The word tun is an old Scots word that means container. In the Tun Room the base ingredients of Whisky, yeast and barley, go through a wash to create a ‘mash’. The sweet wort is drained, leaving the spent grains behind, before going into the next stage of the distillation process.

As a Tun Room Operator, you will be responsible for overseeing the operation of equipment used to cook the grain meal and to prepare the mash for the fermentation process prior to distillation This involves filling the cooker with water, generating sufficient steam to heat the water to specified temperatures, managing the ground meal weight and specification and ensuring the correct temperatures are achieved to cook the mash for a specified time prior to pumping the cooled mash into a fermentation tank.

Main duties and responsibilities

As a Tun Room Operator, your main duties and responsibilities include:

• Monitoring the distillery equipment to ensure optimal operation; maintaining plant as necessary.
• Checking the quality and specifications of malt, yeast and caustic deliveries, and storing them for use within the distillery.
• Managing the weekly deliveries of Yeast.
• Grinding malt to the required recipe, quality and quantity for use in mashing.
• Overseeing mashing operations to ensure the highest quality, and maximum available extract from the malt provided.
• Ensure the wort reaches the Tunroom in optimum condition.
• Monitoring & recording throughout the fermentation process, reporting any irregularities as needed.
• Pumping to still house once completed.
• Thorough cleaning of all elements of Milling and Mashing equipment.
• Receiving the wash from Tun Room and charging the wash stills in accordance with the mashing schedule. Emptying the Tuns as and when required.
• Running the Wash and Spirit stills in line with the distilling recipe, to ensure maximum spirit yield with desired characteristics and quality.
• Manually controlling the stills when necessary to maintain spirit flow and temperatures as per recipe. Manually taking hydrometer readings and altering cut point as required.
• Maintaining the boiler and preparing required reports to log gas usage, temperature etc. Ensuring steam is available for use in the plant.
• Proactively responding to breakdown or faults, and performing weekly maintenance tasks, such as evaporation tests, and manual blow down.
• Cleaning plant at scheduled intervals, and when required including CIP cleaning of Heat exchangers and wash stills – following documented work instruction.
• Maintaining a high level of housekeeping standards, to ensure a safe working environment.

Skills and experience

The role of Tun Room Operator requires the ability work in a methodical, process driven way and the analytical skills to ensure compliance to required specifications. You will need to have a keen eye for detail and have good problem-solving skills. To be successful you will ideally:

• Have a good knowledge of process operations ideally within distilling and spirit environment.
• Health, Safety and Environment awareness, with a working knowledge of ISO 14:0001
• Good analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to take a practical approach to finding solutions
• Experience of working in engineering environments with an understanding of project controls engineering, and mechanical maintenance engineering
• Computer literate, analytical and competent in data analysis and the production of reports.
• Good communication skills and the ability to work within a team.

Institute of Brewing and Distilling
Tel: 020 7499 8144
Website: http://www.ibd.org.uk
Twitter: @IBDHQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IBDHQ

National Skills Academy for Food and Drink
Tel: 0330 174 1253
E-mail: info@nsafd.co.uk
Website: http://nsafd.co.uk
Twitter: @NSAFD

Scotland Food and Drink
Tel: 0131 335 0940
Website: http://www.foodanddrink.scot
Twitter: @scotfooddrink
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scotfooddrink