Pour Tour maps out Laurel Highlands' craft beverage purveyors
West Overton Village and Museums in East Huntingdon anticipates reviving its own history by producing and selling whiskey by next year.
Already, though, the historical site is a designated stop on the new Laurel Highlands Pour Tour, which offers free passports visitors can take to many of the region’s craft beverage purveyors.
That designation is reaping rewards for visitors and staff, says Jessica Kadie-Barclay, the site’s executive director.
“We are seeing an increase in tours from people coming in on the Pour Tour,” she says.
Brainchild of the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau, the Pour Tour encourages support of 31 regional craft beverage makers throughout Westmoreland, Fayette and Somerset counties.
Each participating site offers customers stickers with a purchase. Those stickers can then be traded in for collectibles including a corkscrew or bottle opener (eight stickers), a T-shirt (18 stickers) and an insulated growler or set of four insulated wine tumblers (28 stickers).
The passports are proving a valuable tool for staff to help point out other places in the area to visit, Kadie-Barclay says.
“We have had people who were here for other things, for one reason or another, who say, ‘Wow, this is cool. What else is nearby?’” she says.
“I love seeing all of these things — breweries, wineries, meaderies and distilleries. These are all agricultural (based) products. It sounds funny — it’s drinking, but it’s farming. This is a way to bring tourism to our rural areas,” she says.
Kadie-Barclay says she would be happy to see a brewery open in a vacant building in Scottdale.
“Breweries in small towns are driving economic revitalization,” she says.
Until whiskey can be sampled, West Overton Pour Tour visitors can obtain a passport sticker via museum tour or gift shop purchase.
Raising a toast to entrepreneurship
Like the popping of a cork, new wineries, breweries, mead and moonshine producers are bursting onto the Laurel Highlands libation scene at such a steady rate one almost needs a road map. That’s where the passports come in, notes Ann Nemanic, visitors bureau executive director.
“The lore and legacy of distilled spirits and craft beverages run deep in Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands,” Nemanic says in a release.
“Today’s industry has blossomed from those deep-seated roots, providing visitors with authentic experiences and tastes they won’t find in any other region. Our Laurel Highlands Pour Tour weaves together history, exceptional landscape, and entrepreneurship into a trail of flavorful destinations,” she adds.
And, of course, there is a free “Laurel Highlands Pour Tour” app to ease locating the 14 breweries, 11 wineries, four distilleries, one cidery and one meadery on the tour.
Spreading the word with stickers
Brewery stops include All Saints Brewing Co. and the newly opened Invisible Man Brewing, both in Greensburg; Bloom Brew in West Newton, Helltown Brewing, Mt. Pleasant and Export, and Voodoo Brewery’s New Kensington taproom.
Tattiebogle CiderWorks in Acme, and Laurel Highlands Meadery, with locations in Irwin and South Greensburg, are also included on the passport map.
Distilleries include Country Hammer Moonshine in North Huntingdon, Tall Pines Distillery in Salisbury, Somerset County, and Ridge Runner Distillery in Wharton, Fayette County.
The winery list includes Arrowhead Wine Cellars at Schramm Farms & Orchards in Penn Township, Christian W. Klay Winery in Wharton, Bella Terra Winery in Hunker, Winslow Winery in Perryopolis, Greendance — The Winery at Sandhill in Mt. Pleasant Township and Glades Pike Winery in Somerset.
Cindy Workman, who works in sales at Greendance, says she ran out of her first box of passports in four days.
“Everybody was so excited to get started. We gave out five (on a week day). That is when we have time to talk about it,” she says.
Each stop has its own sticker. “My sticker can’t go on anyone else’s page,” she says.
“The program spreads the word about the Laurel Highlands, and people who may have not been here (Greendance) before may stop to fill up their passport book,” Workman says.
The real star of the Pour Tour is the Laurel Highlands, says Jeff Guidos, owner of All Saints Brewing Co. in Greensburg.
“The crazy thing is I was getting ready to approach the visitors bureau to see if we could do something to organize something like this,” he says. “I got an email from (the bureau). They had really, really researched this out. It blew me away.
“It’s opening people’s eyes to things that are here. The number one question I got was ‘What sets this tour apart from any other tour?’ It’s the Laurel Highlands that sets us apart — the drive, the rolling mountains and the scenery,” Guidos says.
“Tour”-ists can find passports at the visitors bureau’s office at 120 E. Main St., Ligonier, visitor information centers, brochure racks and participating locations.
Those taking a tour can post on social media using #LHPourTour.
Passports can be redeemed for prizes by taking or mailing them (they will be returned) to the Ligonier office.
Those hearty imbibers — remember to pace yourself — who complete all of the stops by the end of 2020 can enter a drawing for a two-night Laurel Highlands beverage-themed getaway valued at $1,000.
The winner will be drawn Jan. 1, 2021, according to the visitors bureau.
Details: 724-238-5661 or lhpourtour.com
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