NARRATOR: Coming up on Keystone Stories, libations.

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Welcome to Keystone Stories.

Pennsylvania is home to more than 300 wineries, nearly 100 distilleries, and well over 300 breweries like here at Shy Bear Brewing in Lewistown.

And every one of these libations producers has their own unique story.

[music playing] JOE HOLOUBEK: When we first started, we started home brewing.

We started doing wine.

We decided we wanted to look for something to do when we retired, but we wanted to do something new.

Me and my brother both have full time jobs.

This is a weekend adventure for us.

We actually live full time someplace else, come up here on weekends, throw in a few days of vacation on a Friday or whatnot.

So when we retire, we'll do this full time.

And we're getting closer to that every day.

So we do about 3,500 gallons a year.

So we're very small.

We started planting the first batch of apples in the spring of 2018.

The trees will only get to be about 12 feet tall when they're fully mature.

And that makes it easier to pick and maintain.

JOE HOLOUBEK: Right now, we have over 1,500 apple trees.

All of our trees are cider specific trees.

So these are English, French, and American heirloom type apples that are really just used for making cider.

They give it tannins and mouthfeel and really brings an extra interest into the cider.

These aren't the type of apples that you would want to eat.

The nice thing about doing this in Pennsylvania is that there's a lot of great sources for apples.

So you've got Adams County, which is probably one of the very large apple producing areas.

So we have great access to really nice apples there.

There's a number of other local orchards in this area that we work with to get cider done.

[music playing] So today, we'll be pressing apples.

These are apples that came from this property.

Some of them are from some old trees that were on the property when we bought it.

And we have no idea what those apples are, what varieties they are.

And then the other ones are from our trees that we planted.

This will make up a new cider that when it's all ready called Hangtown Scrumpy.

[music playing] Me and my brother both grew up, we grew up in Nebraska.

We had some old apple trees that we used to pick, and my mom would make into these wonderful apple pies.

So the idea of getting an acreage that where we could grow apples kind of really brought us back to some of our childhood.

NARRATOR: The Holoubek brothers started selling their product at local events and farmers markets.

But when it came time to increase their sales, they took their cider to the city.

Our main distribution point is through PA Libations at Pittsburgh-based alcohol business.

For us, it gives us an outlet into a large Metropolitan area that we would not otherwise get.

It's good exposure, and it also gives us a retail event.

So when we're doing a farmers market and say, where can I get this stuff, we give them a place where they can go year round to get our product.

[music playing] CHRISTIAN SIMMONS: Pennsylvania Libations is the first and only privately operated liquor store in the history of Pennsylvania, where we represent only Pennsylvania made wine spirits, ciders, meads, and beer companies throughout the state.

In 2015, I reached out to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and asked them if putting together a multitude of distilleries under one roof was plausible.

So once I found out from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board that my idea was plausible, I ran with it.

And I had to add a whole bunch of distilleries to my portfolio to make the store work.

And so with that, we would essentially sublease shelf space for a nominal fee.

And then when the product sold, we'd get a commission.

So we're essentially a consignment shop.

We don't buy and resell.

We don't mark up the prices.

We sell it as is if it was at the distillery itself.

NARRATOR: This non-State store grew to four locations.

You can find Pennsylvania Libations in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Latrobe.

For our retail stores that we have in all of them, including the one in Philadelphia.

We do sampling from sweet roast, their distillery here in Pittsburgh.

And a big part of that sampling and a big part of this, just the store in general, is telling you the story of each of these distilleries.

CHRISTIAN SIMMONS: We have over 20 different distilleries.

And we love all the unique stories that come behind them.

And one of them is my favorite is 8 Oaks distilling out of New Tripoli, Pennsylvania.

They're veteran-owned.

They are a pure, what we call dirt to glass distillery.

They have a 25 acre farm where they grow all of their grain, from corn, wheat, rye, and barley.

They have a female distiller.

We love that their name 8 Oaks, 8 is the amount of letters in the word, "I love you," that they use to sign their family letters back home during war times, being that they are a veteran family-owned business.

I love the idea of representing the entire state of Pennsylvania just from different towns and different counties.

It's been a big part of the success, where distilleries that were never going to be known about because they might have been two hours away in some small town with not really much of a marketing budget.

