Is the Secret to Kentucky Bourbon Limestone Water?

"...I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, and limestone bedrock literally poked up through the grass in my neighbor’s yard. Our well pumped water that was so hard you could taste it. They produced whiskey not far away, at a distillery that’s since closed down: the original Michter’s distillery, where they made the excellent whiskey that has become a legend under the A.H. Hirsch name.

Though the distillery has been closed for almost 30 years, the master distiller, Dick Stoll, still lives nearby. He’s more than 80 years old and in startlingly good health, and is helping a new distillery, Stoll & Wolfe, get started there. I asked him what made the water at Michter’s good for making whiskey.

“The alkalinity in it, as opposed to acid,” he told me. 'Everyone said that was better for fermentation. Much more than that, I can’t tell you, but it worked very well.' The new Stoll & Wolfe distillery will be using that same water..."

Originally Published in The Daily Beast