DISTILLERY
Mashand wash
The 20-tonne grain silo, with the 70-year-old red brick chimney stack used by the former power station towering in the background
The Allen-Ruddock 1 te/hr 4-roller mill
The mash tun with the Steeles masher to the right
Joseph Brown washbacks – note the cover and extraction system to allow for safe removal of CO 2
and Spirits. After that she joined Atom Brands as Head of Distillation, where she oversaw liquid operations in Kent and Edinburgh. When she became aware of the quality of the new Roe and Co whiskey brand, she jumped at the chance to join the team early in the distillery project, as ground was broken in the old Power Station in Dublin in August 2018. There was immediate work for the site team with the installation of the three stills and other plant from Diageo’s coppersmiths’ facility in Alloa in Scotland. Then followed the nerve-rack- ing transport of the stills through the streets and quays of Dublin late at night, shutting down the roads and public transport links in the process. Then the even more unnerv- ing placing of the vessels through the front-windowed entrance of the distillery, with only 5mm to spare each side. As she says herself, the building de ned the distillery in terms of sizing and capacity. One third of the ground oor and the entire excavated basement was devoted to the distillery. Another third of the ground oor fea- tures the visitors’ experience, a crucial part of brand-building – and the rest has been left as it was found. There are still some large boilers from the former steam generating plant in full view of the visiting public. Mash and wash Lora then went on to describe the nuts and bolts of the operation. First up was the 20-tonne galvanised-steel grain silo.
phase, and was looking forward to her upcoming well-earned summer break. Lora had come to Diageo and Roe & Co via a rather circuitous route. Her career began with a degree in ne art and an early period in sound engineer- ing, a far cry from the practical work of a distiller. However, her interest in physics and the natural world led her to progress to an MSc in Brewing and Distilling from Heriot Watt University. Subsequently she became involved in a number of distillery start-ups, which proved to be the springboard to launch herself into a role with Halewood Wine
The main variety of malt used is cur- rently Olympus which is brought onto site in 18-tonne batches. From the silo a swing arm transports malt grain onto a 50-metre conveying line, and then into the feed for the 1te/ hr Allen-Ruddock 4-roller mill. Lora enthused about the sheer simplicity of the mill. A pleasure to use she says. Set it up and it mills away, trouble-free for three hours. From here the milled grist is col- lected into a very tight- tting grist case, which caused great dif culty in tting into the available space. The standard grist batch is three tonnes, aiming to produce 14,000 litres of wort in the next phase, the Abercrombie mash tun. The tun is fed with a compact Steeles masher, again scaled to the available footprint on the site. The rst Jamie Cooper, commissioning support, in charge of the high-tech control room. It was his last day having helped with the major commissioning activity now drawing to a close
Fiona Sheridan, Assistant Distiller, sampling at the spirit safe
24 ● BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL I october 2019
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