Social Still In Bethlehem Set To Open As The Lehigh Valley’s First Distillery Next Month

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Adam Flatt’s mother, Elaine Pivinski, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first winery in 1981.

Flatt is now on target to open the region’s first distillery next month.

Flatt, who co-owns Franklin Hill Vineyards in Lower Mount Bethel Township with his mother, is just weeks away from opening Social Still distillery in Bethlehem.

“It’s cool we have that pioneering tradition continuing,” he said.

Social Still is on target to have a soft opening the first week of December, Flatt said last week during a tour of the new operation. Work on the building is about 80 percent complete and the company is planning its first batch of vodka and gin later this week, Flatt said.

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2014/11/social_still_in_bethlehem_set.html

Spirits Rising Between The Finger Lakes

New York’s Finger Lakes. Lying below Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes formed in tunnel valleys. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OVID, NY — For more than 30 years, John Myer has farmed the ridge above Cayuga Lake and has seen the passing traffic from winery to winery grow each year.  His corn, wheat and soybeans wind up as flour, tofu and animal feed, not part of the burgeoning trade in locally made beverages.

No longer.

This fall, John and his brother Joe opened the tasting room of Myer Farm Distillers, where guests — many already undoubtedly cruising the Cayuga and Seneca wine trails — can sample spirits made on the farm from grains grown there.

Selling vodka, gin and clear, unaged whiskey — and with plans for aged spirits, including bourbon — Myer Farm is the second stand-alone artisan distillery to open in the southeastern Finger Lakes in the past five years.  The first was Finger Lakes Distilling in Hector, which opened in 2009 and has since released its first aged whiskies to critical acclaim and built its off-premises sales to account for half its revenue.

Read more:  http://www.stargazette.com/article/20121117/NEWS01/311170034/Spirits-rising-between-Finger-Lakes?odyssey=mod%7Cdnmiss%7Cumbrella%7C1&nclick_check=1