Laurel Highlands Pour Tour 3.0 adds new craft beverage makers
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Craft beverage makers in Westmoreland, Fayette and Somerset counties usually join the Laurel Highlands Pour Tour to increase traffic and increase sales at their establishments.
For Shane Hissem, owner of Tap-It Brewery & Grill in Mt. Pleasant Township, it was the other way around. As more customers found the new spot near the Westmoreland Fairgrounds, they encouraged him to sign on to the tour.
Tap-It is one of several new locations partnering with GO Laurel Highlands for Laurel Highlands Pour Tour 3.0, the third iteration of the incentive program that rewards visitors to participating breweries, wineries, distilleries, meaderies and cideries.
Tap-It is in proximity to tour partners Tattibogle CiderWorks and Unity and Helltown breweries, Hissem said.
“We’re kind of in the middle of those places, so people would drive by and come in and ask, ‘Are you on the Pour Tour?’ ” he said. “More people started coming in and loving our beers, telling their friends and coming back, and begging me to get on the pour tour.”
Hissem considers Tap-It, which he owns with his wife, Kari, to be more of a diner-style restaurant than a bar.
“We’re not a bar,” he said. “I don’t want people coming in, doing shots and drinking all night long. I want to serve great food and offer a couple house-brewed beers.”
Tap-It serves breakfast and dinner Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner Fridays through Sundays. Its brews include a West Coast IPA, an Against the Wind light lager and an orange wheat beer.
“We have a habanero line that people love. We sell a lot of those,” Hissem said. “People come in every week to get growlers of it.”
Also new among the 48 tour locations are El Diablo Brewing Co. in Greensburg, Yinzer Valley Farms cider house in East Huntingdon, Chicken Hill Distillery in Ligonier Township, Deer Creek Winery in Uniontown and Forbes Trail Brewing in Stoystown.
Craft beverage enthusiasts wanting to take the tour can download a Pour Tour app or pick up a passport at any participating location or at the GO Laurel Highlands office, 113 E. Main St., Ligonier. The passport contains a map of all the tour partners, along with more information about the program.
After making a purchase at a tour partner, passport-holders can collect a sticker for the corresponding passport page. Prizes are awarded in tiers after visiting 15, 30 and 45 locations, and can be redeemed at the visitors bureau office.
The tour runs through Dec. 31.
Tier 1 prize is a Pour Tour T-shirt. Tier 2 prize is either a Zippo flask or a 28-ounce growler. For those reaching Tier 3, the prize is either a leather-and-canvas wine tote or a portable outdoor beverage table, along with entry into a grand-prize drawing for a Laurel Highlands getaway.
The original Pour Tour launched in late 2019, “and we all know what happened shortly after,” said Ann Nemanic, GO Laurel Highlands executive director.
“The program helped them to keep their doors open (during the pandemic), but it was a mutual opportunity,” she said. “We started with about 30 craft beverage makers. Now they are the single largest growth segment in the Laurel Highlands in our tourism asset.”
By calculating the average cost of a drink and a ticket at a participating location, along with the number of prizes redeemed, the Pour Tour is estimated to have infused more than $1 million into those businesses since it began, Nemanic said.
More information is available at lhpourtour.com.