Pittsburgh: A Craft Beverage Destination

With 50+ craft breweries, it’s no wonder that Pittsburgh has been continually been recognized as a top destination for beer lovers. Whether you’re looking for a refreshing IPA, a flavored stout or a creative sour, visitors will find no shortage of unique craft brews.

Penn Brewery, the oldest and largest craft brewery in Pittsburgh, specializes in German-style beers brewed in the tradition of German immigrants, while Strange Roots Experimental Ales Brewery is a unique style brewery that specializes in foraged ingredients, spontaneous fermentation and experimentation.

East End Brewing Company in the Larimer neighborhood is another great longstanding option. Co-owner Scott and Julie Smith opened the brewery in 2004, which now also features East End Chewing, a restaurant within the brewery serving rustic, thick-crust pizzas that pair perfectly with their brews. East End Brewing’s You Are Here series is an ongoing project, started in 2019, to craft a beer for each of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods. Additionally, East End is also the home of Barmy Soda Company, which has since expanded its sales beyond the brewery to other local bars, restaurants, cafes, universities and grocers.

New breweries continue to pop up each year, ensuring there’s always somewhere fresh to pour and explore. Some of the latest openings include a Burghers Brewing location on The Highline in the Southside (and another to come to Millvale in 2025), Greenhouse Co-op in Greenfield, Local Remedy in Oakmont, Tortured Souls Brewing Co. in New Kensington and Iron City Distilling in Creighton.

Trace Brewing also recently opened its second location, Trace Echo, in Pittsburgh’s Uptown neighborhood. At both its Bloomfield and Uptown locations, Trace brews coffee from Ghost Coffee Collab, which is roasted by nationally-ranked barista and their Head of Coffee Joe Burns. Trace also offers a six-month vocational program that helps to fuel the area craft beverage community. Both Trace and Necromancer are also known for their particularly welcoming spaces, encouraging diversity within their communities and across the industry.

Pittsburgh’s craft beer community at-large is garnering national attention for promoting inclusivity. A 2021 article in Forbes said Pittsburgh is “leading the world in brewery diversity and inclusion.” From Barrel & Flow Fest, the nation’s first Black brew festival, to the Pittsburgh Brewery Diversity Council, which organized an ongoing project – She Knows Beer – that supports women’s causes and much more, Pittsburgh’s craft breweries are a welcoming, diverse community.

Pittsburgh has plenty of other craft beverage options, including several local distilleries, cideries, wineries and more.

Learn about Pittsburgh’s unique spirits history at Wigle Whiskey, the first distillery in the City of Pittsburgh since Prohibition. Visitors to the Wigle Distillery Bottle Shop + Kitchen in the Strip District can enjoy dine-in food, cocktails, whiskey flights and tours before purchasing one of the Wigle’s many award-winning bottles to take home.

Also located in the historic Strip District is Kingfly Spirits, a family-owned craft distillery and tasting bar offering a variety of unique spirits inspired by international spirit making, ingredient sources, culture and rituals, as well as Allegheny Distilling, the creators of Maggie’s Farm Rum, the first commercially available, Pennsylvania-made craft rum since Prohibition.

New to the craft beverage scene is Black-owned Noire Expedition. Owner Kenyan Hicks strives to tell the Black American story across generations through locally made spirits – a story that is currently printed on every bottle of Noire Expedition American Gin, a floral and citrus forward gin that is already being stocked in bars across the city and beyond. Black woman-owned TLC Libations is also new to the Pittsburgh craft beverage scene focusing on unique bottled cocktails brewed with locally sourced ingredients. TLC Libations' signature pre-mixed cocktails can be enjoyed by the bottle, keg or by appointment at their OASIS Taproom in East Liberty.

From the Pittsburgh Winery, an urban winery located in Pittsburgh's historic Strip District, to Narcisi Winery, a family-owned winery in the outskirts of Pittsburgh offering views of the rolling hills of the countryside, and more, Pittsburgh has an array of delicious wines made right in the area. Uniquely housed in a 19th century firehouse below the largest collection of Roberto Clemente’s memorabilia, Engine House 25 Wines is an urban wine cellar that helps to fund the Clemente Museum by contributing 21% of wine purchases. Both the museum and the wine cellar were developed by executive director and wine maker Duane Rieder through a passion for making good wine and preserving the memory of his childhood hero, offering a unique experience to blend the best of both worlds with tour and tasting.

Meads, otherwise known as honey wine, and ciders are also popular throughout Pittsburgh. Many area bars and breweries also have at least one cider on tap, but there are also a number of notable businesses that focus specifically on cider. Arsenal Cider House & Wine Cellar, Inc. is located just a few steps from the historic Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville. The family-owned, U.S. Civil War thematic winery specializes in artisanal hard apple cider, cider-style fruit and grape wines and mead, all of which are crafted from regional fruit. Threadbare Cider and Mead also produces high-quality craft ciders and meads on-site made with local apples and honey. With locations in Mt. Lebanon, Washington and Cranberry, Kingview Meadhouse & Winery offers more than 50 varieties, from dry to sweet and simple to complex.

And for those looking for non-alcoholic options, many area breweries, bars and restaurants offer non-alcoholic beers and craft mocktail options, like Two Frays Brewery in Garfield, Bridges & Bourbon Downtown and The Open Road, which stocks many local businesses with their non-alcoholic beverages. Or fuel up on various local coffee, tea or juice options, including de Fer Coffee & Tea, Fuku Tea, Live Fresh Cold Pressed Juice + Smoothie Bar and many more.