Teeling Whiskey Distillery in pictures
Located in an ancient market square called Newmarket in the heart of the Liberties of Dublin – an area long associated with distilling – the site is located just around the corner from where Walter Teeling set up his distillery in 1782. Six generations on, brothers Jack and Stephen Teeling are still fervently flying the Irish whiskey flag. Running the only operational distillery in the city, the brothers are set on pioneering exciting new innovations within the category.
Not only is the visitor’s centre intertwined with the operational workings of the distillery, it also houses a creative space open to collaborations of any kind with the local community – ranging from art exhibitors to Christmas markets. The Phoenix Café offers locally sourced and produced food and drinks, including freshly brewed 3fe coffee and Wall & Keogh tea, while upstairs a private event space has already seen acoustic gigs, corporate celebrations, and even a wedding reception.
The main floor of the distillery is designed as a hands-on visitor experience while offering a flowing, practical workspace for staff. The production process begins here with the milling of unmalted and malted barley. The raw material is transported from grain silos into a wet mill, which adds water to the barley before it is milled into grist. In the Lauter Tun, hot water is added to extract the starch from the material, eventually resulting in the creation of wort, which is then pumped across to the fermenters.
Teeling Distillery uses a combination of Oregon pine wooden and modern stainless steel fermenters. Here, the yeast is added, creating a wash with an abv of around 8%.
Teeling’s three copper pot stills are named Alison, Natalie and Rebecca after the daughters of Teeling Whiskey Company founder, Jack Teeling. Inspired by the shapes and sizes that were popular in Dublin distilleries in the 19th century, the three stills were crafted by master coppersmiths in Italy. The distillery has capacity to produce 500,000 litres of whiskey annually, which will be dedicated to Teeling Whiskey Company’s own brands.
After exploring the inner workings of the distillery, SB was invited to a tutored tasting of Teeling’s Single Grain, Small, Batch, Single Malt and The Revival expressions in the Alchemy Room, led by master distiller Alex Chasko.
Chasko explained: “We set out to create a point of difference, not another ‘me too’ product – so we could say, ‘this is our Single Grain, it’s different because its 46% non-chill-filtered and it’s been in a red wine cask’, as opposed to, ‘this is our blend, isn’t the bottle great? And isn’t the cork great? And isn’t the price point wonderful?’ People just aren’t very interested in those sorts of things.
“The new distillery has really given us a chance to take the learnings we had from Coolley Distillery and apply them without the baggage of the existing brands. You can come at it from a fresh new angle.”
Tasting aside, it was time to head down to the Bang Bang Bar – named after Tommy “Bang Bang” Dudley, one of Dublin’s best-loved characters – to put the liquid to the test in a series of cocktail serves, crafted by Teeling Whiskey’s global brand ambassador, Kevin Hurley.
One standout serve was Redleg Rebellion, a summery twist on a classic Mai-Tai. A combination of Teeling Small Batch, Clement Creole Shrub, Taylors Velvet Falernum, lime juice, and pineapple syrup; this drink was created in homage to the thousands of Irish workers – known as ‘Redlegs’ – who were forced to work the fields in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean.
Booths on the mezzanine floor offer an intimate area for tastings and spirits sampling with a view over the city of Dublin.
“Our main marketing investment is the distillery, and innovating the liquids,” said Stephen, “for what we’re trying to do, the organic stuff is most important – the conversations, the tastings, the grass roots stuff.”
The distillery boasts a comprehensive gift shop catered to all budgets – from lemon and poitin marmalade to ‘fill-your-own’ whiskey bottles.
To round off the visit, SB was invited down to Bow Lane cocktail bar for dinner and cocktails. Our highlight was The Phoenix Rises, made from Teeling Small Batch, guinness IPA syrup, sweet vermouth, barrel-aged bitters, and house-macerated black cherry.
