SPIRIT STYLES
PENNSYLVANIA RYE
Distilling the rst rye whiskey in the state of Pennsylvania since 1989, Dad’s Hat Pennsylvanian Rye is made in the traditional Monongahela-style
in the TTB’s beverage alcohol man- ual (BAM), rye whiskey is de ned as “Whisky produced at not exceeding 80% alcohol by volume (160 proof) from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent rye and stored at not more than 62.5% alcohol by volume (125 proof) in charred new oak containers.” That de nition leaves a lot of room for interpretation and true to form, distill- ers all over the United States have taken their own tack with that small amount of legalese to come up with a variety of sub-categories of rye. We’ll get to those in a bit, but rst let’s parse out some of the important features of the above de nition to gain a better understanding of rye whiskey. First is the rye grain. Speci cally, we must have 51% or more in the mash bill. Rye has a spicy and peppery quality to it that can come off as somewhat dry on the pallet when compared to other common whiskey grains such as corn. The regulations do not stipulate whether the rye has to be malted or unmalted so there’s some room there for experimentation. If a distiller so chooses, he or she could brave the beta-glucans and make a 100% rye whiskey without having to add any exogenous enzymes (though they are perfectly allowed in US whiskey production). In fact, quite a few distillers have done just that. The remaining bits of the de nition ring true for virtually all other major American whiskey types including bour- bon (51% corn), and wheat whiskey (51% wheat). This means the primary difference between these whiskeys is their base grain which must be just over half of the grist. It would be possible to Wigle Whiskey’s Pennsylvania Rye: Located in the heart of Monongahela Country in Pittsburgh, founders Meredith and Alex Grelli have a passion for rye whiskies
Rittenhouse Straight Rye 100, a rye whiskey in the Pennsylvania style, with ‘a famous old Philadelphia name’
make a rye whiskey taste somewhat bourbon-leaning by using 51% rye and 49% corn. Sub-categories The US de nition is the legal one but it’s not much to base a style on. A quick look and it’s easy to see a lot of room for avour maneuverability. The TTB de nitions aren’t really there to de ne a ‘style’ per se . They are written for the purposes of codifying brand labels which is a whole other story entirely. With all the distilleries operating in the United States, both large and small, there have been quite a few variations on rye whiskey produced. However, for sanity’s sake we can whittle down American rye into four categories. 1. Pennsylvania Rye 2. Maryland Rye
expanded, especially for its Rittenhouse and Pikesville brands. These days small distillers once again dot the American landscape with over 1,800 licensed distilleries currently in operation. Many of these companies make whiskey with a not insigni cant portion producing at least some rye whiskey. Coupled with the cocktail renaissance of the past 20 years, rye whiskey sales have skyrocketed. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) rye whiskey sales have gone from a meagre 88,000 nine-litre cases in 2009 to over one million cases in 2018. That’s over a thousand percent increase in less than a decade. Codes and regulations To understand what American rye whiskey is, it helps to look at the legal de nition according to the Tax and Trade Bureau of the USA. Located
3. Empire Rye 4. Indiana Rye
Pennsylvania Rye This is one of the older styles on this list. Also known as Monongahela-style rye (a reference to the Monongahela Valley in Pennsylvania), this is a style of whiskey that emerged from the nascent farm distillers of the early 1800s in Pennsylvania. The mash bill is composed of only rye and malted barley. The rye may be either malted or unmalted or both. Traditionally it was made using a sweet mash, meaning no stillage or sour mash was added back to the mash cooker or fermenter, but this is not necessarily the case today. Warehouses were historically heated by steam during the cold winter months ensuring the temperature of ageing
Illustration of an early three chamber still: Todd Leopold and his ‘modern’ three-chamber copper still. Photo by Andrew Faulkner
28 ● BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL I november 2019
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