Ahascragh Distillery: old drinks and new technology
Ahascragh Distillery: believed to be Ireland’s first energised zero-emissions distillery.
Driving into the small village of Ahascragh in Co. Galway on a quiet Sunday morning, it’s hard to miss the newest attraction in town dominating the skyline. Where once an abandoned mill caused an eyesore, now visitors to the town are instantly struck by a striking state-of-the-art distillery within its refurbished walls.
Ahascragh Distillery opened its doors for tours of the distillery and visitor centre during the summer.
Owners Gareth and Michelle McAllister believe they are Ireland’s first zero-emissions whiskey and gin distillery, and they are proud of their eco-conscious business and they say the distillery grew from their desire to make use of the historic building that houses it.
“The building is beautiful,” Michelle says. “The stonework was one thing that drew us to it and it came up even nicer than what we imagined. But any sort of business there would be magical.
“We were always going to repurpose another building. We were never going to build from scratch. So straight away, we were into the sustainability category, but that was always our plan. The logical thing to do was to put down the solar panels.” They have taken further steps to make the distillery as sustainable as possible, including using an energy-efficient storage system as well as championing renewable energy including wind, solar and hydro. Gareth says they are keen to share their methods with other distillers and they have already had visitors from their competitors who are curious about their system. He says the distilling industry still mainly uses traditional methods (“boilers, burning oil and gas”) but he is sharing theirs openly and “giving it away for free”.
“There's nothing new [in their methods], what's innovative is that we've taken different pieces of technology and pulled it together. That's all that's innovative about it. These are proven technologies that are used elsewhere and we are the first to do it in the distilling industry.”
Michelle says repurposing the mill, which lay derelict in the heart of the village for 60 years, into a distillery has been rewarding and she is saddened to see so many other empty buildings around the country that could be occupied.
“That's where I really find it difficult to in this country, we have a problem with homelessness when there are so many old buildings around. There are buildings up here, houses that are boarded up, and yet they're building new houses down there, which just blows my mind.”
Ahascragh Distillery makes the award-winning Xin Gin, Clan Colla Whiskey and UAIS Whiskey, and one question Gareth hears time and time again is from visitors and locals wondering why they don’t call them Ahascragh Gin or Ahascragh Whiskey. The simple answer: it’s hard to pronounce abroad, and the international market is a huge consideration for all distilleries.
"We’re not sure if Ahascragh would work abroad,” Gareth muses. The international market is a big consideration for the McAllisters and Gareth is passionate about ensuring the spirits get the best chance possible overseas. That is why he is critical of plans for health warning labels being placed on alcoholic products sold in Ireland.
“The Irish government is bringing in new health warnings for drinks but the wording at the moment is ‘causes cancer’. That's going to be a huge issue for us and we have to make a decision if we're going to sell in Ireland because I wouldn't want to put ‘causes cancer’ on our bottles.
“What the government hasn't thought through properly is that the US, for example, is a country of litigation and suing – if someone drank our whiskey in the US and had cancer, they'll say ‘your product says it causes cancer, I'm going to sue you’. Unless they change the wording on the health warning, it’s three years away, but if they don't change it soon, we and the other small producers would be in a bind, because one lawsuit like that would wipe us out.
“It would be a pity if we can’t sell our brands here. Right now, we’re 95% export – we cannot put ‘causes cancer’ on our labels. People in Ireland may not get to taste the Ahascragh spirit.
“There’s a prohibition element happening in Ireland,” he adds, referencing minimum pricing laws too. “What it means for the broader public in Ireland is you're not going to get your premium wines coming in here, other important spirits and beers and drinks. Are they going to put that on their label?”
The McAllisters spent many years globetrotting and living in different countries, including almost 10 years In Asia, so Michelle says they are looking forward to settling down in Co Galway.
“It’s a nice way to finish up our journey. We have moved every three or four years, it could be to a different country. We were in Hong Kong, actually, before we moved here. It's nice to put down roots somewhere and say, okay, this is it.” Despite the worries of two ‘blow-ins’ from Dublin who feared they might disrupt a quiet village, Michelle says local residents have embraced the new distillery with open arms.
“We were very much aware that we could be disturbing this beautiful, rural village with all the noise and trucks and diggers and whatever and then during the week, a woman left a note on our doorstep to say thank you for all the noise and the diggers, it's made our wee village something special.”
Gareth added they got “fantastic support” from the villagers. The distillery works included the addition of a café across the road from its main gates inside their visitor centre and on the Sunday afternoon I join Gareth and Michelle for coffee, it is a thriving hub of the community with tables in high demand from locals.
“That was the first thing we did because the nearest café to here is Ballinasloe – and we like our coffee,” Gareth says. Michelle notes it was an easy way to get to know their new neighbours. “It was a really nice way to get to know people before we kind of went in the big guns over there,” she said, gesturing at the window to the distillery beyond.
They hope the distillery will bring more visitors to the village and it seems to be impacting already. The tour I joined that day is full of curious locals and visitors keen to learn more about the brand and its role in the community – and wondering if they can buy it in the local supermarket.
There is a sense of excitement in the locality about Ahascragh – I spent the previous night in the stunning Moycarn Lodge in nearby Ballinasloe and staff there spoke with pride about the new spirits and drinks coming from their area and the spirits were already in use for signature cocktails at their bar and restaurant.
For Gareth and Michelle, the most evident sign of support in the area was on their opening day when they were inundated with locals eager to see inside the revamped mill.
“There's only 200 people here,” Gareth says, meaning the population of the village. “We had an open day for the village and we were expecting a few people – nearly 400 people came from a village of 200. That's amazing.”
