Every man deserves his dew…Tullamore Dew, that is.
The new Tullamore Dew Distillery opened its doors and began distilling whiskey in Tullamore, County Offaly In Septemebr 2014. This new state of the art facility would replace the old Tullamore Distillery that closed its doors in 1975. Though the Tullamore Distillery functioned until 1975, distillation on the site actually ceased in 1954.
Tullamore Distillery was founded in 1829, and for about 150 years was one of the most successful distilleries in Ireland. They produced pure pot still whiskey in a truly impressive production facility. (11 warehouses, 8 graneries, 4 malting barns, and 4 giant pot stills, not to mention about 100 employees) In 1886, Daniel E. Williams became distillery manager. He stayed on for about 60 years, modernizing and improving production while creating a successful brand. His initials, D.E.W. would be incorporated into the brand- their most popular brand- Tullamore D.E.W.
The distillery survived many of the blows dealt to Ireland’s distillers (prohibition, civil unrest and difficulties with trading), but it was the Coffey still’s success in Scotland and the Irish producers desire to copy their success that ultimately put serious strain on the company. In 1948, Tullamore Distillery installed a large column still and began production of Irish Mist. The success of their Irish Mist liqueur put whiskey production on the back burner and in 1954, Tullamore distillery shut down the stills. They would use warehouse stocks to produce Irish Mist until their stocks ran dry and they turned to Powers Distillery for more. In 1963, Powers bought the Tullamore DEW brand and began distilling it in their John’s Lane Distillery in Dublin. When Powers joined with Jameson and Cork Distilleries to form the Irish Distillers Guild, production of Tullamore DEW would move to the new Midleton Distillery in County Cork.
In May of 2010, William Grant and Sons (the third largest producer of Scotch whisky) purchased the Tullamore Dew brand, ,as well as Irish Mist, Carolans, and Frangelico. (the latter 3 were sold to Campari a few months later) It was William Grant and Sons that invested in bringing the brand back to its original home and built the new modern Tullamore DEW Distillery.