Fifth Avenue Forum

I haven't had that before. Let us know if it's any good.

Okay,

Whistlepig, 6 year aged rye: 96 proof, actually really good. Not a ton of burn. Very good sippage. Good corn liquor taste.

Widow Jane 10 year. The aroma kinda hit me hard and I was worried. Drinking it though. Similar to many other smooth bourbons.

I want to try them again when I’m not half in the bag.

I did the cocktail menu for my family on Thanksgiving. It went over quite well. I made somewhere around 15-20 cocktails.

Thanksgiving, like last year, was at my cousin's house in Chicago. Like last year, we hit Binny's Beverage Depot on the drive back. I didn't buy as much as last year, but I did pick up barrel picks of George Remus bourbon and Old Potrero and Starlight rye, as well as a Binny's exclusive for Laird's straight applejack (not the blended version that's the only one carried in PA's FWGS stores).

I also bought a small bottle of the infamous Jeppson's Malört, which I can now confirm is indeed unrelentingly bitter. It starts off with a sort of hoppy bitterness that has a little bit of citrus to it, but then it finishes into a pure bone-dry bitterness. There's no sweetness to it whatsoever. It's just layers of bitterness on top of bitterness. Still, I don't think it's quite as horrible as it's made out to be.

Sounds like Malort Nog is in your future.

The founder of the Ponfeigh Distillery says that there is a strong history of whiskey in Somerset County, and he plans to bring that back with this distillery.

For the past 15 years, Maximilian Merrill focused on not only crafting whiskey, but opening his own distillery in Somerset County.

“I just sort of learned all the whiskey heritage that we lost in Somerset County, and it’s always been a dream for about 15 years to bring back that heritage that the county lost.”

Merrill says he searched all over Somerset for the perfect location for his distillery.

“We came upon this old 84 Lumber site, and we figured it was a pivotal place to bring back and start a distillery to pay tribute to all those distillers that we lost.”

Merrill and his crew say this location is now home to the largest distillery in Pennsylvania.

“Right now, this is by far the biggest distillery in Pennsylvania. There’s a lot of people coming online though so I don’t know how long well hold that title,” says Master Distiller Brendon Rawlings.

“We can produce over 3,000 barrels a year. We have fermentation tanks that are over 16 thousand gallons of fermentation so we can produce whiskey 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if we need to.”

Currently, they are bottling their 95-percent rye, 5 percent malted barley whiskey, which is available for tasting and sale Wednesday through Sunday.

“It’s very smooth. It has a lot of notes of honey, maple syrup, but also a little bit of ‘oakiness’ at the end.”

“Coming next year, in 2024, we will also have a couple other spirits including a Maryland style rye which has a larger corn content, and we will also a rye aged rum and a rye aged gin.”

Merrill says besides other spirits, they plan to bring more to the distillery.