Originally Posted by
BamaVol
Have only a done a couple rum distillery tours in the Caribbean. Neither actually toured production facilities, although I did watch a lady labelling and polishing bottles at John Watlings in NAS. I have also attended many tastings at Ole Smoky Moonshine back home in TN.
How were the tours? I actually enjoy industrial tours and quite liked all the brewery tours we have taken. I assume you got a decent sampling from each. Any other high points?
I found the tours pretty interesting. They were each about an hour, and ended with tastings. They explain the distilling process as you go thru the facility, and contrast it with other distillers (who uses triple/double/single distillation; who uses barley, corn, rye, etc).
Bushmills has a restaurant at its facility, so you can have a meal as well. We saw the distilling, but not bottling, process. I guess it's hit or miss as to whether you see bottling. Stranahan's says they produce about 30 barrels a week, so it's a smaller operation. But when they do bottle, they have a lottery system where volunteers are chosen to help. They said they get thousands of entrants, but only need a fraction of that.
Definitely a fun way to spend some vacation time. Next time I'm reading my m'bike in the Smokies I'll have to take a tour of Ole Smokey Moonshine. tls