Deep in the heart of Guinness territory, in the Liberties in Dublin 8, a tall glass church spire pierces the skyline. At night it emits a soft blue glow as a tribute to the Dubs. Inside the church one will find the new Pearse Lyons Distillery. A self-titled “boutique” whiskey distillery, it opened in July 2017 after four long years of preparation.
In my ignorance, I initially assumed Pearse and Lyons were two brothers. In fact, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, Pearse Lyons is the sixth richest man in Ireland, with an approximate fortune of €1,925 million. If I was that wealthy, I would probably name a distillery after myself too. Lyons is a self-made millionaire and originally hails from Dundalk. In 1980 with only £10,000 pounds to his name and a biochemistry degree from University College Dublin, he and his wife, Deidre along with their two children moved to Lexington, Kentucky with the idea of opening Alltech, a specialist animal feed company.
Nearly 30 years later Alltech now operates in 128 countries worldwide. Lyons remains in Kentucky though he returns to Ireland every six weeks or so. The Pearse Lyons Distillery may seem like an unusual business venture for a 73-year-old, and in many ways it was, not least because of the extensive restoration of St James’s Church needed after years of dereliction. However, Lyons is also the only Irish man to receive a formal degree in brewing and distilling from the British School of Malting and Brewing. Indeed, he entered the industry nearly 20 ago when he founded the Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company in Lexington, producing Town Branch whiskey and Kentucky Ale.
St James’s Church itself is a national monument, a fact that added two and a half years worth of complications to the initial deadline of construction. The restoration of the sacred place has been meticulous, exemplified by the use of the exact same varnish on the restored oak pews as was used on the originals.
After a short video summarising the history of St James’s, in which we’re introduced to a dapper looking Pearse Lyons, the brewery’s Master Distiller, Gearoid Cahill, leads me out into the graveyard.
Lyons owns the church and the path leading up to and surrounding the graveyard. The graveyard itself, however, belongs to Dublin City Council, and so staff have had to work closely with the council in restoring and preserving the graveyard. Despite its modest size, the graveyard is estimated to contain the remains of around 300,000 people. Inside, the church is amazing. Vivid stained glass windows diffuse the light into rays of golden orange. To one side is a complex network of pipes and vessels that looks like a sight out of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
One would never guess that when the church was first acquired, the gallery of the church was in the form of a bed-sit and chunks of plaster were missing from the walls as the concrete floor prevented the walls from breathing.
Today, the centrepiece of the distillery, Mighty Molly and Little Lizzie, are fittingly located where the altar originally lay. Named after Lyons’s two distant relatives, they are in fact two small-batch copper pot stills imported from Kentucky and must be witnessed to be fully appreciated. Mighty Molly is a wash still that essentially removes all the alcohol from the fermented wash to make a new spirit. Little Lizzie is a whiskey still and has the more specialised role of distilling low wines at 24 per cent alcohol and concentrating them to over 70 per cent.
Two massive open-top wooden fermenters guard either side of Molly and Lizzie. Visitors are encouraged to dip a finger in, past the layer of slightly repulsive-looking foam and taste the yeast underneath, which has a mellow, inoffensive taste.
The process of distilling is a fascinating one that is highly scientific. Cahill and his team of three are constantly monitoring temperatures and time, and half of what he tells me about the process goes over my head.
It causes one to pause and view the naggin of Jameson or Powers purchased before a night out with a renewed respect. At present, the distillery is producing four different types of whiskey: The Original, Distiller’s Choice, Cooper’s Select and Founder’s Choice. Although the price of a bottle of Pearse’s whiskey ranges from €40 up to €70, rendering it slightly outside of the average student budget, a trip to the distillery is certainly worth the €18.
The distillery makes a welcome addition to James’s St, an area that has seen a whiskey revival in the past number of years with the opening of Teelings Distillery and the expected opening of the Dublin Liberties Distillery by mid-2018.
It is early days but the signs are positive, with plans already in motion for a Pearse Lyons brewery in Dundalk and a special release of five-year-old 100 per cent Pearse whiskey scheduled just in time for St Patrick’s Day.
