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Poitín
 Stilling
was fairly widespread in Glenfin. Many stopped it when it
was banned by the church. The first glass was spilled on the
heather so that the fairies would give warning of the Revenue
men. The warning was invariably a gun shot.
Needless to say, the Catholic Church was very opposed to
poitín making, and it's said that once upon a time,
two poitín makers were forced to stand beside their
equipment at the chapel door on Sunday before Mass. They had
the sympathy of the congregation. That happened in the interregnum
between British rule and the Free State.
Newly arrived Civic Guards stood sentinal over stills at
Cloghan Lodge Gate as the people were passing up from Sunday
Mass. The most talked of catch was at the underground still
house at Poll Brean on the march between two properties. Three
well known men were caught red-handed in the middle of the
night. As the night was dark, wet and stormy, people reckoned
that the guards had got very accurate information. The men
were removed to Brockagh barrack from the 'black hole' of
which the smallest of the three men was said to have escaped.
Poitín
Making : One of Donegal's 'lost' industries.
Here (around 1922), recently
appointed Ballybofey Gardai oversee the destruction of illicit
operations.
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Did
You Know?
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Poteen (poitín) is still
made in many parts of Ireland in more or less
the same fashion as it was a hundred years ago.
The only big difference is that bottled gas has
replaced the turf fire, and this has made detection
by the police (gardaí) much more difficult.
To make whiskey, bags of barley are submerged
in water for two days until the grain is swollen.
The bags are then taken out and covered with old
sacks or some other material. As the water drains
out of the bags and the covering provides protection
from the cold and light, the grain begins to germinate.
The bags are emptied, and the grain is spread
out evenly on a dry floor and turned a few times
a day until it has fully dried. The grain is then
hardened over the heat of a fire, a process that
used to be done in a special kiln (áith)
but is now done with bottled gas.
The hardened, swollen grain, which tastes very
sweet at this stage, is ground into meal or malt
(braich) and placed in a large wooden barrel,
where water that is almost boiling is poured over
it. When it cools, the liquid, known as "wort"
(braichlis), is drained into a separate barrel
while more hot water (boiling water this second
time) is applied to the malt to make more wort.
When the lukewarm wort is in a barrel or barrels
of its own, some baker's yeast is applied to cause
fermentation and the mixture is allowed to ferment
for a minimum of two or three days, after which
it is ready for the still.
The heat under the pot causes the alcohol vapour
to rise and pass through the "arm" and
through the "worm," a coil of copper
piping that is placed in a barrel of cold water.
As the vapour passes through the cold copper piping,
it condenses, and the resulting liquid is known
as "singling" (singleáil). This
liquid is collected and "doubled" (sent
through the still again), and the liquid that
comes through the worm the second time is genuine
Irish traditional whiskey or poitín.
By Liam Mac Con
Iomaire
From the book ' Ireland of the Proverb'. |
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