July 7th, 2011

Michter’s makes a move

John Hansell

I grew up in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, in the same area of the original–and now defunct–Michter’s distillery. As many of you know, the last remaining bottles of Michter’s whiskey from this distillery was sold as Hirsch. The Michter’s name was sold to a company who has been selling both bourbon and rye whiskey under the Michter’s name, but the whiskey comes from an undisclosed source.

Well, the same company that has been selling whiskey under the Michter’s name made an announcement yesterday that they are actually going to build a distillery and call it Michter’s. Eventually, what is being sold as Michter’s will actually, once again, come from a distillery called Michter’s.

According to a press release I received last night, Michter’s plans to open a small production distillery in Louisville, KY. The new distillery will operate out of the historic Fort Nelson Building in downtown Louisville. The site is located on Louisville’s Museum Row across the street from the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. The Nelson Building is rich in history and architecture.

The press release, which I will paraphrase from, goes on to tell a little of the history of the original distillery:  Established in Pennsylvania in the 1700s by farmer John Shenk, Michter’s Distillery was born for the purpose of converting excess grain into whiskey. Michter’s had its part in the Revolutionary War with General George Washington’s forces.

The operations in the new Louisville facility will be overseen by Willie Pratt, Michter’s Master Distiller. Willie has 40 years on the whiskey industry and, according to the press release, is said to be known as “Dr. No” because he will refuse to release whiskey for bottling until he feels it is just right (not because of his fondness for the James Bond character of the same name…); even if the whiskey is older than the label’s age statement. Read more about Willie Pratt here. 

The new Michter’s Distillery will eventually be open to the public for tours and tastings. (No timetable was given in the press release.)

This is all great news. It’s always a treat to see a new distillery open up, and it will be comforting to know that the whiskey named Michter’s will actually be distilled at a distillery called Michter’s.

Category: American whiskey,Breaking news,Distillery news Tags: 52 Comments

August 31st, 2010

Guest Blog #2: What killed Michter’s distillery?

John Hansell

Today’s guest blogger on “What Do You Know?”, Ethan Smith, explores What Killed Michter’s?

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Was it because people, by 1990, no longer associated Pennsylvania with whiskey distilling? Maybe it was because whiskey consumption nationwide was declining? Or could it have been simply history closing the books on the last operating distillery in Penn’s woods? If you’re at all familiar with the distillery, you know well that the last days of Michter’s were not good ones. See Sam Komlenic’s post about his trip in 1989 and how empty the warehouses were. But what actually led to Michter’s shutting down on Valentine’s Day 20 years ago?

Doing a search for Michter’s online yields all sorts of results- most are inaccurate. I’ve found closure dates ranging from 1980 to 1992. And no one seems to fully understand why it closed. They only speculate. I set out several months ago to try and find out what made Michter’s tick and what made it finally wind to a stop (Being unemployed gave me PLENTY of time to do research!). I soon found myself involved with the distillery site itself helping the owner clean up and make the place look somewhat presentable. In our time working together at the abandoned place, Dwight began telling me what he knew and names he had heard. His stories about what happened to the distillery after its closure were fascinating and I quickly found myself scouring the internet for more information. I soon stumbled on a Straightbourbon post by Chuck Cowdery where he had interviewed Michter’s Master Distiller Dick Stoll. Within a few days, I had contact information and was on my way to meeting THE man who could answer a few questions I had. The first time I talked with Mr. Stoll we talked for a few hours. It was fantastic. We discussed everything from the process they used to make the whiskey, to the tourist business (His wife Elaine was a tour guide there), to what products they made, and of course, what killed Michter’s.

Louis Forman created the Michter’s brand back in the 1950’s by merging his two son’s names- Michael and Peter. Dick and Elaine Stoll wrote this to me about early distillery ownership:

“Lou [Forman] never owned the distillery.  In the early 1970s Samuel Glass and Associates bought the distillery from Kirk Foulk.  Sam Glass was the brother-in-law of Lou so Sam made him president.  Lou was the brains behind the Michter’s name and brand.  The plant was contracted by Hiram Walker to make cordials, who brought in new equipment, but the plant did not expand to the level expected. Hiram Walker ended the relationship and took back the equipment. 

“Around 1975(?)  Sam Glass sold the operation to a group of Lebanon businessmen including Stanley Katz, Phil Davis, Dale Yocum, and Abe Grosky (uncle of George Shattls).  Lou was named president, but Charles “Chuck” Romito, a lawyer from the law firm of Katz and Davis was put in charge. Under this group there was a new paint job and landscaping. Business started to boom with the help of Dale Yocum’s sons, Dave and Marty.  Lou was an important part of establishing the distillery on the National Register of Historic Places.  Dave and Marty established the Collectors Society and the tourist business.  The gift store items and decanters started with them, along with lots of press, including The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine.  Lots of bus tours ended up at Michter’s on their way from the tourist areas of Lancaster to Hershey. 

