Articles

The production of spirits in North America has deep historical roots, yet modern commercial manufacturing often distills out the character that original distillers worked so hard to preserve. Industrial facilities lean heavily on computer-controlled stainless steel vats, automated continuous column stills, and rapid oak maturation tricks to pump out thousands […]

Most folks around Pittsburgh have heard of the Whiskey Rebellion. Maybe it came up in a history class, or you’ve driven past one of those blue historical markers in Washington County without stopping. The real story is a lot wilder than the marker lets on. In the early 1790s, farmers […]

Walking into a tasting room for the first time can feel a little intimidating. With industry terms like “mash bill,” “char levels,” “heads and tails,” and “cask strength” thrown around, it is easy to feel like you need an advanced degree in chemistry just to enjoy a pour of bourbon […]

If you have ever visited a commercial distillery, you may be familiar with the standard routine: a large crowd ushered through high-tech catwalks, a scripted speech blaring through an earpiece, and a brief glance at massive stainless steel vats from behind a glass partition. Stepping into a true craft whiskey […]

Most people who’ve never tried ours assume flavored moonshine means neutral spirit and a bottle of syrup. That’s the cheap version. As a moonshine distillery in Pennsylvania, we start with real fruit, real sugar, and a corn base we distill ourselves, which is why we’ve built the lineup out to […]

At Mclaughlin Distillery we make eight different bourbons and rye whiskeys, and almost every first-time customer asks the same question at the register: which one should I actually buy? If you’re searching for a local bourbon distillery near me, here’s how we’d answer that in person, based on what you […]

The hardest part of buying one of our bourbon-making kits usually isn’t deciding to buy one. It’s picking the size. Here’s the actual difference between our 2.5, 5, and 10 gallon barrels and who each one is really built for. 2.5 Gallon Bourbon Barrel: Best for First-Time Aging This is […]

Clear spirits get treated like the easy category, something you make when you’re not ready to age anything yet. That’s backwards. A clear spirit vodka has nothing to hide behind, so it has to be right the first time, which is exactly why we run ours the same careful way […]

A bad cream liqueur tells on itself fast: too sweet, too thin, and gone the moment it hits your tongue. We’ve spent years making sure ours doesn’t do that, using real cream and real fruit in small batches, and Mario’s Creamy Limoncello is the bottle that convinces most people we’re […]