“We know that Kentucky is all that when it comes to bourbon, but when it comes to whiskey history in general, the Bluegrass State is an upstart whippersnapper compared to Pennsylvania. And while corn is bourbon’s bosom buddy, in Pennsylvania, you’ve got to talk rye. The Pennsylvania farmers of the 18th century, the Scots-Irish, the Swiss-German, brought a distilling culture with them from their homelands and made do with the grains that grew best in their new grounds: rye being foundational.” -Tom Bentley, Whiskey Wash
“That Michter’s connection is a significant one for Avianna Wolfe, co-founder of Stoll and Wolfe distillery. “Our master distiller, Dick Stoll, was the last master distiller at Michter’s in Pennsylvania, which was the oldest operating distillery when it closed in 1989,” says Wolfe. ‘So many of those original distillers were from Pennsylvania originally, and then made their way down to Kentucky. Most of the people who came here came in the early 1700s, including my husband’s family, were agricultural people with the distilling culture in place. All of the farmers had some sort of distilling setup for their leftover grain. A lot easier to trade and transport whiskey than it was grain.’ “
Read the full article here.
Stoll and Wolfe Pennsylvania Whiskey Distillery Blog 