With Punxsutawney Phil predicting six more weeks of winter on Groundhog Day, you may find yourself getting a little stir-crazy as we make excruciatingly slow progress toward spring. One solution is to go exploring in your own backyard as a participant in the GO Laurel Highlands Pour Tour 5.0, a libations trail that includes breweries, wineries, distilleries, meaderies, and cideries in Fayette, Somerset, and Westmoreland counties.
In January, the fifth iteration of the popular trail kicked off with a party at Yough River Brewing Co. in Connellsville, which—despite blizzard conditions—attracted past prize winners as well as craft beverage connoisseurs ready to tackle this year’s trail. This year, 64 different locations are participating in the Pour Tour, all of which can be found in the Pour Tour passport book or online in the GO Laurel Highlands app.
Not only do each of the locations offer incredible craft libations, but visitors can also learn more about the beverage-making process as well as spend time in some pretty cool spaces. Sobel’s Obscure Brewery in Jeannette, for example, is housed in a historic department store building. Unity Brewing in Latrobe provides a tasty array of brews on tap in a “positive vibes only” art gallery, and Red Barn Winery in Delmont is housed in a 160-year-old restored barn that used to be the Apple Hill Playhouse.
The Historic West Overton Village & Museum, located in Scottdale, PA, is an especially unique stop as its tasting room is located in a museum that highlights 19th-century American life as well as Pennsylvania Monongahela rye whiskey, the classic American whiskey before Prohibition.
“If you were talking about whiskey before Prohibition, you were talking about Pennsylvania whiskey,” said Co-Executive Director Patrick Bochy during a Pour Tour tasting event in the museum’s educational distillery.
The James B. Beam Pennsylvania Whiskey Heritage Center, located on the museum’s second floor, holds the largest publicly displayed collection of Pennsylvania whiskey in the world. It is also filled with fascinating facts: For example, did you know that more than 3,600 distilleries were in business in the state in 1810, producing 6.5 million gallons of whiskey? This included the distillery at West Overton, known for its Old Overholt whiskey, which was established by Abraham Overholt with a brewing capacity of 150 gallons.
By 1900, only 73 Pennsylvania distilleries remained, dwindling to 15 distilleries by 1935. In 1990, the last Pennsylvania distillery closed.
Though the Old Overholt brand was bought by James B. Beam Distilling Co. in the 1980s and moved operations to Kentucky in 2020, a new West Overton Distillery opened, and visitors can sample its four signature products, including Monongahela Rye, White Rye, Keystone Rye, and Jasper’s Stash, named after the two-headed calf still on display in the museum.
How Does the Pour Tour Work?
Even though the Pour Tour encompasses three counties, it’s easy to plan a route—or a weekend—of Pour Tour stops. Just pick up a Pour Tour passport at designated locations or download the app. Visitors to each stop will receive stickers for the passport book or digital stamps by making purchases from participating locations. After collecting enough stickers or stamps, participants can win prizes ranging from a custom imprinted ice/snack bucket (15 stickers/stamps) to a long-sleeved t-shirt (30 stickers/stamps) to a cooler backpack (45 stickers/stamps).
Last year alone, more than 3,310 Pour Tour prizes were redeemed by participants from 16 states, including as far away as Florida, Colorado, and Maine, and the tour injected an estimated $2 million into the local economy.
“The response to the Pour Tour 5.0 launch was phenomenal and showed a continued interest in the program,” said Jennifer Benford, senior director of marketing for GO Laurel Highlands. The Yough River Brewing Co. event sold out in two hours. She added that Pour Tour aficionados have been known to create spreadsheets, charts, and graphs to efficiently plan their routes and chart their progress.
It’s important to note that many of the participating locations in the Pour Tour also offer delicious food, live music, and other forms of entertainment—check out Wye Beer Co. in Trafford, for example, for classic pinball and arcade games. Green Dance Winery in Mt. Pleasant and Deer Creek Winery in Uniontown also have great gifts and swag, as do a number of other locations. And if you want to make a night of it, many of the locations are close to hotels, motels, and locally owned bed-and-breakfasts.
“The Pour Tour is more than just collecting stickers and prizes—although that does get top billing,” said GO Laurel Highlands Executive Director Ann Nemanic. “It is about building friendships with fellow beverage enthusiasts and developing relationships with the makers along the way.”
To learn more about Pour Tour 5.0 or activities in the Laurel Highlands, visit www.lhpourtour.com.
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