Mick Horkan is head gardener at Lough Gill Distillery. Here, he tells us about the harvest of Athrú’s first barley crop at Hazelwood Demesne.

This week has been very significant in Lough Gill Distillery’s history because for the first time, we’ve harvested our own barley.

One of our missions is to make our whiskey as sustainable as possible, and as part of that goal, in the spring we planted barley in the 8-acre field that sits directly in front of Hazelwood House.

Our first barley seeds were sown in May, and now, as the seasons begin to change and the barley has grown, it’s time to harvest it, ready to use in our single malt whiskey.

As well as sustainability, we’re very conscious of ensuring that our barley is a non-GN species, which is why we planted Laureate - a high yielding barley which grows well in most soil types and also performs well even when the weather might not be! Non-GN means the barley does not contain glycosidic nitrile, which when distilled can form ethyl carbamate which is carcinogenic. All of our whiskey made here at Lough Gill is made using non-GN malt - the use of it can impact the sale of whiskey in some countries as it’s prohibited, so it’s something we, and other brewers and distillers, take seriously.

In order to harvest the barley successfully, we needed to rely on the weather being on our side, as we required the ground to be dry enough for our machines, and the barley also to be as dry as possible.

Local Farmer Lester Hall and his three hard-working sons William, Dean and Philip were on hand in their combine harvesters to harvest the barley and then they joined us for the Athrú Harvest Feast, regaling all at Hazelwood Demesne with great stories new and old.

The barley crop was a brilliant success. The last two weeks of great weather ripened the barley perfectly. The moisture content of the barley tested and came in at 14% which is a fantastic figure for a non-tillage location like the coastal North West county of Sligo. 

Surprisingly the barley had no bird damage as often both pigeons and crows attack crops in vast numbers lowering the yield. We all wondered was this due to the resident raven on sentry duty nested over the front door of Hazelwood house. (Maybe a story for another day)          

The total yield estimates at 17 - 18 tonnes and now sits in our grain store ready for pick up on Monday when it will go off to Athgarrett Malt in Kildare, where it will be malted early next year. Minch Malt, also based in Kildare, has offered to sample our own malt and serve as quality control as we are not agronomists or maltsters!

The growing and harvesting of our own barley is just one small (but very significant) part of Lough Gill Distillery’s continuing journey, and without wishing time away, we’re looking forward to the spring when not only will our malted barley be ready to turn into the finest single malt Irish whiskey, but it’ll also be time for us to plant more and start the process all over again.