I'm just recently back from yet another excursion to The Emerald Isle. I had the most extraordinary time. I was lucky enough to see the men’s final hurling match at a sold out Croke Park (capacity 86,000). Courtesy of an old friend, I got to sample ghost whiskies in historic bars from distilleries long-closed. I was delighted to find one of our cocktail inventions on a Belfast cocktail menu. The Belfast Cocktail, is on the menu at the wonderful Hudson Bar on Gresham Street. I met Marty Walsh, the Mayor of Boston. I hung out at The Residence of The U.S. Consul General to Northern Ireland, Greg Burton. I even met and got a selfie with Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland.
But the most exciting thing I did was to tour The Crumlin Road Jail. This medium size jail was stuffed to four times capacity at the height of Northern Ireland's Troubles (1960s-1990s). I am happy to report that it is bereft of prisoners and being turned to a much happier purpose. Local Belfast businessman Peter Lavery is turning it into Belfast’s first distillery in generations. I'll tell you the story of the extraordinary Peter Lavery another time.
Peter was kind enough to meet me and show me around himself and explain the whole project to me in-depth. I promise you, this is the most exciting distillery being built right now anywhere in the world. Parts of the jail will be preserved for historical tours. Part of the jail will be a functioning distillery with 3 state-of-the-art medium-size, high quality stills running at all times.
This is no micro-distillery we’re talking about. This is the real deal - full size. Building a brown liquor distillery from scratch is an enormously expensive plan. It will take more than a year to build. All three stills will produce full time. One still will split its time producing Poitín (un-aged and available for sale immediately) and laying down stocks for a Three-Year Grain Whiskey. This won’t be available for sale until three years after the stills start cooking.
The other two stills will work full-time producing whiskey to be laid down for Peter’s Seven-Year Pot-Stilled Irish Whiskey. By the time Peter is able to sell a single bottle of the flagship whiskey, it will be about ten years from now. By that time, he will be sitting on more than £35,000,000 of liquid stock waiting for bottling and I’ll be pushing sixty. In all that time, Peter will have created 30-60 jobs in Belfast, made his community better and turned a memory of something very painful into a cause for celebration.
I have nothing to sell you from telling this story. I just thought it was important and you would like it. If you go to Belfast (and you should), please ask me about where to go and what to do there.