Wigle Whiskey is an awesome place! I never knew much about it or even where it was until I went a couple months ago. I added it to my blog bucket list because people had told me there was a whiskey distillery in Pittsburgh. I’m really grateful I did because I had a terrific time when I went! For $20 you can participate in a tour of Wigle’s distillery on Saturdays. You need to purchase these tickets in advance on their website. Included in the one hour tour is a free cocktail, a hands on experience of the distilling process (you are able to hold and smell the ingredients), a history of the whiskey rebellion, and a seated straight tasting. Wigle Whiskey’s hours are Monday-Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 10-4. You can walk in at anytime to do a tasting and buy their products. Their products include organic white whiskey, organic aged whiskey, bitters, gins, and rums.
Keegan was enthusiastic about going to Wigle with me, but we thought we missed our chance to go together since it was a weekday. Luckily we found an event on their website for a labeling party. This still seems like an unfathomable concept to me but it is amazing! When it is needed, Wigle hosts labeling parties where people can sign up (for free) online to come and help label their bottles. Wigle is a small company and doesn’t’ have a labeling machine or processing plant, so they creatively use free labor to get a large quantity of bottles labeled efficiently. To entice people to attend everyone gets two free cocktails and limitless popcorn from Pittsburgh Popcorn Company! Keegan and I had a fantastic time! We sat at a table with three other men, one had attended once before and the other two were a father-son duo that has contributed to multiple labeling parties. They were definitely experts and had a whole system that they were kind enough to show us. Our table was responsible for Wigle’s “Landlocked” bottles, which is rum but they can’t call it rum because it is made with honey instead of sugar. You can trust me from personal experience that it is delicious! The handcrafted cocktail that I drank featured this Wigle product. The process behind labeling was writing the date of the batch on the back label (it was finished two days before), placing this label on the back of the bottle where the seam was, placing a front label with the Landlocked signature design, and a final label around the neck of the bottle. Next was putting plastic wrap around the top, heating it with a blow dryer like device to seal them, and placing twist ties around the neck with a Wigle tag. Although it was technically “work” it was a lot of fun and the set hour flew by. It was a remarkable feeling to have a small part in the finished product!
After the labeling was over, the owners offered an impromptu tour of the distillery. There were around 40 people at the labeling party. The party is a great opportunity to spend time with a big group of friends and do something different. The space they have is not very large and we were given a shortened version of the tour. It was really interesting to learn how whiskey is made and to understand the differences between that process and the beer process. Every Wigle product is made on site and is created from scratch. It is one of the few craft distilleries in the U.S. that employs this process. Wigle mills the local and organic grains on the same day that they start a batch to ensure freshness. They place the soon to be whiskey liquid into a small copper pot to yield small batches of whiskey.
The part of the tour that we missed was the history lesson, but I was able to look it up on their website and got some clarifications online to share that information with you here. Did you know that American whiskey was born in Pittsburgh? I didn’t! Wigle is the only whiskey distillery in the area today, but in the 1800’s there were four thousand documented distilleries in Western Pennsylvania. The name Wigle comes from whiskey maker Philip Wigle who helped to spark the Whiskey Rebellion and was ultimately hung for his refusal to stop making whiskey. Wigle Whiskey adopted Wigle’s name and the process that he used in the late 1700’s.
At the end of the night every labeler got a free t-shirt as a reward for our hard work that says, “I work for whiskey.” Wigle Whiskey proved to be another incredible Pittsburgh experience that I am eager to do again! I would love to attend another labeling party or go to a tasting when I am in the Strip District. Wigle also hosts release parties for new products. I strongly suggest following them on Facebook to be up to date and informed of their new products and upcoming events. Wigle Whiskey should be on every college student’s Pittsburgh bucket list!
How to Get to Wigle: Take the 54 bus from Craig Street, get off at Liberty Ave & 24th, walk down 24th St and take the second right on to Smallman St, arrive at 2401 Smallman St on the left hand side.
Pittsburgh Bucket List 