Maybe I'll be a distiller for a month... or maybe you will?!
April 13, 2010 - 7:56am | by Daniel Priseman
I have a pretty good job; but if there is one thing I have always wanted to do it’s to work as a distiller. I love the craft that goes into making spirits, especially those that are aged and blended. There is a real art form to it and while I am sure the actual work is hard, the reward of being able to taste and enjoy your finished product and seeing other people enjoy it must be amazing!
I started out with the Original white label Bushmills and was surprised at how smooth and easy it was on the palette. The aroma was alive with fruit notes, with ripe pears jumping out immediately. An underlying scent of beech wood and cob nuts added a dryness to the aroma which balanced out the copper/metallic tang found in all of the three whiskies I tasted. The flavour was light and delicate with a gentle sweetness leading to a rich nutty taste and there was a hint of bitter chocolate and a citrus note before a dry soft finish.
The Black Bush also had an abundance of fruit notes on the nose, but this time it was stone fruits such as peach and nectarine. These were layered with an almost savoury aroma of wholemeal bread that balanced out the maple syrup sweetness familiar from bourbon. There was a gentle spiciness too, that worked perfectly with the peach fruitiness and the burnt wood dry notes that carried through to the finish.
I have a pretty good job; but if there is one thing I have always wanted to do it’s to work as a distiller. I love the craft that goes into making spirits, especially those that are aged and blended. There is a real art form to it and while I am sure the actual work is hard, the reward of being able to taste and enjoy your finished product and seeing other people enjoy it must be amazing!Well as chance would have it, the guys at Spook Media who look after PR for Bushmills Whiskey dropped me a line to let me know that they are running a competition for someone to win exactly that opportunity! Not being fully familiar with the Bushmills range I asked them to fill the gaps for me, and after a weekend spent enjoying and experimenting with a drop or two of their fine Irish nectar I thought it would be rude not to share my findings with you.
But first a word about this competition. It’s not often that you’re presented the chance to work in a distillery, let alone spend 30 days in Ireland, all expenses paid with £5000 spending money and at the end of it have the chance to produce your own blend of whiskey! To a drinks geek such as myself that really does sound like the next best thing to actually being a master distiller!
To enter, simply join their facebook page www.facebook.com/Bushmills1608 click on the ‘make it at Bushmills’ tab and follow a few quick steps to tell them why you should be the person to win this stunning prize. If I were being selfish I would keep this to myself to increase my chance of winning, but nothing would make me happier than for one of my readers to win this great competition… as long as I get a sample of their signature blend when they get back from Ireland!
Anyway, back to my weekend… Bushmills has a long history of making beautiful and very mellow Irish whiskey, but (being a bourbon man) it had been a while since I had last tasted it. So receiving some Bushmills this weekend presented an unexpected treat and an excuse to come up with a few new drinks!
I started out with the Original white label Bushmills and was surprised at how smooth and easy it was on the palette. The aroma was alive with fruit notes, with ripe pears jumping out immediately. An underlying scent of beech wood and cob nuts added a dryness to the aroma which balanced out the copper/metallic tang found in all of the three whiskies I tasted. The flavour was light and delicate with a gentle sweetness leading to a rich nutty taste and there was a hint of bitter chocolate and a citrus note before a dry soft finish.Latching on to the pear notes on the aroma and the subtle citrus in the flavour I thought that this might just work in a twist on a Whiskey Sour and I wasn’t wrong!
PEARFECTLY SOUR
50 ml Bushmills Original
10 ml lemon juice
10 ml lime juice
15 ml crème de poire
10 ml egg white
2 dashes Jerry Thomas bitters
Shake all ingredients very hard with plenty of cubed ice and strain into a rocks glass with cubed or cracked ice. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Moving on to the Black Bush I discovered a more robust whiskey that really appealed to me as it’s overall flavour delivered a more rounded experience than the Original. As a Bourbon drinker I found a lot of familiar flavours and aromas here and for some reason it got me thinking of warm ale flips – hold that thought!
The Black Bush also had an abundance of fruit notes on the nose, but this time it was stone fruits such as peach and nectarine. These were layered with an almost savoury aroma of wholemeal bread that balanced out the maple syrup sweetness familiar from bourbon. There was a gentle spiciness too, that worked perfectly with the peach fruitiness and the burnt wood dry notes that carried through to the finish.BLACK AND GOLD
60 ml Bushmills Black Bush
10 ml crème de peche
1 egg
1 barspoon caster sugar
60 ml Guinness (heated in a saucepan)
In a saucepan heat a can of Guinness but don’t bring it to the boil, then beat the egg, sugar and crème de peche in a boston glass. Add the Black Bush and then ladle in about 60ml of the hot Guinness and pour the liquid from one glass to another until a light frothy texture is achieved. Pour into a warmed goblet and leave ungarnished.
Now I know there are plenty of people who will cry out at this next one but having tasted the Bushmills 10 year old, I couldn’t resist coming up with a cocktail for it too. The purists will say that such a lovely aged Whiskey was made to be enjoyed just as it is; whilst I don’t disagree with this, the flavours I found when tasting it made me think that it would be perfect for a twist on an old American classic.
You see the 10 year old is aged mainly in bourbon barrels and both the aroma and flavour illustrate this, but there was also a dry nutty flavour that made me think of sherry, all this wrapped around a by now familiar fruit note of peaches and nectarines that really made my mouth water.
AN IRISHMAN IN MANHATTAN
60 ml Bushmills 10yo Whiskey
10 ml fino sherry
10 ml ruby port
1 barspoon of juice from the cocktail cherries
1 dash peach bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir all ingredients with cracked or cubed ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.
Well here’s hoping that you win this once-in-a-lifetime prize and that the bitters&twisted drink cabinet will be able to boast a bottle of your own limited release Bushmills blend! Even if you don’t win I highly recommend buying a bottle and maybe trying some of the ideas above!
Comments
Masters in Brewing and Distilling
I heard last year about a Honours degree and Masters course in Brewing and Distilling offered by Heriot Watt Uni…unfortunately I was already doing an MSc or I would have definitely given it some thought…a Times article from last September talked about a recent graduate:
“Mhairi McDonald left Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh in 2007 with a first-class MSc in brewing and distilling (a course that has been running, in a number of guises, for more than a century). Not only is every person in her year employed, but she now has her “dream job” in brand development for the Glenglassaugh distillery in Aberdeenshire.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6829650…
Sounds like a pretty cool degree or masters if you ask me, and a possible new way into the industry.
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