Distilling Single Malt Whiskey the Athrú way

At Athrú, we’re not just passionate about what we do - we're emphatic about creating the finest Irish Whiskey, inspired by tradition and led by innovation. We’re whiskey lovers through and through, and every step in our distillation process is taken with that passion in mind. 

But, what is it that makes our new make spirit so special? We’ll let you into a secret - we believe it’s doing things the Athrú way that makes it so unique. We tread new paths, using traditional influences, and we’re not afraid to do things in our own way. For us, that’s what gives Athrú its true spirit.

Read on to discover why distilling single malt whiskey the Athrú way is all about passion, purpose and people...

Our Single Malt Whiskey focus

We’re big believers in doing one thing exceptionally well, and each day we try to do it the best we possibly can. That one thing is our single malt Irish whiskey, and our focus is solely on creating an exceptional spirit that stays in the hearts and minds of its drinkers, long after the last drop has been drunk.

We want every bottle of Athrú to take you on a journey; through nature, through time, through innovation. This journey all begins with our commitment to making the best single malt whiskey in Ireland, and it’s one we hope you’ll join us on, time and time again.

To be a single malt Irish whisky, every drop must be made from a single distillery, and Athrú is no exception. Every expression is created right here at our Lough Gill distillery, where our new make spirit begins its journey to becoming a bottle of Athrú single malt whiskey. 

We’re meticulous in our methods, and we pour our hearts and souls into every last drop of Athrú.

Our Water

Whether you’re a plant or this very planet, to survive, thrive and grow, water is the elixir - and the same is true when it comes to making whiskey. In fact, the word whiskey actually comes from the gaelic term uisce beatha, which means ‘water of life’. And, who are we to disagree? 

Water is essential to the whiskey making process, both when it’s being distilled and when it’s bottled, but there’s definitely something in the water at Athrú - and that something is special.

Our water is sourced from deep underneath the grounds of Hazelwood Estate, and comes from the Carrowmore East Aquifer - one of the most pristine water sources in Ireland.

This water begins its life atop Benbulben mountain above our distillery, and for millennia it gently trickles down to the limestone landscape below. From here, it wends its way to the aquifer, passing through springs and caves, where it’s naturally filtered to become the crystal clear water we find in our very own well - and, the water you’ll find in every sip barrel, bottle and sip of Athrú.

Our barley

What helps to make the best Irish whiskey? The best Irish barley, of course. The barley used in our single malt whiskey is the cream of the crop so to speak - we source it directly from selected growers in sunny Wexford. This area is known for its premium grains; it boasts lower than average annual rainfall and longer periods of bright sunshine, which makes it the premier position for premium barley.

Once it’s grown, our barley then begins the next part of its whiskey journey - the malting process. Specialists in Kildare take these grains for us and meticulously malt them, taking the barley through the process of steeping, germination and kilning. Once it arrives back at our distillery, we store it in our grain silos - and, there’s a lot of it! Each silo can hold enough barley to fill a 28 ton truck - which sounds like it would keep us going for a year, but actually this amounts to enough grain for about 10 production batches. At full capacity, we require a truck full of malted barley every 3-4 days.

Our triple-distillation methods

We’re nothing if not dedicated to crafting the best Irish whiskey, and our methods are one way in which Athrú stands out from the crowd. We go the extra step in ensuring our whiskey has a rich, fruity flavour profile, and we achieve this through our triple-distillation process.

Unlike many Scotch whiskies, which are distilled twice, Irish whiskeys are traditionally triple-distilled. This additional step in the distillation process has an impact on both the strength and the flavour of the whiskey. There has been much written elsewhere about the pros and cons of double vs triple distillation which we won’t go into, in reality both processes just produce a different spirit and is just one of the factors that makes each bottle of Athrú unique.

So, what happens during triple distillation? The first part of the process takes between 4 and 7 hours, and it’s where the fermented wash or mash is heated in the first still, which separates the alcohol to a strength of between 23 and 25% ABV. This liquid is known as the ‘low wines’, and we then take this and repeat the process in the next copper pot still, known as the feint still.

Once the process has completed in the feint still, we have a liquid of between 68-69% ABV, known as the feints. Finally, this liquid goes into our third copper pot still, known as the spirit still, to be distilled a third time. The spirit produced this time is just over 83% ABV, and is then cut back with our water to 63.5% to become cask strength Athrú whiskey. It’s a complex process, but one we think is worth it. In fact, we have lots more information about our distillation processes and methods to help you really get to the heart (and heads and tails!) of why we do what we do at the Lough Gill Distillery.

Our fine cut

Not only are we meticulous about our distillation methods, we’re also very selective when it comes to the liquid we use to create our Athrú single malt whiskey. In fact, we’re probably the most selective distillery in Ireland for the cuts we use to create our sublime spirit.

During the distillation process, we carefully capture and cask only a small portion of the distillate. The fermented wort (wash) contains a broad range of different elements that evaporate at different temperatures. We split these elements into three groups, the foreshots, potable spirit and lastly the feints. The foreshots and feints are returned to the stills and it is only the distilled spirit captured in between these fractions which is casked.

We do this to ensure that we’re only capturing the best flavours and characteristics for our whiskey, and it’s this fine cut that gives our spirit its very distinctive, fruity profile.

Our equipment

Our equipment allows us to blend traditional Irish whiskey methods with state-of-the-art innovation, sustainability and energy efficiency. It means that all of our whiskey can be made to the highest standards with no compromises on quality.

Our 1 million litre whiskey plant was created by Frilli - pioneering manufacturers of distillation plants, whiskey stills and everything in between. Work began in 2017, and a year later our fermentation tanks and CIP arrived at the Lough Gill distillery. In 2019 these were followed by the grain handling system - and, of course, our copper pot stills. These specially designed copper stills allow us to combine modern equipment with the practice of traditional Irish whiskey distillation methods, such as our triple distillation process. 

Along with these traditional methods, in order to make the best whiskey in Ireland, we’re committed to being energy efficient and sustainable. This is where the concept of our plant is crucial; its state-of-the-art design means it’s able to recover heat from one part of the whiskey-making process to the next. 

We’re also able to recover heat from our equipment; when wort is extracted from the lauter tun, our heat recovery system reduces the temperature to 20°C for fermentation using heat exchangers, with the extracted heat being used to heat the water for the next pass through the lauter tun. Similarly, hot water in various parts of the process is stored in insulated vessels for the next day’s production.

The Athrú team

Our team doesn’t just know about spirits, they have plenty of spirit too. The Athrú team is a brilliantly talented team of locals who don’t just know all there is to know about our whiskey, they’ve been on the journey with us too - from helping to design and build the distillery to crafting our fine spirit, they’ve been with us every step of the way.

We have built a first generation distillery team led by head distiller Ollie Alcorn. Ollie originally  hails from the Barossa Valley in Australia where his family have links to new world wineries. He was Lough Gill’s first employee and helped to design the distillery, supervising its delivery from start to finish. He leads a team of Sligo natives who have learned their trade from some of the most high profile names in the Scotch craft whisky industry, and who are firmly committed to Lough Gill’s mission to create the finest Irish single malt whiskey. As a result of this involvement, Ollie and his team know and understand every quirk and intricacy of the Lough Gill Distillery and are obsessive in their desire to achieve fractional gains and capture the full potential of the amazing stills.

We’re passionate about our whiskey and we’re passionate about our brilliant people who help bring Athrú to life.