About this Event
Raise the first glass of MixBurgh week to Bessemer Rye.
On Sunday, Nov. 8, Iron City Distilling will launch Bessemer Rye on the Sienna Mercato rooftop and kick off MixBurgh, Pittsburgh's first cocktail and spirits conference. Join the bartenders, distillers, and speakers in town for the week, and get your first pour before Bessemer becomes everyone's favorite rye.
A PITTSBURGH RYE, REBUILT
Western Pennsylvania rye was famous across the country in the 1800s, then faded after Prohibition. Iron City Master Distiller Matt Strickland, author of "Whiskey: From Grain to Glass," set out to bring it back. He runs Pennsylvania's first three-chamber still in more than 60 years, the kind of still that put Monongahela rye on the map, and Iron City now uses more heirloom Keystone Rosen Rye than any distillery in the state. The whiskey comes out of the old boiler house of the PPG glass works in Creighton, on the Allegheny River.
HEADED FOR THE SHELVES
Until now, Bessemer Rye came out only in single-barrel drops of a few hundred bottles. That ends this season. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board picked Bessemer Rye for 50 Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores across Western Pennsylvania, five times the usual limit for a local maker, with bottles expected on shelves in late November or early December. Bessemer Gin will follow in 20 of those stores.
Iron City's notes on its first barrel: pepper, citrus, rye bread, and marmalade on the nose; vanilla cake and caramel on the palate; a long finish.
THE NIGHT
Bessemer on the bar, the city lit up around the roof, and the people who run Pittsburgh's best bars.
Free with RSVP. Iron City will plan the night from this list, so please register every guest.
21+ with valid ID.
Before the roof, check out the first MixBurgh guest shifts: Lance Winters of St. George Spirits at Acacia from 5 p.m., and Massimo Zitti of Mother (Toronto) at Bar Botanico from 8pm.
MixBurgh runs Nov. 8 to 10 across downtown Pittsburgh. Conference passes: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mixburgh-conference-2026-tickets-1991884694742
Event venue & nearby stays
Sienna Mercato, 942 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, United States
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