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Jameson Whisky is a blended Irish whiskey which is distilled in Midleton in County Cork. The midleton distillery is a visitor attraction for whiskey enthuasiasts, locals and tourists alike. The unique Jameson heritage, which dates back to 1780, is nicely packaged for visitors and you begin your journey to the centre of the Irish Whiskey making tradition with the Jameson family motto of “without fear”. You learn about the Jameson commitment to quality when you hear that Jameson used the most modern industrial process available, quality barley and the finest oak casks. During the guided tour of Jameson you get a sense of innovation and can almost feel the energy of John Jameson as he encouraged local farmers to plant selected strains of barley and giving these farmers seed grain to plant every spring. In tough times the farmer was guaranteed that his crop would be purchased by Jameson and almost certainly a drink of whiskey or two after unloading the barley crop from his horse and cart. With a plentiful supply of quality raw material available the Jameson whisky making journey begins. 

 You can observe the water wheel that was used to power the entire distillery (and it is still operational today), where barley was malted (the barley was germinated for a few days then dried to increase the final whiskey alcohol content). You tour through the drying room where the malted barley is dried away from the heat and not smoked like scottish whiskey, resulting in a smoother flavour. You can see where malted and unmalted whiskey were milled and mixed with hot water in a Mash Tun (which is an insulated brewing vessel with a false bottom) to form wort. You tour the fermentation and distillation processes and learn about triple distillation. You might even be surprised to learn about and see the largest copper pot still in the world.

Your guided tour ends with a shot of Jameson whiskey or if you are lucky you get to partake in a tasting competition where you blind taste different whiskeys before pronouncing Jameson to be the one you like best.

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