How Rye Whiskey is Becoming an American Powerhouse

After production completely drying up decades ago, the passion for distilling Rye, the pre-Civil War mainstay of the North is returning. Today a growing number of distilleries are now in full production of Rye Whiskey. It’s a renaissance of an industry that was gravely wounded by the rising popularity of Kentucky Bourbon after the war between the states and was nearly annihilated by prohibition only to recover until it was all but done in by the 1990s.

Dave Pickerell in his great work “The Rise And Fall Of Craft Whiskey” for DistilledSpirits.com explained the downfall of the favored fruit of the Monongahela Valley,

“From the end of Prohibition until 2006, rye whiskey was in steady decline. With few exceptions, the independent rye whiskey brands either died of completely or were bought up by the larger bourbon distilleries. The bourbon distilleries would switch to rye whiskey distilling for one or two days per year as they continued to meet the ever-declining demand.

No marketing money was being spent in support of the rye whiskey brands, and it appeared that they were collectively headed toward a long downward spiral until they died of completely. When someone was asked, “Who drinks rye whiskey?” The answer was either, “Nobody I know,” or “Maybe my Grandfather.” By 2006, there were only about 150,000 total 9-liter cases of rye whiskey sold in the United States, compared with 14.7 million cases of bourbon.”

A Gift From Our Grandfathers – Reviving Rye Whiskey

A beautiful example of the effort it has taken to truly revive American Rye production is in the story of Stoll & Wolfe as told by Christopher Wink from BillyPenn, a Pennsylvania newsletter. Wink described his adventures with Laura Fields who stood at the center of the Rye resurgence in what New Jersyans like me affectionately call “Pensie“.

Fields, a passionate advocate for whiskey founded the non-profit organization the SeedSpark Project with the goal of researching heritage grains for PA distilleries and improving the commercial viability of distilling the iconic American whiskey. She has centered her effort on Rosen Rye, “a grain once championed for its yield, price, and taste. Rosen was in danger of disappearing for good, partly because of whiskey’s late 20th-century decline in popularity.”

For Pennsylvania to regain its place as a leader in American whiskey, Fields said, consumers need new tastes and better stories — and she believes they can find both in rye.

“You can’t be a Kentucky distiller without a bourbon,” one spirits maker told me at the convention. “It could be the same with rye for Pennsylvania distillers.”

Lauren Fields worked with the aging Master Distiller Dick Stoll. Wink wrote, “Stoll is the legendary whiskeyman whose love of Rosen first sent Fields on her quest. “It’s his fault,” she joked.” The efforts would pay off, and just in time, here at the resurgence of Rye Whiskey as the American palette has become more sophisticated and demanding of novel and nuanced flavors and more distillers are popping up.

Stoll was the last master distiller for Michter’s distillery in Lebanon County near Hershey, PA, according to BillyPenn, he “was trained by a descendant of Jim Beam and distilled what has been called “the best bourbon you’ll never taste.” That’s where he fell in love with Rosen rye.”

“With the help of Penn State researchers, Fields got more than 500 pounds of the grain in Stoll’s hands just in time. He was able to taste an early sample before he died last year at the age of 86.”

If Fields and her Penn State researches succeeded in nothing else, the entire enterprise would’ve been worth it in this writer’s humble opinion just to see the smile on the 86 year-old Master Distiller’s face. But all the better for us, with Stoll’s blessing, the Stoll and Wolfe Distillery rolled out 200 bottles of nicely aged Rosen-rye Whiskey.

The future looks bright, now that distilleries are ramping up production, some with the old Rosen Rye, most with other blends. In 2019, Joseph Micallef wrote for Forbes, that “By 2009, sales of rye whiskey had inched up to 88,000 9-liter cases, according to the Distillers Council of the US (DISCUS). That was still a paltry $15 million in sales, about as much bourbon as was sold on a good weekend. Sales increased steadily, however. By 2018, rye whiskey sales had soared to over 1.057 million cases, a 12-fold increase. Sales of rye aged 8 years or more, a category that didn’t even register until recently, showed an even more dramatic increase.”

It’s a beautiful trajectory for any business or investment, and for a relatively inexpensive bottle, it’s a great investment you can make, in tasting part of our American heritage, and fueling it’s revival, one bottle at a time.