An Austrian experience in the 70's was the seed that grew into a family and friends' dream to produce local spirits. The distillery is owned and operated by Charlie and Jenny, a father-daughter team. Our special recipe and process was developed by Charlie and Stan the Man with help from both sides of the Atlantic.

Our Story

Rheinhalle was the name of the ice rink in Austria where co-founder Charlie (pictured right) played professional hockey, hence the name Rhine Hall Distillery. It was during this time in Austria that Charlie first learned to distill. His good friend, Stan the Man, visited him and equally fell in love with the tradition and culture of producing fruit distillates in this abundant fruit-growing region of Austria.
*Pictured here: Stan the Man and Charlie at the Austrian hutte where many of the stories began.*

Years later, Charlie moved his family to Germany, where they worked with the locals to learn how to make their traditional spirit, eau de vie, also known as fruit brandy in the United States. After returning home to Chicago, the family continued making eau de vie in their backyard. Using Charlie’s ingenuity, they built a bike-powered apple chopper to crush their neighbor’s fruit, hence the bike wheel seen in all branding elements. In 2012, Charlie and Jenny, father-daughter duo, decided to transition the family’s passion project into a business. Rhine Hall opened it’s doors on November 1, 2013 with a production facility and tasting room on 2010 W. Fulton St - where we still live today.
*Pictured here: Charlie on left, Jenny on right.*

Our products

At Rhine Hall, we focus on fruit brandies, a European-style brandy otherwise known as eau de vie or schnapps. This means that we start with fresh fruit before we chop, ferment, distill, and bottle our spirits. Majority of our fruit is sourced from the Great Lakes Region, and no flavorings, sweeteners, or neutral spirits are added to any of our products — each bottle contains roughly 25lbs of fruit and that’s it. This process gives us a product that is not sweet, but embodies the essence of the fruit in both taste and aroma.

A visit with a few of the orchards we work with:

We are proud to have the vast majority of our produce sourced locally in the Great Lakes region. All of our waste is collected by Chicago composting company, Resource Center, that employs thousands of jobs in Chicago and provides the soil for the produce in many restaurants around the city. Our tanks were manufactured by Solberg Manufacturing Inc.

We Compost

Helping maintain the City Garden, our partner, Resource Center, supplies with compost.

IMG_3628 2.JPG — Adopt a Beach Clean Up

We contribute to a cause we believe in: We support the Alliance for the Great Lakes

Thank You

Rhine Hall would not be what it is constantly evolving to be today with out the help of family & friends. Thank you for your unconditional support & guidance. A special thanks to: Travis Solberg, Chad Solberg, Sarah Solberg Ludden, Lisa Solberg, Joyce Solberg, Kyle Ludden, and Taylor Katzman.