Bow Street Distillery

John Jameson and Son Ltd. was one of the famous Dublin distilleries. Jameson Distillery  is an other name. John Jameson -originally a lawyer- is regarded as the father figure of the Irish whiskey industry. „Old John“ came originally from Alloa, Scotland in 1777 and established/bought Bow Street Distillery in Dublin. He became the geral manager of Bow Street Distillery and in 1805 he took full control. In 1810 the distillery was renamed John Jameson & Son. His two sons also joined the business. The family was related by their mother Magaret to the famous Scottish whisky dynasty of Haig. John Jameson‘s oldest son became owner of the Bow Street Distillery whereas his younger brother William managed the Dublin-based Marrowbone Lane Distillery which had been previously owned by John Stein, another member of the famous Scottish distilling family (cf. Robert Stein, Patent Still, see www.kennetpans.com). Their fellow brother Andrew ran a distillery at Fairfield near Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.

The whiskey legend John Jameson developed Bow Street Distillery to a place where once about 9 mio. litres of whiskey were maturing. „For a start he insisted on the finest ingredients (a tradition that naturally continues to the present day). He personally selected the barley and casks and wasn’t afraid to pay top dollar for the very best.“ (Jameson‘s website)

The whisky chronicler Alfred Barnard reported 1885: „The process of making Irish Whisky now commences in heating four coppers, heating at temporating coils, each holding 36,000 gallons of barley water and weak wort. Six shoots convey the grist to the two Mash Tuns, each measuring 36 feet in diameter and 8 feet deep, with revolving rake shafts. The false bottom of the Tun is first of all covered with hot liquor, and the grist descends gradually with the water until it is full. From this vessel the wort runs into the two Underbacks, large metal vessels 14 feet in diameter by 8 feet deep; from thence it is pumped to the coolers, of which there are four sets high up in the open air, two sets of Miller’s patent horizontal refrigderators, and six boxes of vertical copper pipes in iron cases 4 feet square and 13 feet deep.“

„From the Low Wines Receiver the vapour is pumped into the Low Wines Stills, which have a capacity of 14,500 and 13,000 gallons respectively. From here it ascends and descends as before to the Feints and Spirit Receiver, and from this vessel the spirit is pumped into one of the Vats (there are three, holding 17,000 gallons) there to be reduced as required, casked, weighed, branded, and sent to the Warehouses. The Feints are pumped back again to the Low Wines Still to be redistilled. All the Stills are Pot Stills, and were made by Messrs. Miller & Co.“  The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, p. 355.

See full description: www.wormtub.com or Alfred Barnard. The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom.

During Jameson‘s early days most whiskeys were distilled twice in Ireland as it was also the custom in Scotland. John Jameson, however,  „...insisted on triple distillation, as he found that it made his whiskey twice as smooth.“

In Truths about Whisky it is said that „...John Jameson and Son, its origin cannot now be traced. There is a tradition that it was founded by three gentlemen, one of whom was a baronet and another a retired general, but that they were unsuccessful in their enterprise and lost ·thp.ir capital. There is no one living who knows, and there is no discoverable documentary evidence to show, what was the date of foundation, neither can we even say at what date, prior to 1802, the distillery passed into the hands of the ancestor of the present proprietors.“ (p.3f)

Jameson‘s distillery was an Irish success story: „It was producing about 30,000 gallons annually. By the turn of the 19th century, it was the second largest producer in Ireland and one of the largest in the world, producing 1,000,000 gallons annually. Dublin at the time was the centre of world whiskey production. It was the second most popular spirit in the world after rum and internationally Jameson had by 1805 become the world's number one whiskey.“ (See Wikipedia)

Production at Bow Street ended in 1971 when it was transferred to John Power Distillery at John‘s Lane in Dublin. And later in 1975 the production of Jameson Whiskey was completely moved to the new Midleton Complex in Co. Cork.

Today Bow Street Distillery is silent but there is a well-visited Jameson Heritage Centre (see entry).

There is a visitor centre but the dispaly is only a museum and by no means identical with the original Jameson Distillery apart from its site.

Please double-click and thumbnail the photo to open the tour. Thank you.