Page 14 - Premium Drinks Business

CONTENTS

Introduction (iv)

Drinks Industry Terminology
Continued

There are 3 main types of alcohol drinks – beer, spirits & wine.

• Distilleries in Ireland are primarily set up to produce whiskey. They can also be set up to
produce a range of spirits including Vodka, Gin and Poitin which in turn can be flavoured
and blended into a vast range of drinks.

• Please note that the production of Irish Whiskey, Cream Liqueurs and Poitin is now
protected by EU Geographic Indicator defining where and how these drinks can be made in
order for them to be designated ‘Irish’
(link to Technical Files / Whiskey/Poitin/Cream Liqueurs).

• As a point of distinction, whiskey in Ireland is typically spelled with an ‘e’ while Scotch is not.
American whiskey also adopts the ‘e’ spelling while Canada & Japan do not.

• Distilleries measure their capacity in Liters of Pure Alcohol (LPAs). This is 100% pure distilled
alcohol.

• The distillery’s capacity is determined primarily by the size of the stills in operation, and also
by the capacity of the fermenter tanks and the size of the mash tun.

• Every LPA produced converts to approx. 2.5Ltr bottles of standard spirits. This result is
arrived at by dividing 1 Ltr of 100% pure alcohol by a standard 40% bottle of spirits (e.g.
Whiskey, Vodka, Gin) produced by the distillery.

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