Booze News

Local Craft Distiller Rolls Out With a White Dog

Dad's Hat Pennsylvania White Rye Whiskey
Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania White Rye Whiskey Photo: Mountain Laurel Spirits, LLC

Last fall we reported that Bucks County-based craft distiller Mountain Laurel Spirits was working on reviving one of Pennsylvania’s grandest traditions and surely one of its most dearly departed industries: Rye whiskey. And with this week’s roll out of Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania White Rye, they’re fulfilling that dream. The first shipments of the straight-from-the-still, un-aged rye are currently available from the PLCB’s Fine Wine and Good Spirits website. Mountain Laurel founder Herman Mihalich hopes to have it on liquor store shelves in the weeks to come. “We’ve had a pretty positive reception so far,” Mihalich told Grub, adding that he’s already sent a second shipment to the PLCB. “People are very enthusiastic about the idea of rye whiskey coming back to Pennsylvania.”

Mihalich says that the Dad’s Hat white dog is fit for drinking neat or mixed as cocktails. On the the whiskey’s website, he offers a selection of cocktails suggestions. It’s also the same spirit that he and his company currently have resting in oak barrels at their facility within Bristol’s Grundy Commons. Like all the raw materials that go into making the whiskey, the barrels it’s aged in are sourced from within Pennsylvania. He said he expects to have the aged version of the spirit bottled and ready for sale by Father’s Day in June. Further down the line he plans to age a different formulation of the rye for up to four years. “We plan to make a more complex recipe that we’ll lay down in bigger barrels,” he said. “We’ll be doing that in the next few months.”

Earlier: Craft Distillery Startup Brings Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey Back to Its Origins

Local Craft Distiller Rolls Out With a White Dog