The story of Bushmills started back in 1608 when they were given a license to distil & in 1784 the old Bushmills distillery is made official. The late 18th century was when bushmills started to be recognised as a great whisky winning numbers awards. After the World War II, it was the gold era for Bushmills as they became increasingly popular especially in the U.S. In 2008 Bushmills celebrated their 400th birthday & the bank of Ireland put them on their bank notes. The year 2011 & still they are growing in popularity with Bon Iver, Elijah Wood & Chromeo all becoming ambassadors for the br&. The process used to make Bushmills all starts from malt barley, & is grinded into mash & then mixed with hot water to make wort. Then yeast is added to the wort, & it is fermented into an alcoholic substance at around 8% ABV called the wash. Now it is time for the distillation, the wash is boiled to distil the alcohol from the water & it is tripled distilled then matured in oak barrels. The barrels used range from American Oak, Spanish Sherry, Port, Madeira or rum barrels. They are left to mature for either five, ten, fifteen or even more years. Next step is blending the whiskies, so several different malt whiskies are selected then blended together to find the right flavour. The final process is bottling, which also takes place at the Bushmills distillery, which is rare as they are one of the only distilleries in the world that bottles their own whisky to ensure quality is maintained.