And then next thing you know they're getting followed on social media because their friends are drinking it, word of mouth.

And it's been a marketing machine.

And that's kind of sometimes how I say it is that, we're not really a retail store.

We're a marketing team.

We're a marketing company that happens to sell alcohol.

NARRATOR: One brand you won't find at Pennsylvania Libations is Starr Hill Vineyard and Winery.

You may be surprised where you can buy it.

KENN STARR: So we open up the first winery in the nation inside Walmart with tasting rooms in Dubois, Pennsylvania.

We have store locations in Johnstown, State College Benner Pike, Clearfield, Butler, Pennsylvania, and Cranberry Township.

Well, as most wineries go, it all starts as a hobby.

So my father's dad started making wine in the '50s.

KEN STARR: We went out and started picking some grapes, and then we took them all to an apple press.

And they pressed them for us, and we started making wine.

But it wasn't just wine.

We made champagne.

And it was really good.

Now, some of the bottles really exploded all over the place, but that was OK.

But it got me interested in it.

Right now, I'm the second generation winemaker.

My dad back then, taught me how to make the wine, and we had a lot of fun doing it.

I got married, and had Kenny.

And when I started making wine again at this location, I taught him how to do it because I was busy doing other things too.

Then his son graduated high school and came to work for us.

He was the fourth generation.

So my dad, first, me, second, Kenny, third, and Tony, fourth generation winemaker.

KENN STARR: We thought we'd come out with a new product, something different for us.

So we collaborated with the Pennsylvania Wilds, which is the largest green scape in Pennsylvania.

And we came out with a product called Squatch N Berry.

So it's a pretty fun product.

It's a Huckleberry wine.

We sell it online.

And we could sell to over 39 different states.

We've shipped it out to the Bigfoot Museum out in Washington State.

I mean, all over.

A portion of the proceeds quarterly go back to the Pennsylvania Wilds.

NARRATOR: Often times, local wineries will work together to help promote each other.

One way they collaborate is by participating in wine trails.

But Kenn Starr wanted to take that idea one step further.

KENN STARR: So we decided, well, let's do something different.

Let's bring our winery friends together.

We'll start a Wine Festival.

This is our 18th year putting on an event now.

The largest crowd we ever had was 2,400 people.

It's grown and grown and grown.

NARRATOR: The right location is important to any startup.

But when trying to start a distillery, Ken Lloyd was looking for more than just a building.

KEVIN LLOYD: As I expanded the search, we came to Belfont, and we have the Big Spring which is right next door, which is a tremendous water source.

It is the reason that Belfont was founded in the first place.

The Big Spring produces about 10 million gallons of water per day.

And it's of medium hardness, but very consistent chemistry throughout the year.

All of our spirits are at least 50% water.

And so the minerality of the water brings a certain flavor, a distinct character to our product.

So that's what's important to us about the water.

LUCY ROGERS: The water here, it's interesting.

It was voted the best tasting water in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Rural Water Association.

And when you taste the water, it's very neutral.

It's very soft, when you taste it.

So there's-- I'm sure you've tasted water.

Tap water, you know, it's metallic.

And when you think about the fact that the spirits are 50% water, if that water has a weird flavor, that's going to impact your spirits.

KEVIN LLOYD: We are in the process of constructing a new manufacturing space in Pittsburgh.

And we will actually truck water from here there to finish off our spirits because that is so important to us.

NARRATOR: In 2011, the State Legislature passed what's now known as Act 113, which allows the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to issue what's called a limited distillery license.

This was a great benefit for companies like Big Spring Spirits.

KEVIN LLOYD: And some of the real benefits of that act is that as a manufacturer, we can self-distribute.

So we don't have to go through the state store necessarily.

We do and we can, but we can also have tasting rooms as we have here.

LUCY ROGERS: Some of the things that we continue to do, which I think are the biggest draw for people to come to the tasting room is the fact that we do tastings.

And that's why we want to call it a tasting room, so people make that connection.

So when you come here as a guest, we have a cocktail menu, and we have a small food menu.

But we want to make sure people know that they can taste spirits.

I think it's taken some time for Pennsylvanians to realize that they can go someplace and take a bottle home.

