Today I took a look inside the gates of the Midleton distillery for the first time ,
One of the tour guides must have left the cordon down after they started with their party of visitors , I inadvertantly strolled through part of the experience off limits to the public until a member of staff spotted me , I apollogised profusely for my mistake and asked to be shown to the public area upon which he decided I had willfully gone beyond in the full knowledge of , I explained to him the cordon was undone and I assumed it was open to the public , just as he showed me through a side gate the tour party and guide arrived back out , he continued to make a big song and dance in front of the customers and imbarressed the tour guide which I thought was unprofessional , anyway in the end I told him I had the ticket for the 'experience' and I'd be back , I didnt bother sticking around for a pint after that .
Anyway dispite my mistake I did get a quick look at a few big old pot stills , they have the biggest pot still ever made I think it was 143,000 liters and it used 4 tonnes of coal every 12 hours , it has large curved copper panels held together by rivets the size of your thumb .
theres a pic below , I was able to knock on the side of the stil with my hand , it had a cavernous reverb , I bet that warehouse would make the most awesome drum room in history .
I spent last night out under the stars , testing out my new 'Basha' shelter , I could hear the thunderous roar of the distillery once all the trafic noise died down , imagine a 100,000 liter kettle boiling , I'll bet its measurable on the Richter scale , no one here even notices it anymore , well they have been making whiskey here since 1855 . As you'd expect theres a strong drinking culture to go along with the towns industrial past , the old boys livening up the the bars from around 12 pm , the craic and banter clearly audible when you pass in the afternoons , it has a reputation , a man could get a slap very easy , so Im being as polite and friendly as I can with everyone, every positive interaction counts and Ive had many . They do love their music and tunes here and they have the best of musical talent locally . As you'd expect with her industrial heritage this town has all the traditional crafts skills and professions built into the dna ,its one of the few towns you do actually see people driving big ass V8 muscle cars , maybe they figured out how to run these machines on nearly neat ethanol siphoned off from production at the plant . Theres wealth and theres a struggling working class forced to pay 1400 a month rent because they dont qualify for a mortgage on a property which should cost no more than 1000 a month , but those properties dont exist because the smart money is already tied up in buy to let property and thats the way they want to keep it . better than money in the bank , not only does the land lord accrue the profit on the rent but also because he's on favourable terms with the banks and can leverage more the higher the house value goes and buy more properties to let while keeping a certain segment of society in penury .
One of the tour guides must have left the cordon down after they started with their party of visitors , I inadvertantly strolled through part of the experience off limits to the public until a member of staff spotted me , I apollogised profusely for my mistake and asked to be shown to the public area upon which he decided I had willfully gone beyond in the full knowledge of , I explained to him the cordon was undone and I assumed it was open to the public , just as he showed me through a side gate the tour party and guide arrived back out , he continued to make a big song and dance in front of the customers and imbarressed the tour guide which I thought was unprofessional , anyway in the end I told him I had the ticket for the 'experience' and I'd be back , I didnt bother sticking around for a pint after that .
Anyway dispite my mistake I did get a quick look at a few big old pot stills , they have the biggest pot still ever made I think it was 143,000 liters and it used 4 tonnes of coal every 12 hours , it has large curved copper panels held together by rivets the size of your thumb .
theres a pic below , I was able to knock on the side of the stil with my hand , it had a cavernous reverb , I bet that warehouse would make the most awesome drum room in history .
I spent last night out under the stars , testing out my new 'Basha' shelter , I could hear the thunderous roar of the distillery once all the trafic noise died down , imagine a 100,000 liter kettle boiling , I'll bet its measurable on the Richter scale , no one here even notices it anymore , well they have been making whiskey here since 1855 . As you'd expect theres a strong drinking culture to go along with the towns industrial past , the old boys livening up the the bars from around 12 pm , the craic and banter clearly audible when you pass in the afternoons , it has a reputation , a man could get a slap very easy , so Im being as polite and friendly as I can with everyone, every positive interaction counts and Ive had many . They do love their music and tunes here and they have the best of musical talent locally . As you'd expect with her industrial heritage this town has all the traditional crafts skills and professions built into the dna ,its one of the few towns you do actually see people driving big ass V8 muscle cars , maybe they figured out how to run these machines on nearly neat ethanol siphoned off from production at the plant . Theres wealth and theres a struggling working class forced to pay 1400 a month rent because they dont qualify for a mortgage on a property which should cost no more than 1000 a month , but those properties dont exist because the smart money is already tied up in buy to let property and thats the way they want to keep it . better than money in the bank , not only does the land lord accrue the profit on the rent but also because he's on favourable terms with the banks and can leverage more the higher the house value goes and buy more properties to let while keeping a certain segment of society in penury .
