A placement at Whitegate oil refinery in her third year of studying process and chemical engineering at University College Cork (UCC) gave Michelle Leahy an interest in distillation and when Brian Nation, master distiller at Irish Distillers, came to the college to give a talk, a seed was planted.
Leahy is one of the young people who have participated in the Irish Distillers graduate distiller programme since it started six years ago. Further to completing the two-year programme last May, she is now covering maternity leave as a bond supervisor at Midleton distillery in Cork, where she will take up a permanent role as a technician next April.
Ten out of the 12 participants on the graduate distiller programme to date have been female. “I knew two girls who had done my course at UCC had been on the programme and heard they were doing well. When another girl, Katherine Condon, came in to give the talk with Brian Nation, that really sold it to me,” said Leahy.
The main attraction of the programme was the broad exposure to the industry it provides, said Leahy. “I got to experience all areas of the plant at Midleton, from the laboratory to production and the bond area where new-make spirit is filled into casks and matured,” she said.
According to Sinéad D’Arcy, Jameson international graduate programme manager, there are clear career progression paths for anyone who secures a role with Irish Distillers after the programme. Deirdre O’Carroll, who was part of the first intake in 2012, started out as a process technologist in the brewhouse when she finished the programme, and is now a bond supervisor in maturation at Midleton.
There are 400 people employed across Irish Distillers’ production teams in Midleton and its bottling and logistics site in Dublin. One of the interesting aspects of the graduate distiller programme is that participants get to conduct new product trials in the micro-distillery at Midleton — Karen Cotter was the first chief distiller of the micro-distillery when she completed the programme in 2015 and she is now a process technologist at the site. “The production team works collaboratively with so many units within Irish Distillers, including innovation and finance,” said D’Arcy. “Our distillers must have higher-level technical skills but interpersonal skills, charm and charisma are equally important.”
In the past four years, the number of operational distilleries in Ireland has increased from four to 18 and there are plans for a further 16. Sales of Irish whiskey have increased by 135% in the past five years to reach a total of 8.7m cases — each of 9 litres — in 2016, according to the Irish Whiskey Association. This growth, along with the move towards product diversity and innovation in beer, has made a career in brewing and distilling more compelling.
According to Food Wise 2025, it is expected that the brewing and distilling sector will create 23,000 more jobs in Ireland and increase its exports by 85% to €19bn by 2025. The number of microbreweries has more than quadrupled since 2012 to more than 60 and is expected to reach 100 in the same time frame. “Ten years ago building a career in brewing wasn’t a terribly realistic option as the industry was stagnant,” said Aidan Crowe, director of operations at Diageo. “The dynamic has changed with the explosion of new products. Five or six years ago, we were producing 10-15 main products, now 35-40 products are coming out of the brewery.”
There are 150 people directly employed by Diageo on the production side in Ireland. About 20 young people a year are taken onto its graduate programme covering the international supply centre and operations. They get to move around different parts of the business over a three-year period.
New hires tend to mainly come from engineering, food science and biology backgrounds, but Crowe said Diageo is also interested in specialists and fresh thinking. “We look to bring in people to challenge what we do and how we do it,” he said. For example, Diageo has hired people from the army and Bord na Mona to work in operations, he said.
Crowe joined what was then Guinness’s graduate programme 27 years ago after doing an engineering degree in the National University of Ireland Galway. He has held a number of roles within Diageo and has been operations director since 2013.
“The opportunities within Diageo in production are limitless, particularly if you’re globally mobile,” he said. “It very much depends on the level of ambition and ability you have.”
Last September, 18 people started on the country’s first bachelor of science (BSc) degree course in brewing and distilling at the Institute of Technology (IT) Carlow. Dublin Institute of Technology recently launched its BSc food innovation (brewing and distilling) degree course in partnership with Irish Distillers and Diageo, which will have its first intake next year. Both four-year degree programmes incorporate work placements in the third year.
David Ryan, programme director at IT Carlow, said the first intake on its brewing and distilling course includes four girls, and is a mixture of school leavers, mature students and international students.
The IT Carlow programme is one of only four degrees in the world recognised by the Institute of Brewing & Distilling [IBD]. “Graduates can work anywhere globally with the degree programme we have designed,” he said.
Daniel Madden started as a brewer at Franciscan Well brewery in Cork in 2015 after doing an arts degree in UCC and a diploma in biopharmaceutical manufacturing operations at Cork Institute of Technology. Last year he completed a certificate in brewing with the IBD and is studying for an IBD diploma.
“Working for a global company you might spend your whole career in one small section of the brewery,” he said. “Here, I have the opportunity to see everything — every day I see beer coming in as malt and leaving in a keg. It is a busy environment where everyone shares ideas.”
Founded by Shane Long in 1998, Franciscan Well is an award-winning craft brewery bought by Molson Coors four years ago and now employing 11 people.
“I was here when Franciscan Well’s second brewery in the Docklands area was installed and commissioned,” said Madden. “I hope as it grows I will ride on the crest of that wave.”
Source: www.thetimes.co.uk - 26 November 2017
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