Great Northern Distillery

Here is a distillery you have probably never heard of, in a brewery you probably have. Great Northern Distillery sits in Dundalk, County Louth, in the old home of Harp Lager, and by its own account it is the largest independent distillery in Ireland. It makes whiskey for more than 30 private-label customers, which means plenty of the Irish whiskey on the shelf may have started life here with somebody else’s name on the front. It is the quiet engine of a loud category.

Who owns Great Northern Distillery?

Great Northern is Irish-owned and independent, and it was founded by John Teeling, the man behind Cooley Distillery before him. Reports differ on the exact buyer of the old brewery site, describing it variously as the Irish Whiskey Company and the Teeling family, but there is no big drinks group behind it. For the wider picture, see our guide to who owns what in whisky.

The history of Great Northern Distillery

The story starts with beer. The Great Northern Brewery was established in Dundalk in 1896 and became famous for Harp Lager, after Guinness converted it to lager production. Diageo closed the brewery on 30 September 2013, and the site was bought for conversion into a distillery. Distilling began on 31 July 2015.

Whiskey needs patience, and the first three-year-old Irish whiskey from the new spirit came of age in 2018. In between, in 2017, came the first retail release, Burke’s Irish Whiskey: five casks of 14 to 15 year old single malt, bottled at cask strength. Since the distillery had only just started, that was necessarily older whiskey from elsewhere, a tried and tested way to get something on the shelf.

Dundalk was making whiskey long before any of this. The old Dundalk Distillery, which sources date to either 1708 or 1780, stopped distilling in 1926 and was wound up soon after. Great Northern brought the town back into the game almost a century later.

How Great Northern is made

Great Northern is built for scale. It was designed to turn out Irish whiskey in volume, across several styles, rather than to play the boutique craft game.

Grain, malt and pot still

When it opened, the distillery was reported to have a three-column still for grain whiskey, with a capacity of about 30 million bottles a year, and a sister distillery with three large copper pot stills for single malt and single pot still whiskey, at around 12 million bottles a year. It makes Irish single malt, single pot still and single grain, all of which have to age for at least three years before they can be called Irish whiskey. For more on the process, see our guide to how whisky is made.

A distillery for other people’s brands

The business is bulk whiskey, private-label products, contract distilling and partnerships on retail own brands. Only a small share is sold under the Great Northern name. If you are curious who is really behind some of your favourite Irish labels, this is the sort of place to look.

The Great Northern range

• Burke’s Irish Whiskey: the first retail release in 2017, from five older casks of single malt at cask strength.
• Contract and private-label whiskey: Irish single malt, single pot still and single grain made for more than 30 customers.
• Bulk whiskey: aged spirit supplied to other brands and bottlers in Ireland and abroad.

Because so much of the output goes to other labels, a bottle with Great Northern on the front is the exception. Plenty of the rest name another brand, so the distillery’s work is mostly out of sight. Our beginner’s guide to Irish whiskey is a good place to start if you are new to the category.

Visiting Great Northern Distillery

Great Northern is a working production site rather than a visitor attraction, and it does not advertise a regular public tour programme. Trade and whiskey societies have been shown round by arrangement. The distillery is on Carrick Road, Dundalk, County Louth, A91 P8W9. For enquiries, the office is on +353 42 941 9654, or you can email office@gndireland.com.

Great Northern Distillery: quick answers