Stock your home bar at PA Libations, where all liquor is made in Pennsylvania

Source your whiskey, rum, vodka, tequila, and more from Pennsylvania distilleries at PA Libations.

If you drink alcohol and you live in Pennsylvania, you surely know that the commonwealth has some strange liquor laws. For instance, only with recent law changes have Pennsylvanians been able to buy wine at the grocery store (albeit in a separate section), and not just in the state-owned Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores. And we (usually) still can’t buy beer, wine, and liquor all in the same place.

But liquor law liberalization has also led to the opening of the first privately-owned liquor store in the state: PA Libations. Legislation allowed Pa. distilleries to open satellite locations, and PA Libations is technically a satellite location of the numerous distilleries that sell spirits at the shop.

There are three PA Libations locations in the state: two in Pittsburgh (one in the Strip District and one in Shadyside) and a Philadelphia store within Reading Terminal Market. PA Libations team members have even founded their own brewery (Bonafide Beer Company), so the shops are also selling beer! How innovative — and how convenient.

Find your favorite spirit on our list and plan a trip to your local distillery — or to your closest PA Libations.

PA Libations samples by Jody Mader, courtesy of VisitPittsburgh.

Whiskey

Pennsylvania has a long history with whiskey. You may have heard of a little something called the Whiskey Rebellion, when rye farmers in Western Pennsylvania rose up against a whiskey tax they saw as unjustly targeting them versus the big city elites in Philadelphia. That history lesson gives a clue about Pennsylvania’s whiskey history — it’s rooted in rye.

Rather than the corn used in Bourbon, rye whiskey is composed of at least 51% rye grain. It’s not as sweet as bourbon and is spicier than scotch. You can buy rye whiskey at most distilleries in the state. In fact, many Pa. distilleries offer rye whiskey as their signature product.

Liberty Pole Spirits, located in the heart of where the Whiskey Rebellion took place in Washington County, is on a mission to revitalize “Monongahela Rye style” whiskey, the Pennsylvania-made spirit of yore. Its Old Monongahela Full Proof Rye Whiskey is made in the old style; its classic rye whiskey is similarly made, but with a lighter alcohol content. And Indiana County’s Disobedient Spirits also nods at the Whiskey Rebellion with its 1794 Rye Whiskey.

But Southwestern Pa. isn’t the only region of the state that crafts quality rye. The Lehigh Valley’s Eight Oaks Farm Distillery crafts its 80% rye whiskey with grain grown on its own farm.

In addition to rye, you can also buy Pa. bourbon and scotch. Liberty Pole Spirits sells its Peated Bourbon Whiskey, inspired by the scotch-like bourbons favored by the original Scotch Irish farmers of the southwestern Pa. area. In addition, CJ Spirits sells a Scotch whisky imported from Scotland but bottled in the McKean County distillery.

Brandy

For Pennsylvania-made brandy, you’ll look to Indiana County microdistillery Disobedient Spirits.

In addition to Disobedient Spirits’s gin, rum, vodka, and wide selection of whiskey, the distillery also makes two brandies for those who favor the fruity liquor. All brandies are distilled from some type of fermented fruit, though most are made from grapes. Disobedient Spirits’s brandies — an apple brandy and a “solstice spiced” apple brandy — are made from hand-picked, locally-grown apples.

Tequila

Yes, there is Pennsylvania tequila! Well, sort of … for a spirit to be called “tequila,” it must be made and produced in Mexico, in one of five authorized tequila regions. As a result, the tequila sold by Pa. distilleries is distilled in Mexico and then bottled in Pa.

That’s why the tequila from Philadelphia’s New Liberty Distilling and the tequila from Hershey’s Hidden Still Spirits are actually products of Mexico. Eight Oaks Farm Distillery in the Lehigh Valley, however, imports agave from Mexico and then distills its own “version of everyone’s favorite agave spirit.”

New Liberty Distilling by J. Fusco, courtesy of Visit Philadelphia.

Rum

Rum, made from fermented molasses or sugarcane juice, is usually associated with sugar-producing regions like the Caribbean — that’s where most rum is made, after all. But several Pa. distilleries make their own rum.

For instance, Allegheny Distilling in Pittsburgh, with its Maggie’s Farm Rum made from raw sugarcane, was the first distillery since Prohibition to sell Pa.-crafted rum. Meanwhile, Allegheny County-based Boyd & Blair makes its BLY Rum with 100% Pa. molasses. CJ Spirits, located along Route 6 in the Allegheny National Forest, crafts its 6 Rum with molasses and spring water from the Allegheny Mountains. And for those who prefer spiced rum, Lancaster distillery Thistle Finch bottles its craft NecroNomNomRum.

Vodka

Like other spirits, Pa. vodka abounds in the state. Pennsylvania’s rich agricultural history means that distilleries have access to fertile soil and quality crops from which to source the best ingredients. Vodka can be made from many different starchy and sugary bases like potatoes, wheat, corn, and fruit.

In Pa., craft vodka is sometimes made from the same source as much of Pa. whiskey — Pa. rye — as is the case with New Liberty Distilling’s Powderhorn Vodka and Philadelphia Distilling’s 1681 Rye Vodka. And as a neutral spirit, vodka is a perfect canvas for additional flavors. That’s why you’ll find Lititz’s Stoll & Wolfe Distillery hibiscus flavored vodka as well as a host of vodka flavors from Bucks County’s Faber Distilling, like mango, cherry, grape, cold brew, and even candy cane.

Gin 

To make gin, a neutral base is distilled from grain, and then botanicals including juniper are added.

Several Pa. distilleries make gin, with the Bluecoat American Dry Gin from Philadelphia Distilling perhaps being the most recognizable. Though the gin contains juniper, the astringent juniper flavor is not pronounced — a hallmark of American gin. Xplorer Spirits, based in the Lehigh Valley’s Allentown, sells an American-style gin as well as a rooibos-flavored gin. And Mercer County’s MLH Distillery offers a more traditional gin as well as a sweeter “pink gin,” so named because of the gin’s color from added hibiscus.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.