DISCOVER COUNTY TRENDS ALCOHOL APLENTY A look at the booming brewery, winery and distillery business around the county. PHOTOS: TRIB TOTAL MEDIA ARCHIVES 10 | Discover Westmoreland 2016 BEFORE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT organized, during a period following Christopher Columbus’ ar-rival from Europe and prior to George Washington’s election as America’s first president, western frontier farmers became accustomed to distilling their surplus grain and corn into whiskey. It was, after all, regarded as the most common of liquors at that time. Whiskey distillation was a rather regular practice at most farms of early America — Western Pennsyl-vania wasn’t the only place — and whiskey made from their wheat, rye and corn was much easier to haul than the grains themselves and also could be used for currency. But the government, with Washington as its head, needed money to pay back debts incurred during the Revolutionary War. Taxing whiskey be-came a popular idea, though indeed not with the farmers, who screamed and fought to avoid paying taxes on their guarded drink. BY DAVE MACKALL A bottle of Old Farm Pennsylvania Pure Rye Whiskey, distilled in the fall of 1913 and bottled in the spring of 1919. West Overton Village and Museums has been granted a distillery license. The license will permit the West Overton Distilling Company to produce up to 100,000 gallons of craft whiskey a year.
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