They're so ingrained in that they got to go to the state store.

So we try and remind people if you liked that, you can take a bottle home.

We can just throw it on your check.

But I think that really what changes the experience here.

KEVIN LLOYD: People think of Pennsylvania as a control state, which of course it is, and so they think of a very strict ways, laws, ways to distribute, especially spirits.

Wine and beer is a little bit more lax.

But people think that that's the only way you can buy spirits is to go to a state store.

And now that we're able to have these tasting rooms and be able to sell directly to restaurants and bars, it's really opened up the industry.

NARRATOR: Pennsylvania is home to more than 350 breweries, including the oldest in the nation.

While Logyard Brewing was only founded in 2017, its roots go back generations.

[music playing] What we like is that we have a story to tell, and there's a very rich history both in this area, but also with specific industries.

Ours being the logging forestry, sustainable forestry, nature, outdoors kind of personifies this area.

My great grandfather, and my grandfather, and those brothers, they all started in the logging game.

We use it as a strength for us when it came to our branding.

It came to our decor in our taproom or the names of our beers because it's something that we don't have to fake.

We know it.

So where we brew now is at a facility where my father had that built in 1994, and that stored all of our logging equipment.

And it was built on what we've always affectionately known as our log yard.

So when we looked for a name, my partner Michael had said, well, where are we standing?

Trying to come up with a name.

So where are we standing?

I said, well, I don't know.

I mean, we're here at the log yard.

And he said, I think we just named it.

NARRATOR: Royce grew up in Kane, but left the area to pursue his career.

When he came back to help run his family's timbering business, he discovered something while clearing out some nuisance birch trees.

ROYCE NOVOSEL-JOHNSON: And just by peeling the bark off, there's such a fragrance that you got to think, there's something to be done with this.

There's another use for this.

So we've incorporated that into one of our beers.

But we're also the only ones in the country that have the FDA and TTB approval to use the bark in the fashion that we did.

It makes it an extremely one of a kind type product.

This is a birch pole.

We try to use all of the parts of the birch trees that we cut down for numerous different things.

This is a piece of birch bark that we use in our bucking birch cane style ale.

This is boiled down to add flavor and aroma to the beer.

And this is one of our tap handles, which is also made of the birch poles.

ROYCE NOVOSEL-JOHNSON: We can get anything shipped to us just like the other guys can.

You Get different ingredients for flavorings you can get grain you can get hops you can't really get somebody to send you a tree.

So we kind of have it at our disposal and we try to make sure that we use it and use it in a sustainable way.

When we came to Kane and got involved, that could be as simple as joining in the beautification day called Care for Kane.

It actually made an impact.

You could feel it.

You could see it.

It was tangible, and it was infectious.

And it gets more people doing it.

I feel and see the same things going on with our brewery, which I don't think we would be able to accomplish if we were doing it somewhere else.

It's having an impact on the people that are affiliated with it.

You know, it's a tangible movement that you can kind of feel and be part of.

It's one of the coolest things I've experienced being in this town or doing the venture that we're doing, and how the two go hand in hand.

NARRATOR: Whether it's a hobby, a business, or a legacy, Pennsylvania Libations producers are always striving to create the best product possible.

And one thing is for sure, the Keystone State offers unlimited options to enjoy an adult beverage.

Now, it's time for wine and shine.

These next two stories come from the 2016 series Pennsylvania Makers, and a 2014 episode of Our Town.

[music playing] SCOTT HILLIKER: Each year, it's a little different than last year.

You have no control over it.

It's frustrating sometimes.

It's agriculture.

So it's going to happen.

My name is Scott Hilliker, and I'm a winemaker.

Mount Nittany Winery to me is a tradition.

We've been in business for 26 years.

It's about love.

It's about happiness and passion.

It's an art form.

[music playing] As a winemaker, we care for the wine, tend to the wine, develop the wine into ultimately what it's going to be when it gets time to be bottled.

[music playing] So it's up to the winemaker to oversee that whole process, to make sure that the quality is there, and that the love is there from the start.

[music playing] Coming in the morning, I enjoy walking through the vineyards, getting out there working with the grapes, working in the wine cellar.

I enjoy it all.

