Reviving an age old Tradition

 Kentucky is famous for its bluegrass and fertile cornfields,  thus the genesis of corn-based Bourbon. Pennsylvania, on the other hand, has grown to be regarded as the apple capital of America.  Like the moonshiners harvesting corn in Kentucky, resourceful Pennsylvania settlers turned to their most plentiful crop to distill their hooch. Late in the 1700s, the Swedish and Irish immigrant coal miners of western Pennsylvania perfected this wonderful spirit, Malus (Malus Domestica: Latin for "apple tree"). 

 Originally Malus was bottled clear and drank straight before dinner as an aperitif or after dinner as a digestif, however as popularity for the drink increased, so did variations of the spirit.  The Doyles, an Irish coal mining family, were the first to experiment with aging Malus in whiskey barrels. The miners would compete for status of their Malus by hosting tastings at family reunions and parties. Ultimately, the  Doyle variation won for its flavor and character, causing most of the earlier variants to wane in production. Apart from the local farmers or miners who would have had family recipes or the bootleggers in Central Pennsylvania’s river hills who may have dabbled in the spirit, Malus became mostly a distant memory after prohibition; however the few who remember Malus will swear it is better than Bourbon.

Today, a small distillery in central Pennsylvania has revived the spirit with claims to the age-old Doyle recipe. Kristian, the grandson of Tressa Wilson is one of the proprietors of FTF Spirits Limited., a company that markets the spirit under the brand name KRISS. Kristian's grandmother was born and raised in Stoneboro, Pennsylvania -

her maiden name was Doyle.