Reawakening Pennsylvania’s forgotten whiskey history

“At the Stoll & Wolfe distillery in Lititz, co-founder Erik Wolfe uses rye and malt from a farm that has been in his family since 1741. The farm is so close to the cozy distillery that the grain is delivered by tractor and wagon. Bricks from a nearby 18th-century distillery hold up the stills inside Stoll & Wolfe.

Wolfe, a self-described history and whiskey geek, said he feels a great deal of responsibility to uphold the legacy of the past while producing a product for the modern palate.

He opened the business in 2017 with the late Dick Stoll, who in the 1970s and ‘80s was a master distiller at Michter’s. Stoll & Wolfe emulates the distilling techniques used at Michter’s, including using a wooden vat for an open fermentation process.

The distillery’s use of technology — using both a column still and a pot still — is more modern than colonial distilling. However, the same scientific principles for making whiskey still apply, Wolfe said. The distiller has even produced rye whiskey based on a written recipe from a journal kept by a colonial distiller in Pennsylvania.

“For us it’s really about just creating flavors that are spanning that 300-year legacy and giving modern consumers a chance to appreciate something that’s historic, but also is produced in such a way with modern production that it’s still appealing to modern consumers as well,” Wolfe said.” Full article here.