Dad's Hat Port Finished Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey

About Dad's Hat

In March 1791, at the behest of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, President George Washington signed into the law the Whiskey Excise Act. The law levied taxes on spirits distilled within the United States and was the first tax ever levied by the federal government on a domestically-produced product.

Farmers living west of the Appalachian Mountains — the western frontier at the time — were vehemently opposed to the tax. These farmers often operated small stills and distilled the excess grains they harvested from their farms into whiskey, which was easier to transport over the Appalachian Mountains as compared to cumbersome grains. When agents of the Treasury Department were forcibly prevented from collecting the whiskey tax by the farmers turned distillers, George Washington led a federalized militia of nearly 13,000 soldiers into western Pennsylvania in order to suppress the "Whiskey Rebellion." Without firing a shot, the rebellion collapsed, although many Pennsylvanian farmers continued to evade the tax.

"Dad's Hat Pennsylvania Rye Whiskies pay homage to our state's rich tradition of making small-batch whiskey," says Herman Mihalich, master distiller at Mountain Laurel Spirits. Raised in Monessen (a small city situated in southwest Pennsylvania) and armed with a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Wharton, Mihalich has spent most of his life in Pennsylvania. "I really wanted to revive that entrepreneurial spirit and rich rye heritage we have here," he says.