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Licensed in 1608, Old Bushmills is Ireland's oldest working distillery. So why take the children? Touring an Irish whiskey distillery isn't just about alcohol. It's about potions and brews as well as history, science and economics. And because it's a working factory, it's a chance to see how things are made. Learn about fermentation and distillation. Discover how barley is mashed and liquid is bottled. Find out how taxes and prohibition impacted a business.

What is Fermentation?

Fermentation is a chemical reaction. It occurs naturally in some foods, such as fruit. It has been used to make wine for at least 8,000 years, make yogurt from milk for more than 5,000 years, and leaven bread for over three millennium. Fermentation, as defined by Louis Pasteur in 1854, is decomposition in the absence of air. It is the process of using yeast or bacteria to convert sugar or other carbohydrates into either an acid or alcohol. Fermentation only happens in oxygen-free or anaerobic conditions. Zymurgy is the study of fermentation in foods. A person who studies fermentation is called a zymurgist.

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