Sip Easy: Whiskey Tasting with Dad’s Hat Distillers
Sip Easy covers the enchanting world of cocktails, beer, wine, and all-things alcoholic.
A good whiskey is liquid gold — and Dad’s Hat Distillery might as well be a goldmine.
Dad’s Hat Distillery, which opened in 2009 as the hobbyhorse of two Penn graduates, has mastered the art of melding together bold flavors to make characteristically flavorful, smooth spirits. On Thursday, Dad’s Hat hosted a tasting of their best rye whiskey at rustic Percy Street Barbecue on South Street.
Rye whiskey is bourbon’s kid brother: spicier and bolder, it was a quintessential prohibition-era spirit that more or less disappeared with speakeasys and flappers. Now, with renewed interest in classic cocktails, we’re witnessing the resurgence of rye.
Penn alumni John Cooper (W ’78) and Herman Mihalich (E ’80 and W ’84) noticed rye’s comeback and opened their own craft distillery in Bristol, PA. Combining John’s gift for business and Herman’s engineering expertise, the two launched Dad’s Hat Distillery and have been providing exemplary whiskey ever since.
“We think of drinking as something social, something that adds to your life,” explained John Cooper, co-founder of Dad’s Hat. “It’s something to savor. As I always say, life’s too short to drink cheap booze.”
And indeed, we savored it. The sampling included Dad’s Hat’s three signature rye whiskeys: White Rye, Aged Rye, and Double Barrel Aged Rye.
First, we sipped the White Rye (which, by the way, can’t legally be labeled “whiskey” since it isn’t made from corn and it hasn’t passed through a barrel). The spirit holds hints of lavender, grass, and cherry with an unbelievably smooth finish. It’s cocktail potential is boundless: pair it with lime juice and simple syrup for a whiskey margarita or blend it with apple cider and cinnamon for a spiked winter treat.
Percy Street’s combined the White Rye with jalapeños, pear purée, lime rind, and a salted rim. The rye flavor was strong enough to stand up to the jalapenos, but deferred to the sweetness of the pear, making it layered and smooth.
With the silver magic still on our lips, we sampled the Aged Rye. Spicy on the front of the tongue with hints of cinnamon mid palate, this whiskey — aged in heavily charred oak barrels — invites woody notes on the swallow. It holds up well neat or on the rocks, but would also make a spectacular Manhattan.
Charred oak barrels offer whiskey its characteristically woody taste, but double aging allows distilleries to incorporate a second flavor to the spirit. Dad’s Hat’s Double Barrel Aged Rye sits first in the charred oak barrels, and then soaks in secondhand vermouth barrels. The secondary aging process offers this rye a layered, two-tone taste with hints of vermouth (not unlike a Manhattan).
Dad’s Hat sources their vermouth barrels from Quady Winery in California, which produces Vya Vermouth: a spicy, robust vermouth which doesn’t disappear in the undertones of the whiskey. This rye would be spectacular on the rocks, but was also perfect in one of Percy Street’s original cocktails, which combined orange and walnut bitters with an orange twist garnish for a drink suitable for Don Draper.
Since the Double Barrel Aged Rye quickly pronounced itself as a house favorite, Percy Street also offered a variation of the Dark and Stormy, which used mulled apple cider and lime to bring out the flavors of the vermouth in the Vermouth Rye. Topped with Blenheims Spicy Ginger Ale, the result was the “Perfect Storm.”
The last whiskey we sampled was a surprise: a not-yet-bottled double barrel aged rye, aged once in oak and again in Port wine barrels. Round and rich, this one will be released for the holidays for a limited time only.
I know what I want in my Christmas stocking.
– Arielle Pardes