Come join our chapter members for some whiskey tasting at McLaughlin Distillery followed by dinner at Thorn Hill Tap House. McLaughlin is tucked away in the wooded hills of Western Pennsylvania 20 minutes northwest of downtown Pittsburgh although you could mistake it for a moonshine shack in the wilds of West Virginia. Its authentic craft operations do not rely on corporate automated machinery or slick, sterile visitor centers. Visitors step directly onto a working floor where raw grain, bubbling mash, copper stills, and oak barrels come together through manual labor, patience, and passion. The highlight of a visit to a craft distillery is the tasting session. Tasting spirits in the physical space where they were distilled, with the scent of oak and fermenting grain still in the air, completely changes how you appreciate what is in your glass.
Dinner will follow the whiskey tasting at Thorn Hill Tap House, only seven minutes away. A generation ago, people would admonish: “You better straighten up or you’ll end up at Thorn Hill!” That was when the Thorn Hill work farm for delinquent boys was just down the road from the restaurant! Whether you see that as a simpler time or a more hard-scrabble age, there is a tradition of work and reward that the restaurant carries on today. Thorn Hill uses fresh, local ingredients to execute their casual, family-friendly menu plus they have a wide selection of draft beers.