“Eventually the Lebanon group sold the distillery to Theodore Veru [Around 1979] despite an offer from Austin-Nichols.  Veru’s higher offer won out.  Although the distillery made whiskey bottled as Wild Turkey in the 50s-60s for Austin-Nichols, they were not making it for them when they made the offer.”   Since whiskey drinking was declining, Austin-Nichols was looking to diversify their portfolio in hopes to make up profit where they were starting to lose it. Austin-Nichols was primarily interested in the deep wells on the property. So what did they want with these wells? Water of course. Lots of it. Pure, fresh, 54-degree limestone water. And what were they looking to do with all of it? Bottle it and sell it. Bottled water was just starting to get popular in the early 80’s and Austin-Nichols wanted a piece of the market. But since Veru’s bid was higher, we never got to enjoy bottles of pure limestone water from Michter’s.

Under the Yocum’s management, the distillery became a National Historic Landmark and a wonderful tourist destination. Then of course were the famous Michter’s decanters! Soon there were Michter’s T-shirts, balloons, aprons, ornaments, a Collectors Society, donkey rides for the kids, and many other retail items. But under that glamour and merchandise, there was trouble brewing. After the distillery had been sold to Veru, sales started to slump. Quickly. America lost its love affair with whiskey and the big glut was coming.

Veru had purchased a ceramic manufacturing plant in Ohio to design and manufacture the Michter’s decanters and named it GVI China but it too started to consume more money than it made. Dick said by around 1981, leaking barrels in the warehouses were no longer repaired and were just left to leak dry. The main distilling equipment was also no longer used on a continuous basis.

Then came the bankruptcy. Veru left the scene and the bank (Commonwealth bank, which later became Mellon Bank) took over. Well, sort of. Commonwealth Bank, according the Stoll’s “…Could not run it because they were loaning money to businesses that promoted alcohol, so they hired a holding company not to run the business, but to put a name on the “Business”.” According to Dick, most of these people really had no clue what they were doing and only tried to line their own pockets with the distillery’s meager profits. Finally a man by the name of Frank Pitassi came in and started running Michter’s. By that time, the main distilling equipment was not being used, but the mini pot still was still in use. Pitassi got a few contracts and they even exported some whiskey to Japan and Korea, but it wasn’t enough to keep the place afloat. And of course there was still the bank- who was holding all the debt AND all the bonds on the whiskey aging in the warehouses. Dick said supposedly the bank had asked Pitassi to buy the bonds from them since he was, after all, getting the profits off the distillery. Pitassi refused and on February, 14th 1990, the bank got tired of not being paid and Pitassi made a phone call to shut Michter’s down until they were paid.

The bank payment never happened. Pitassi and all other interested parties vanished. Dick said a few people had come to look at the distillery in the following years, but soon the government got tired of waiting for their tax money and cleaned the place out. The bank sold the whiskey.  All the aging whiskey on site was rumored to be sent to Continental in Philadelphia and re-distilled into pure Ethanol.

So all that said, what led to the rapid decrease in sales of whiskey? First and foremost was, as I had mentioned before, America had fallen out of love with whiskey. Distillers no longer needed the little brown distillery in Schaefferstown to pick up the slack for them, so all the contracts evaporated, which really killed profit. Secondly, years of a lack of vision by management started catching up to the distillery. Veru lived very much for the “here and now” according to Dick, as did the people that followed him. The on-the-road sales team disappeared and suppliers started forgetting about Michter’s. Lastly, the market niche that Michter’s was aiming for was already very full. Jack Daniel’s, Maker’s Mark, and Wild Turkey were all priced lower than or in line with Michter’s and they had much larger names and distribution. And the whole decanter fad was starting to die off in the 80’s, too.

So there you have it. The last days of Pennsylvania’s last distiller, the oldest distillery in the United States, were sad, lonely times. But, if you ask Dick, and his wife Elaine, if they didn’t like working there, they will tell you they enjoyed it all. What hurt them was knowing the end of Michter’s was coming and there was little they could do about it. And don’t think Michter’s ever sacrificed the quality of their products through all of it. Dick said that every last drop that made it into their decanters and bottles was “good stuff.” And now we’re left to speculate about the future of the distillery. There has been interest in recent months from some parties about purchasing the distillery and restarting it- and with the popularity of small “craft” distilleries today, it could be an incredible distillery again. Oh, and it seems Americans have fallen back in love with whiskey again. So even though I couldn’t have my Michter’s open house back in February, it doesn’t mean we can’t still all raise a glass and salute the little distillery on Snitzel Creek.

 If you want to learn more about Michter’s and its history and/or its future, feel free to contact me at ethangsmith@dejazzd.com

Category: Bourbon,Distillery Tours,Guest Blogger,Opinions Tags: 27 Comments

June 4th, 2010

Guest Blog: Sam Komlenic on the legendary Michter’s Distillery

John Hansell

Sam wrote such a great post, there’s not much for me to say (other than “nice hat!”). I was born in Lebanon, I lived in Lebanon County until I went to college, and my family still lives there. Had I only known then about Michter’s…

 

Well, I feel quite out of place here.  I’ve read guest postings by so many luminaries of the industry on this blog, a forum that I respect greatly, and have now been asked to put together one of my own while John’s out of town.  Personal business, he says.  Fishing, I’m guessing.

