Eichelberger Distillery opened Sep 7, 2024. We’re on an amazing journey traveling back in time in our quest to recreate early Pennsylvania spirits. One of the characters we met on our sojourn was Samuel McHarry. We didn’t sit down over a whiskey to converse because his book “The Practical Distiller” containing advice for early distillers was published in 1809. But his voice, personality, and knowledge come alive through the pages.

He states in the preface, “when I first entered the business of distilling, I was totally unacquainted with it. I was ever so ignorant of the process as not to know that fermentation was necessary in producing spirits from grain. ” He continued, “and was certain the whole art and mystery could be learned in two or three weeks.” Years later he had gained enough knowledge to write his manual.

Architectural research, books on distilling, visits to other sites and Moonshine University provided the basic knowledge to set up the Eichelberger Distillery. But operating a recreation of an early Pennsylvania distillery took McHarry! His pages contain detailed information gained by practice and discussion with fellow distillers who crafted spirits from grains and fruits found in Central Pennsylvania. Even with his insights and recommendations we face many challenges. He speaks “18th century”! Some of his terminology considered common knowledge then, is not that common in the 21st century.For example, “like grains of a timothy seed” or “until milk warm”. Huh? 

One of the first challenges to learn was building and maintaining proper fires under the boilers and stills. Firewood needs to be dried and split into suitable sizes. The fireboxes are four feet deep. Fires are started at the entrance and pushed into position with a poker.Lying on our stomachs, we toss logs onto the growing fire. The stripping still needs a robust fire. But too robust and flames shoot out the iron door into the distiller’s face. The spirits still needs a smaller, steady fire. These skills took months (and a few lost eyebrows) to master.

McHarry provides specific directions for the masonry enclosure of the stripping still. His clever design keeps fire from touching the copper at the bottom of the still. His process routes hot gases around the sides of the still preventing scorching of the mash and a ruined batch. Initially we filled the still half full and ran her. This caused unwanted compounds to accumulate on the interior still walls.Though unstated, the still was designed to run filled with mash. Increasing from 25 to 50 gallons, not only improves the low wines but keeps the interior of the still cleaner and free of charred elements which affect the distillate.

These are just some of the many challenges we face on our journey to understand the art and science of distilling in the early 1800’s. You can visit The Eichelberger Distillery and follow “The Impractical Distillers” as we share documentary evidence, period technology and repeated trials in our experimental history of early Pennsylvania Whiskey.

~The Impractical Distillers:  Sam and Murray