That sets the mood for me.

And then it puts me in the right mindset to make wine.

And that carries over into everything that I do.

[music playing] Take some home.

And when you open them up at home, you can kind of maybe close your eyes and picture being back at the winery again.

It just makes me feel good that I did this.

I made this wine that people are enjoying.

And ultimately, that's what it's about.

[music playing] Hi, I'm Jennifer Black, and I'm from Blackbird Distillery located right here in Jefferson County.

How we got started, it's kind of a long little story, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

About eight years ago, my husband built a steel.

Now, you can build a steel and make moonshine as long as you're not selling it.

So he would have me try this, and it was wicked.

I mean, I never had fuel oil.

But if I had fuel oil, that's what it tasted like.

In 2011, we were taking our son down to college in Florida and stopped at a distillery down there.

Came back, went on the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's website and saw they were having distilling licenses.

We made appointments with distilleries all across the country, and we went and met with owners to see if this was a good business to get into.

And obviously, it was.

What you find at Blackbird, you find a handcraft like they did back in the woods.

Everything we do there, we do by hand.

We make our moonshine in small batches.

It's a corn whiskey, so we get corn from a local farmer.

In our factory, my husband hand mashes, goes in the fermenters.

It's piped down the back, goes into the stills, and comes out to be this beautiful bottle of moonshine now.

This is Blackbird's.

This is straight shine right out of the steel.

We have nine flavors.

We have American, which is a bourbon.

It's aged in charred oak barrels for at least 100 days.

We have banana, pineapple, peach, lemon drop, and Apple Black.

Now, Apple Black is a moonshine with an Apple flavor and a cinnamon stick.

He's taste tested, but we do like to doing the taste test, but not during business hours, of course.

We want to create little stores.

And you can walk on little wooden porch and go from store to store to store.

But nothing competing with our community in Brookfield.

I'm not going to sell chocolates because we have Dan Smith Candies here.

Or I'm not going to sell cupcakes because the coffee cakes.

You know what I'm saying?

People don't realize what an awesome town this is.

The beautiful antique stores we have, we're sending them all down to everybody.

I'm saying go down to this antique store.

Go down to this gift shop.

Go down to the candy store.

You know, it's people helping people.

All I'm doing is making shine.

That's it, man.

It's great.

NARRATOR: While shopping for libations, you may have noticed some interesting artwork.

Many breweries have turned their cans into canvases.

[music playing] Our final story is about a libations adventurer from Louisville whose inspiration came from a fantasy role playing game.

CHASE HEASLET: Today, we are at the Boalsburg farmers market.

I own Goblin Alchemy, which makes meat.

A traditional meat is just honey, water, and yeast.

Everything goes in at the start.

It is a single fermentation style.

Let it run three to four months.

We also make a few fruit ones.

We don't do flavorings or concentrates.

We stick with the fruit itself.

So if it's something like peaches, for example, we'll bag it in a mesh bag, throw it in, and let it just be in there.

Mead is said to be the oldest known form of alcohol.

It goes back to the Viking eras.

It's been theorized that they discovered mead by someone treating themselves to water with honey in it because maybe they had a sore throat.

Although, they were not expecting it to ferment.

My father is a former Marine, and he would home brew in between maneuvers with his squad.

He would treat his entire squad with something to drink.

And for them, it kept morale high.

Goblin Alchemy started with my father inviting a work friend of his to our Dungeons and Dragons game.

My dad was bringing his home brew, and the friend wanted us to come make it for him.

We thought he meant he just wanted a home brew batch to start up for himself.

No, it turns out he owns a winery.

So we decided we were going to make a mead brand for him.

And fast forward a couple of years, we actually grew to the point where we were consuming a third of his winery.

And the next conversation was OK, it's time to branch off into our own thing.

Our artwork comes from a collective and shared love of Dungeons and Dragons.

Our overall best seller is our namesake, Goblin Alchemy.

I am more partial to the apple flavors.

My favorite happens to be the Siren Song.

I enjoy the process of it.

Mixing it, bottling it, and being able to just watch it flow.

I consider myself more so a learner than a master.

Even now, I could go my entire life and not learn everything.

NARRATOR: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on Keystone Stories.

[music playing]