I am the copy editor for Malt Advocate and a life-long whiskey drinker.  Having grown up in the Monongahela Valley of Pennsylvania, that’s where my basic allegiance lies (rye whiskey), and I trust that, some day, someone will return rye whiskey distilling to its most basic DNA, to that valley.

That said, I’ve been asked to write today about my experiences at and with one of the two most vaunted lost American distilleries.  The most famous is Stitzel-Weller, and rightly so.  It grew up in the most notorious contemporary American distilling state, Kentucky, and with a family that was, and still is, well-respected in the business.  My focus today, though, is on the other.

I’m writing about Michter’s distillery in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, a site where I spent time during its last decade, and where I came to realize more about the importance of Pennsylvania to the American whiskey business than I would have ever imagined.

Though this blog is not about history, there is some of note to be mentioned before we move on.  Tracing its roots back as far as 1753, the site where Michter’s was distilled was the oldest in the U.S. at its original site when it closed in 1990.  It was also the only domestic distillery permitted (by special exemption) to sell whiskey on site as early as the 1970s.

Michter’s was the last survivor of the centuries-old distilling business in Pennsylvania, outlasting giants like Schenley and Publicker, to hang on by the fingernails of its very existence through the lean years of the 80s, only to succumb at the very end.

My first visit was in 1979, on my back from a business trip to Philadelphia, when I saw their billboard along the turnpike, encouraging me to visit.  Who was I to refuse?  I saw a farmer in bib overalls walking back to his farm from the distillery with a bottle of Michter’s in hand, and I knew then that this was a special place, but despite the marketing hype you’ve heard for years, it had nothing to do with pot stills.

Michters’ was located in a very rural part of Lebanon County.  No developments around, no major highways, no railroad connections; just a big distillery in the middle of a lot of farmland.  In the 70s, it was quite the tourist attraction, even offering donkey rides for the kids.  The tour started in the visitor center, which was also the souvenir shop adjacent to the Jug House, where they sold the whiskey. 

The tour cost a dollar, and included the distillery, an older warehouse that had been converted to display space, and the old Bomberger distillery, which held the small pot still that was built for them by Vendome Copper & Brass for the American bicentennial.  At the end of the tour, your guide took a picture of you with the whiskey you had (hopefully) bought, and sent you the photo with a thank-you note.  Mine is printed here, and no, that’s not a raccoon pelt attached to my head, dammit, just a virile sign of the times!  Michter’s was distilling whiskey here at that time, but get this, and listen closely once-and-for-all…there were never true pot stills involved in the modern incarnation of this distillery. 

What the company considered a pot still, its doubler, is indeed a pot still, but not in the truest sense.  So the deception, whether intentional or not, began at a very early juncture and continues to this day.  As it turns out, Michter’s used a column still like everyone else in the U.S., but was different than the norm in almost every other respect of the whiskey making business.  The vaunted Hirsch bourbon made here (first for the Hue family, afterward sold to Preiss) was distilled in their ubiquitous 400 bbl. batch, under contract, to a different recipe than usual.

Louis Forman, the creator of the Michter’s brand, was said to be an imitator of the highest sense.  He supposedly copied Jack Daniel’s mash bill and their square bottle.  He never called Michter’s anything but “whiskey” because the product didn’t meet the standards for “straight whiskey.”  Michter’s used a certain percentage of re-used cooperage (like the Scotch) in each dump to affect the intended result.  The name Michter’s was a combination of his sons’ names, MICH-ael and pe-TER.

Over ten years, I visited a number of times, my last being in November, 1979, scant months before they closed.  On my way out of the Jug House, I noticed a warehouse door open, and stopped in to see what was going on.  I entered a nearly empty building where barrels were being dumped into a trough that sent the whiskey to the bottling house.  A couple of men were at work there, and I began to ask questions.  I was told that the whiskey in the barrels was around 125 proof, and would I like a taste?  Are you kidding me?

The man reached for a dusty bottle in a corner, and after rinsing it once under the gurgling stream, offered me a taste straight out of the barrel.  The most amazing experience I have ever had in any distillery.  In phone conversations with him twenty years later, I realized that man was Dick Stoll, distillery manager and the last master distiller there.  He still lives in Lebanon County.

My last visit was in May of 1990.  A hand written note was taped to the Jug House door which read, “Closed until further notice.”  I have never returned, preferring to remember the flowing whiskey rather than the collapsing buildings.

As with so many tales, the Michter’s story is part truth and part fiction, but there is no doubt that for more than 235 years this distillery produced legend, lore, and luscious American whiskey like no other.

Category: American whiskey,Guest Blogger,Uncategorized Tags: 39 Comments



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