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seventeenth Might, 2021 by Kate Malczewski
William Grant-owned Irish whiskey producer Tullamore Dew has employed two apprentice coopers at its distillery in County Offaly.
L-r: Dylan Healion, Enguerrand Vandenbossche and Corey Bracken
Dylan Healion and Corey Bracken have joined the Tullamore cooperage, which started operation late final 12 months. It’s the distillery’s first working cask manufacturing facility in 66 years.
Since its opening, the cooperage has been helmed by Enguerrand Vandenbossche, Tullamore’s head cooper and a 10-year veteran of the business, having beforehand labored in Cognac and Champagne. Healion and Bracken will prepare for 4 years beneath Vandenbossche, culminating within the alternative to obtain a Nationwide Cooper Federation qualification.
Every cooper will restore round 23 barrels per day, with the added duty of making specialist casks with a watch to ‘the innovation house’.
Vandenbossche stated: “I sit up for the subsequent 4 years of apprenticeship with Dylan and Corey, instructing all of them about this distinctive craft and getting one of the best out of them.
“That is all about making a legacy inside Tullamore Dew, coaching new coopers who will later prepare different youthful coopers and so forth.”
Although Eire boasts 38 whiskey distilleries, it’s house to only 5 certified coopers. In 2016, the nation welcomed its first new cooper in additional than 30 years when Chris Kane completed his apprenticeship and joined Bushmills – the fourth technology in his household to take action.
“Coopers are one of many key pillars in a distillery, repairing unfillable barrels and lowering maturation loss by enhancing the general cask administration,” Vandenbossche commented.
“The position is about angle, a want to do higher, to innovate and to take care of excessive requirements to be able to get one of the best out of the casks. My responsibility as journeyman is to show these two younger males into absolutely skilled coopers in 4 years. It isn’t a easy job however I’m very assured they are going to make it and we’ll all be very proud on the finish of this historic journey for Tullamore Dew.”