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A LARGE POITÍN distillery has been discovered in Cavan by Revenue officials.
The discovery of the equipment to make the highly alcoholic homemade drink was made by Customs officers near Ballyconnell on Friday but details of the find have only been made public today.
Revenue said the fully operational distilling unit included 900 empty bottles, 2,000 litres of alcohol liquid wash, which is used in the distilling process, seven 200-litre barrels, one pump and two copper cylinder tanks.
The equipment was seized by officers.
A man in his 40s is being questioned in connection with the find and investigations are ongoing.
Some of the equipment found at the scene (Pic: Revenue)
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I’m sure they were only for personal use
For medicinal purposes : )
Nnnnooooo, I was hoping for a bottle or two for Christmas, I will have to pop down to skibbereen again. Right silly question, I know a man, who makes his own Cider, distributes it to friends and family, not for cash. Could he be arrested for illegal distilling? The cider is mighty.
Well done Garda, keeping this $cum off our streets. Shocking carry on altogether. We can sleep better now.
Ah sure there’s no harm in a bitta poitin
I remember having bad pains in my knees years ago from playing sport. Neighbour of mine gave me a bottle of poitin to rub into the back of them, said it was a great relief. I drank the poitin instead and forgot all about my knee troubles.
Its the greyhounds that will suffer here
Paul If this “friend” (wink wink) of yours were to supply us all with some of this cider I’m sure there’d be no reports to the Gardai.
In all seriousness they sell home wine and beer making kits in supermarkets now so I’m sure there’s no way that you could be in trouble for that unless you were actually profiting from it. Spirits on the other hand it may actually be illegal to distill in the first place so I’m not sure where they draw the line, perhaps the % of alcohol is the issue.
I think cider is made by fermentation, not distillation. Here’s a link to Wiki:
Very good Monty. Like the name too!
@Ted, wink wink, there is the question: ‘perhaps the % of alcohol is the issue’, home made cider starts off at 0% (apple juice) and with no added ingredients becomes appox 9% through fermentation. To make it into brandy means it has to be distilled (through the still) to bring it up to 36%. Right, that’s fine no copper piping here :)
Johnny Jump up?
Its the non payment of Govt revenue that they want..You can make your own booze so long as you pay the tax on it.
You don’t distill cider for starters
@Eoin, you do when changing it to brandy :) Hic Up
I wonder did a few bottles go into the boot of a Garda car – for verification purposes of the ABV of the spirits, you understand !
Making cider isn’t distilling. I make it and wine and beer, all perfectly legally. Technically this is brewing. Home distilling is legal in New Zealand, I believe.
Brewing fermented beverages at home is OK – strong drink is distilled and that’s what’s illegal.
Party in the cop shop nite I’d say
Looks like a Cavan version of Breaking Bad !
I’d say revenue and the guards had a mighty piss up on Friday night.
“The evidence must have evaporated Your Honour”
A neighbour of ours used to sell it to the cops for christmas… They had the perfect excuse, it was for the wife’s christmas cake….
Back in the ’50s, our local Gardai seized a poitin still.
Later that night, civilians had to intervene to stop the uniformed drunks beating each other!
Don’t do this at home:
boil 5 gallons of water and pour it over a mix of ten pounds of rolled oats (unflavored oatmeal) that has had a pound of 6 row barley (ground) and mixed in to it.
Allow this to sit until it is cool enough to add yeast, then add a dry ale yeast and 15 drops of liquid beano (or three of the pills). When you add the yeast/Beano enzyme to the cooled mash the stuff may be thick – like stiff oatmeal- don’t worry. The yeast breaks it down with the beano as it is fermenting. Within a day it will be a liquid with grain floating in it.
ferment until dry
double distill in a potstill.
Don’t age drink it white.
………….. And be sure to use “Super-Yeast” – gives an alcohol content yield of almost 20 % – and that is before the distillation process.
