Stork Club Distillery with Bastian Heuser Show Notes
Notes and Reviews for Whiskey Ring Podcast Episode 200: Stork Club Distillery with Bastian Heuser
For episode 200, I wanted to go somewhere a little different, somewhere the podcast hadn’t really explored before. We’d been to Germany once with Eifel Whisky (Ep. 76), but it had been quite a while. Thanks to Georgie Bell and Ep. 191: The Heart Cut, an introduction was made, and here we are, talking with Stork Club co-founder Bastian Heuser about all things German rye.
First off, it’s important to note that in the US, Stork Club is known as Stork House (long story short, there was a famous club called Stork Club here so the trademark was taken). The whisky in the bottle is the same.
Now for the stuff you’re interested in. Stork Club was originally a different distillery near Berlin, one renowned for its single malts. Bastian and his co-founders went for a visit, unintentionally setting in motion a chain of events that led them not only to taking over the distillery but to shifting direction fully to rye whisky production.
Stork Club is Germany’s first 100% rye distillery. Others make rye whisky alongside single malt - not Stork Club. Raw or malted, they’re set on setting the standard for German rye, based in a reverence for rye’s place in German heritage. Honoring that rye hasn’t stopped them from doing things a little differently, too. They’re using mostly new American oak, eschewing the first fill ex-bourbon casks normally used by the rest of the world. Complementing the American oak is Napoleonic oak from southern Germany on the French border. These trees are so-called because they were alive when Napoleon marched across Europe. Before being cut down and used for barrels, they have to be scanned for shrapnel and bullets - one bullet, likely lead, means that tree stays standing. It’s not cheap and it’s not common, all the more reason to be excited by it and how it imparts unique dried fruit and nutty notes to the whiskey.
The choice to take over and convert the distillery was influenced by the co-founders’ bar backgrounds, a passion for rye, and the local agricultural landscape, where rye thrives due to the region’s sandy soils and harsh winters. Bastian explains how the team, largely self-taught in distilling, invested in new equipment and processes to focus exclusively on rye, emphasizing the importance of mastering one style before experimenting further.
The conversation also touches on the regulatory environment in Germany and the EU, the challenges and opportunities of being a pure rye distillery, and the collaborative spirit within the German and international whiskey communities. We delve into the broader context of whiskey in Germany, noting the country’s strong brewing and distilling traditions but relatively recent embrace of whiskey production.
The evolving identity of German whiskey is also discussed, noting that despite being a massive export market for Scotland and the US, domestic distilling has only been around for around 40 years. The importance of local sourcing and the balance between tradition and innovation weave throughout. While the brand has found success in bars and among adventurous consumers, it faces challenges in a conservative retail market and in building export presence amid global disruptions.
The interview concludes with Bastian’s vision for Stork Club’s legacy: to be remembered simply as “fucking good whiskey.” What more could someone want?
