I feel I was ripped off but have nobody but myself to blame. I knew this was a new distillery with…read moreno historical or architectural significance so why did I book a tour for €60? Yes it came with a "premium" tasting but that should be €20 max. The tour, lasting about an hour, was in part a commercial for their distillery/brewery. Why should I pay them to listen to an ad?
Admittedly the tour included behind the scenes of the facility with its modern brewing and distilling operations, and explanations of how it all works. All of which I've seen before at other distillery tours. Which makes me wonder, what's the draw of these tours? Once is really enough, unless it's a place with historical significance like Middleton, which I didn't get to visit.
I do question some of what I heard though. On seeing the tank where the CO2 is added to the beers, I asked whether this practice was universal; is CO2 always artificially added? The response was an unqualified yes, even when I asked what they did before industrial CO2 was available? Answer: "They drank flat beer." I don't think so.
The tour included the usual explanations of the process of making beer and spirits, from the ingredients through fermentation, aging, and bottling. Accompanied by open jars of samples: grains, hops, gin additives. All of which had almost no discernible smell because they were too old, probably never refreshed since they started giving tours.
Besides beer and whiskey they also make gin, vodka, and rum. "Make" is stretching it for the vodka though. They don't ferment and distill the grain there. They buy 95% ethanol from a major corporate supplier and redistill it. This and several other facts weren't volunteered. I asked many questions with followups to get answers out of the guide. He may have been getting annoyed with me for forcing him to divulge these secrets.
Then it came to the tasting portion of the tour. This included beer drinkers (the other couple) and whiskey drinkers (me; it was a very small group that day). That was a good way to do it because I got to hear the beer descriptions even though I wasn't drinking them. As for the whiskey, I tried 6, 3 from their standard line and 3 from their "premium" line. None were particularly good, and none were aged past 5 years, though the distillery has been in operation since 2015.
Here's where it all got even stranger. As the guide was explaining the whiskeys, he told me to start with the glass labeled 4, after he confirmed with an associate by phone. So I did, pretending to agree with his tasting notes. Then 5. Then 6. I commented on its smokiness. That got his attention. He was puzzled, investigated, and consulted with his associate again. Turns out it was wrong! The first three to try were 1, 2, and 3! So he refilled 4, 5, and 6, then poured more into 1 for good measure. So I had a lot of whiskey! I protested slightly, not seriously, and he laughed it off saying I'd be fine on my bike (he knew because he saw me riding up in my rental). Understand I'm not complaining or faulting him in any way for this, just adding the detail. I know how much to drink and I didn't even finish it all.
As for the tour's ending, I didn't like how that went. As soon as he finished his explanations of the beers and whiskeys, he thanked us for coming. We were all still finishing up. By the time he basically repeated the same thanks again, it was clear it was time to go. Not the nicest way to end the experience.
