We’ve all heard of a New York way of thinking. However how a couple of New York state of rye? Main the cost to make that occur is Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton distillery, which was established in 2016 however has made its mark reviving the once-ubiquitous class of New York-style rye. It’s a campaign of types for co-founder Alex Clark, a British expat who left a profession in foreign money buying and selling to bartend in New York.
As Clark constructed a hospitality profession that led to work in high-end venues like Marea and Balthazar, he observed that one thing was off with probably the most broadly accessible rye whiskeys: corn.
“We’re placing all these nice components collectively on this traditional type, however the principle ingredient in these drinks has been ignored,” Clark says. “These are Pennsylvanian-named manufacturers which can be made in Kentucky with numerous corn, and there appears to be an enormous disconnect there.”
Returning to the Supply
This led Clark to do his personal analysis on the historical past of rye whiskey. Along with probably the most widely known historic types—Maryland, which incorporates corn in its mash invoice, and Monongahela, which was solely rye or rye with malted barley—Clark uncovered the New York type, which he discovered to predate Monongahela.
Based on Clark, New York was the epicenter of whiskey manufacturing through the colonial period, and rye dominated because the grain was favored by farmers for its use as a canopy crop to protect topsoil towards erosion throughout brutal Northeastern winters. Nevertheless, it was felled by a wide range of elements, together with the emigration of distillers to the South and West to keep away from taxation, the urbanization of New York Metropolis, and the disruption of Prohibition that left solely Southern distilleries intact to provide “medicinal” whiskeys.
However no issue could have been as damaging as authorities subsidies to corn producers, which gave distillers an financial incentive to prioritize corn over rye. Whereas it had suffered many blows, Clark determined it was time to assist New York-style rye get again on its ft.
“I felt just like the state of New York wanted to carry this whiskey again to life,” he says. “Why does Kentucky get to centralize all whiskey distillation in America? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s solely laws, Prohibition, and corn subsidies that pressured the flavour profile of whiskey in America in that course, and it’s been caught for many years.”
A Rye-Soaked Comeback Story
Whereas Fort Hamilton has a Brooklyn distillery that’s been distilling a soon-to-be-released gin, its New York Single Barrel Rye is sourced from the Taconic Distillery in Upstate New York. There it’s made to specs following the type’s historic profile, together with that it’s constructed from 90% New York rye and 10% New York barley, aged in heated rickhouses, and matured in char-three 30-gallon oak casks moderately than the 53-gallon trade customary that solely emerged following WWII.
“We needed to get into the meat and potatoes of what makes New York whiskey fabulous, after which recreate it,” Clark says.
After being aged for 3 and a half years and proofed right down to 45% ABV, the result’s a whiskey possessed of the identical oily physique and chewy texture present in Monongahela ryes, but extra delicate in its deployment of spice and full of a wealthy, bready taste that recollects piece of darkish French toast soaked in syrup.
The model additionally produces a cask-strength model of the New York Single Barrel, which is aged for 4 years and bottled at 58.5% ABV. This stronger sibling brings out rather more of that rye taste, although not precisely in the way in which many rye drinkers would count on. Fairly than a firecracker, it’s a measured journey that doubles-down on the bready aspect of rye, making one really feel as for those who’ve simply bitten into a very moist and contemporary loaf of darkish rye bread with candy syrup and caramel on the aspect.
New York-style rye could have had a tough final century, but when the revival led by Fort Hamilton is any indication, 2022 might be its finest 12 months in many years.