“McILLhatton you blurt, we need you, say a million shaking men”. Written by B.Sands, performed by C.Moore on the 1984 “Ride On” Album.
you can also distill by freezing. The alcohol and water freeze at different temperatures too.
Ya don’t expect the mean Cavan feckers ta pay for alcohol surely??
The the christmas bonuses sorted for the Seanad
Selfemployed .
That’s rotten…..boys just trying to get a few €’s for Christmas……looks like I’ll have to find another supplier……not that hard to do…..
How much does a bottle go for?
So much for supporting small local businesses…He was probably employing 2 or 3 local for seasonal work coming up to xmas……
Yes, Job-bridge – very enterprising indeed.
This sort of thing can be great fun but there is a serious side to it. Without sophisticated equipment and a trained distiller there is a high risk of methanol being distilled off with the ethanol. Methanol is toxic and can have very serious long and short term health effects quite apart from the random alcohol levels that can be found in unregulated distillation. So……yes there is a Revenue issue but there is a much more serious health issue. Alcohol poisoning was quite prevelent among young Irish men in the 1950s and 60s apart from blindness etc. However, that said, if you know what you are doing……a little apple brandy or a triple distilled spirit blended and coloured with things like vanilla can make a wonderful home made whisky, unlike those well known low priced Irish brands (coloured industrial spirit) being sold in supermarkets today.
True that there is a small danger of methanol poisoning mostly if they don’t run off the first few drops of distillate but luckily the cure for methanol poisoning is a heavy does of ethanol, which is present in poitin in spades!
Sorry to burst your bubble Michael, but you need to acquaint yourself with the basics of chemistry before you start lecturing………
It is not methanol but Fusil oil that is discarded from the first 100mL or so from a 20Litre distillation, lessening the quantity discarded for subsequent distillations from the initial 20 Litres of ethanol.
Fusel oil actually comes of towards the end of the distillation. It contains higher boiling alcohols. Whoever stated methanol comes off early in the distillation run is correct. Methanol is among the lower boiling alcohols. The concentration of methanol required to cause illness or damage to one’s health cannot be achieved through traditional fermentation and simple pot distillation. It’s somewhat a misconception that poitín caused blindness in the past. Many of the cases in the past of methanol poisoning was due to the use of industrial non-potable spirits to increase the volume of alcohol and not the actual poitín.
Breaking Bad.
Cavan shtyle
They still didn’t find mine…
hope it makes Baldie sweat a bit , high taxes encourage this and while I applaud their efforts quality control might be an issue. Homemade bear can be pretty good though.
Homemade bear?! Do tell! Just kidding. Lol!
No way man a bear would eat you
Can’t believe it took them this long. There’re dozens of them dotted about.
Potatoe drink feck gerls
You spelt ‘potato’ wrong. Twonk.
No, just the Dan Quayle variation
And girls twonker but you never picked up on that
Fair play! With alcohol prices rising and this fella doing the country proud showing his skills and initiative, he has drive, it’s not drug dealing like?! Sure there are people ruining this country robbing us blind but when an ordinary joe soap shows some balls they see an easy opportunity! #Legend!
Sean Quinn said he’d be back. He has some style.
Poitìn making a come back … The price of a half ain’t that bad
How much is it
Someone was watching Boardwalk Empire.
*Thats the christmas bonuses sorted for the Seanad
what a shame
Breaking Ballyconnell
Think this is apropriate here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dHupFqLvaw
Nice tune that
Oh me Knees Me Knees !
Oh shit.looks like the christmas party is off.
Nice work by Customs. The kids posting here obviously do not understand the dangers involved in drinking poison.
Cider is brewed (fermented apple juice)
Not distilled.
Somebody was watching too much of the simpsons
Hope it’s not the guy i get my stuff from!
How else are you supposed to make money in Cavan shur!?
Ah jaysus it was only for the calfs
Ah the Irish love affair with the piss , you can go blind from detached retinas from drinking that shit , but sure that’s grand . Smoke a joint on the other hand .
Lawless
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