On Saturday, the first 1,000 Hayner Original Rye will go on sale. Bottle number one will be donated to the Hayner Whiskey Museum inside the Hayner-Cultural Center, “but all other bottles will be sold in numerical order,” according to the distillery.
The Hayner Rye released in October was a blend of four and six year rye barrels. It recently won the Double Gold medal award, the highest honor, at the prestigious John Barleycorn Spirits Competition in New York.
“To create Hayner Original Rye, we took the best 6 year barrels from our first blend, and bottled them straight at 90 proof,” said Greg Taylor, president of Hayner. “These 6 year barrels create a rich and smooth Rye that we know will soon win its own awards.”
Hayner Original Rye is the first offering in Hayner’s annual Vintage Series, according to a release from the distillery. The Vintage Series features antique Hayner whiskey labels from 1866-1920. This year’s label is a recreation of a Hayner label from 1910.
The original Hayner Distilling Co. was founded in Troy in 1866 by Lewis Hayner. With the help of several family members, the company expanded to Springfield and Dayton. In the decades that followed, the distillery evolved into a “nationally recognized and enormously profitable mail-order whiskey business,” according to the website of the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center, which includes the Hayner Distillery Museum. Prohibition delivered the death blow to the distillery in 1920.
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