Whiskey history tour premieres at West Overton

Whiskey lovers have the opportunity to register for an intimate, immersive history and tasting tour Saturday at West Overton Village.

The “From Grain to Glass” tour includes a visit to the museum, rye field and current West Overton distillery.

Each stop on the tour includes a pour of West Overton Distilling rye whiskey.

“We only make a couple barrels a year,” said Pam Curtin, director of visitor engagement at the historic site near Scottdale.

The tour will be a “guided, curated experience” for visitors, focused on the history of whiskey production at West Overton and in the Monongahela region before Prohibition, according to Curtin.

For $30, the program will offer a more in-depth look into the past and present of West Overton than a normal day visit, though the grounds will be open through the tour to regular visitors.

The village, in East Huntingdon, is known as the birthplace of Henry Clay Frick and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Beginning with a walkthrough of the largest publicly accessible Pennsylvania whiskey artifact collection, the Sam Komlenic Gallery, visitors will learn about the connections between West Overton’s historic and contemporary distilleries.

The historic distillery at West Overton was once one of dozens in Westmoreland County and Western Pennsylvania, a hot spot for Monongahela rye whiskey production that Curtin said produced a majority of the country’s whiskey.

The tour will take visitors to a field of rye, where they will learn about the process of planting and growing the crop.

As of late July, the rye will be less than a month away from harvesting, which will be done by volunteers from the adjacent Fort Allen Antique Farm Equipment Association.

The tour will conclude at the modern-day distillery, which was once a livestock barn, where visitors can gain an understanding of the science behind the whiskey-making process.

The distillery bar serves whiskey as well as a rotating line of cocktails, including West Overton’s famous old-fashioned.

The distillery, established in 2020, is an extension of West Overton’s museum programs and represents an effort to connect the village to its past.

“We hope from the program that visitors can appreciate the history of the (whiskey) industry,” Curtin said.

Abraham Overholt, founder of Old Overholt, once lived in West Overton. At that time, more than a thousand barrels of whiskey could have been produced in a season, according to Curtin. She said Overholt turned whiskey from a secondary industry into a “large, essentially factory-style production.”

The brand is now owned by James B. Beam Distilling Co. and produced in Clermont, Ky., Curtin said.