Finding Jaywalk Rye's Colonial Roots in Rye, NY

The affluent coastal bedroom community of Rye, New York, about 30 miles north of New York City, has a surprising connection to its state’s craft distilling industry.

Jaywalk Rye at the distillery photo credit Porter Gabi

In October 2024, Brooklyn’s New York Distilling Company, a pioneer in urban distilling, officially launched its flagship rye whiskey, Jaywalk, crafted from an heirloom varietal of rye grown in Rye in the 17th century. Jaywalk immediately received high marks from spirits professionals for its distinctive flavor and for defining a grain-to-glass beverage, one produced by a craft distiller using local ingredients, unlike a larger manufacturer that uses mass-produced grain. The Jaywalk Straight Rye was a double gold winner and the Jaywalk Bonded Rye was a gold winner in the New York International Spirits Competition in 2024.

Horton Rye Roots

Allen Katz

“This was their family hybrid,” says New York Distilling’s Allen Katz, of the Horton family, early settlers in Rye. The seeds came to the colonies in the 1630s with Barnabas Horton, who was either a grain grower or a baker and miller from Mousley, Leicestershire, England. He and his family settled in what is now known as Southold, New York, on Long Island’s north fork, east of New York City, and established farms there. His son, Joseph, married Jane Budd, daughter of John Budd, one of the founders of Rye (named, coincidentally, after a town in England) and a prominent citizen who owned a great deal of land and a mill at the mouth of the town’s river.

Joseph and Jane sold their farm to Barnabas in 1665 and moved to Rye where Joseph worked either as a miller for his father-in-law or in partnership with him. The Hortons were community notables - Joseph was also a Justice of the Peace and captain in the local militia – and a large family. Horton Street, near Rye Playland, an Art Deco amusement park built in 1928 still in seasonal use and a National Historic Landmark, may be the site of their land and named in recognition of them.

The Rise of Rye

Whiskey Rebellion attributed to Patrick Kemmelmeyer

Rye whiskey was the popular spirit of the time, in part because rye grew well in the colonies’ poor, acidic soil, unlike wheat. In fact, the 1791 tax imposed on distilled spirits by the American government to help pay its war debts prompted a violent resistance by citizens who felt the tax unfair. Known as The Whiskey Rebellion, it threatened the young country’s stability and ended in 1794 when President Washington sent a militia to Western Pennsylvania to put down the rebellion. The threat of a large force prompted the resistance to scatter; no shots were fired.

Katz, widely regarded as a spirits and distilling expert in the United States, is also the longtime Director of Mixology & Spirits Education for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits of New York, a leading spirits distributor. Before turning to distilling, he was chairman of the board of Slow Food.

Bringing Back an Heirloom Grain

Horton rye fields photo courtesy New York Distilling Company

Examining the evolution of American cuisine, Katz felt that cocktails were uniquely American since they did not originate from other cultures. Due to Prohibition, he says, they were “the major missing gap in American gastronomy going back 50, 60 years in the arc of the development of an authentic American food culture.” To fill that in, he and partner Tom Potter, a co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery, wanted to craft an American whiskey with a sense of place and history and prompt a revival of rye-based cocktails, like a Manhattan and an Old fashioned.

Finger Lakes farmer Rick Pedersen, whom Potter had worked with before, connected them with Cornell University’s Small Grains Project, which in turn found them three heirloom rye varieties from New York, including 10 seeds of the Horton rye. The Horton was the only one of the three that passed the agricultural tests necessary to offer reasonable assurance says Katz that enough grain could be produced to make a viable crop.

It took five years just to grow out enough grain to distill. Today Pedersen grows 200 acres of Horton rye and a proprietary variety they developed called Field Race. The two are blended to craft the three Jaywalk marks: Jaywalk Straight, Jaywalk Bonded, and Jaywalk Heirloom, which contains 75% Horton rye.

The Payoff

Horton vs. Conventional Rye

Katz says the flavor is what makes the Horton variety special because the seed’s smaller size causes a higher sugar concentration, resulting in “really unique characteristics that can be subtle,” like “tropical aromas and flavors like banana, honey, and ripe summer peach skin.” He says rye is so much more than the spiciness for which it is known.

Fourteen years after finding those few seeds, and growing, distilling, and aging the results, Katz is thrilled that the Horton rye is a “singularly unique” variety that celebrates American rye whiskey. It’s a link to the past that has come full circle. And very randomly, at that. “It’s great,” says Katz, “that this rye variety also happens to come from this specific area.”