Aeneas Coffey

Coffey was born in 1780; his place of birth is disputed. Some sources say he was born in Ireland (most likely in Co. Dublin or Co. Wicklow),{{cite web |author1=NEIL WILSON |title=Whisky heroes: Aeneas Coffey - Scotch Whisky |url=https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/whisky-heroes/20740/aeneas-coffey/ |website=scotchwhisky.com}} while others refer to his birthplace as Calais, France, to Irish parents.{{cite book|author=Malachy Magee|title=Irish Whiskey: A 1000 Year Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=58MMAAAACAAJ|year=1992|publisher=O'Brien Press|isbn=978-0-86278-228-3}} Coffey studied at Trinity College Dublin and entered the excise service around 1799–1800 as a gauger. He married Susanna Logie in 1808, and they had three sons over the next eight years: Aeneas, William, and Philip.

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Coffey was appointed sub-commissioner of Inland Excise and Taxes for the district of Drogheda in 1813. He was appointed Surveyor of Excise for Clonmel and Wicklow in 1815. In 1816, he was promoted to the same post in Cork. By 1818, he was Acting Inspector General of Excise for the whole of Ireland and within two years, was promoted to Inspector General of Excise in Dublin, Ireland.

He proposed public action against illegal distillers and smugglers, particularly in County Donegal in Ulster and the west of Ireland, where moonshining was most rife. Between 1820 and 1824, he submitted reports and gave evidence to Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry on many aspects of distilling, including formalising the different spellings of Irish whiskey and Scotch whisky. His 1822 report was backed by the Irish distillers. {{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

He assisted the government in drafting the 1823 Excise Act, which made it possible to distill legally.{{Cite web |title=Whisky heroes: Aeneas Coffey {{!}} Scotch Whisky |url=https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/whisky-heroes/20740/aeneas-coffey/?utm_source=chatgpt.com |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=scotchwhisky.com |language=en-GB}} It sanctioned the distilling of whiskey in return for a license fee of £10, and a set payment per gallon of proof spirit. It also provided for the appointment of a single Board of Excise, under Treasury control, for the whole of the United Kingdom. This replaced the separate excise boards for England, Scotland and Ireland. The 1823 Excise Act also provided for not more than four assistant commissioners of excise to transact current business in Scotland and Ireland, under the control of the board in London.

Aeneas Coffey resigned from the government excise service in 1824.

Aeneas Coffey's education in Dublin and his experience as an excise officer provided him with significant opportunities to study the design and operation of whiskey stills. In the 19th century, Ireland was the world's leading whiskey producer, with Dublin serving as the central hub of that global industry. Coffey observed an alternative design to the traditional copper pot alembic still commonly used in Ireland, known as the continuous or column still.

First patented by a Cork County distillery in 1822, the column still remained a relatively inefficient piece of equipment, although it pointed the way towards a more cost-effective and productive method of distilling alcohol. Seeking to improve on the design, Coffey made modifications to existing column stills, allowing a greater portion of the vapours to re-circulate into the still, rather than moving directly into the receiver with the spirit. The result was more efficient, producing a lighter spirit with higher alcohol content. Coffey patented his design in 1830, and it became the basis for all column stills used thereafter.

His column still became widely popular in Scotland and the rest of the world outside Ireland, where it is known as the "Coffey still" or "Patent Still".{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} Early Coffey stills produced spirits of about 60% or somewhat higher alcohol by volume concentration, but still offered its operators remarkable advantages: its fuel costs were low, its output high and it needed less maintenance and cleaning than pot stills. Furthermore, because the still was steam-heated, there was no risk of scorching, saving labour costs and distillation down time.

Modern versions of the Coffey still can achieve much higher alcohol concentrations, approaching 95.6% alcohol. As alcohol forms an azeotrope with water at this concentration, it is impossible to achieve higher purity alcohol in a single column. The Irish distilling industry generally did not take up the Coffey still, but big urban distilleries in Scotland took it on for scotch, and in England, it was taken on by the gin distilleries.

On his retirement from service, Aeneas Coffey went into the Irish distilling business. For a short time, he ran the Dodder Bank Distillery, Dublin and Dock Distillery in Grand Canal Street, Dublin, before setting up on his own as Aeneas Coffey Whiskey Company in 1830. The development of the Coffey still made distillation of his whiskey much more economical.

Aeneas Coffey's invention changed the history of distilling.{{Cite web |title=Whisky heroes: Aeneas Coffey {{!}} Scotch Whisky |url=https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/whisky-heroes/20740/aeneas-coffey/?utm_source=chatgpt.com |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=scotchwhisky.com |language=en-GB}}

• Ó Cobhthaigh – Gaelic-Irish surname now generally Anglicised as Coffey or Coffee
• List of inventions named after people
• List of alumni of the University of Dublin

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Category:1780 births

Category:1852 deaths

Category:19th-century Irish engineers

Category:Irish inventors

Category:People from Calais

Category:Businesspeople from County Dublin

Category:19th-century Irish businesspeople

Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin