country appear as signs for cottages, bed-and-breakfasts, and roadside eateries proliferate. Regular bus service is available from Belfast, with stops in Bushmills and at the Giant’s Causeway visitor center two miles beyond. Whether a day trip or part of a longer stay, Bushmills is well worth visiting for casual drinkers as well as whiskey aficionados.
If you want the full Old Bushmills Distillery experience (and you absolutely should), take care not to visit during the month-long “Silent Season” when production areas can be off limits while the plant is undergoing annual maintenance. Check the Bushmills website for more details.
- Photos courtesy of Bushmills -
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- The Divine Beers of Chimay
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By Owen Ogletree
For the Beer Now conference
Father Theodore sat at his microscope in the brewing laboratory of Belgium’s Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont in the winter of 1948. The Trappist monk was searching for a new yeast strain for the abbey’s Chimay beers. How did a monk become so knowledgeable of microbiology and brewing chemistry? The clever, spunky Father Theodore had studied with renowned brewing researcher Jean De Clerck (who is now buried at Scourmont Abbey), and the late beer writer Michael Jackson once said, “Father Theodore had a brewing scientist’s knowledge of water, barley varieties, hops and yeast.”
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 Red Hare BrewingLemon Lime SPF 50/50
India Pale Radler
ABV: 4.2%
This version of SPF 50/50 is a light, refreshing blend of Gangway IPA and our house-made lemon and lime juices. Tasty citrus fruit notes mingle perfectly with citrusy hop notes, making this the perfect can to take with you everywhere this summer.
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- Video Highlights from Brewtopia's Group Trip to Northern Spain
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Check out the video highlights from our group beer/cider/wine tour of the regions around Barcelona and San Sebastián in northern Spain. Barcelona has become an amazing craft beer destination! Video by Owen Ogletree
Want to come along on an exciting and affordable European beer trip with Owen and Brewtopia? CLICK HERE for more information.
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- 07/27/2019 - MAX LAGER'S OLD 320 FEST at the brewpub in Atlanta. From 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Max Lager's will host craft brewers from throughout the state of Georgia and the country as they share samples of their unique offerings, giving guests the opportunity to taste beers from Atlanta, Decatur, Athens, Savannah, and more. Tickets.
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- Brewtopia Events on Facebook & Twitter
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 CLICK HERE and hit the Brewtopia Events "like" button on Facebook to see live photos and news posts as we sip, quaff and sniff craft beer around the world. Also be sure to "friend" Owen Ogletree on Facebook.
 Follow Brewtopia Events on Twitter.
COMING UP...
- Owen Ogletree and the Beer Wench head to Montana to attend the annual Beer Now bloggers and writers conference and check out the glorious scenery and inviting breweries.
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