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What's Cooking on 1060: Pennsylvania Spirits Convention

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With new laws opening up opportunities for those who want to make distilled spirits, Pennsylvania now has more distilleries than ever. There's a new spirits convention that's highlighting just that.

The inaugural Pennsylvania Spirits Convention and the 2nd annual American Whiskey Convention take place Thursday and Friday, March 23-24 at Citizens Bank Park.

"We created the Pennsylvania spirits Convention to really highlight the connection between the farmers and the distilleries. The better the distilleries do, the better the farmers will do."

That's event organizer Laura Fields, CEO of the Delaware Valley Fields Foundation, which focuses on preservation of farming and grain production. She says this 2-day event is geared toward local spirits enthusiasts.

"So we have specialty whiskies that normally you would not find int he stores; but you'll find them here at the event!"

There will also be panel discussions and tastings.

"We have Moonshine University coming up from Kentucky and Moonshine University is actually a school in Kentucky that teaches distilling."

Fields says the interest in Pennsylvania distilling stemmed from law changes that opened up opportunities for spirit-makers to sell directly to the public.

"Before 2005 I think there were two or three distilleries. In 2010 there were four and now in 2017 there are nearly 70."

But because of the law, prior to 2010, an event like this would not have been possible."

"Absolutely not, there wouldn't have been enough people to fill the tables!"

 

Hear the full podcast (runs 17:07)…

And for this week, that's "What's Cooking on 1060!"

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