For the past few years, Harridan Vodka has been celebrating Halloween with special “Paranormal Reserve” vodka, a limited edition batch of spirits aged in the real Conjuring House in 2021, the museum where the actual Annabelle doll resides in 2022, and America’s most haunted hotels last year. This year’s “Paranormal Reserve” has been announced!
On October 13, Harridan Vodka releases the fourth edition of its highly anticipated Paranormal Reserve, available at ShopHarridan.com. This year’s collection of 700 bottles rested for one month in two of America’s most haunted asylums: the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia and Pennhurst Asylum in Spring City, Pennsylvania.
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum began construction in 1858, welcoming its first patients in 1864. Designed to hold 250 patients and offer world-class treatment, the Asylum eventually housed 2,400 patients in overcrowded and generally poor conditions – becoming the site of forced lobotomies, patient abuse, and murder.
350 bottles rested throughout the oldest wing of the hospital, which dates back to the Civil War.
Considered by many to be one of the most haunted destinations in the world, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum is home to at least 8 identifiable ghosts – Lily, Dean, Big Jim, David Mason, Slewfoot, Frank, Larry, and Nurse Elizabeth – alongside a host of unnamed entities. These spirits have manifested in the form of apparitions, disembodied noises, and physical contact – as investigated by SyFy’s “Ghost Hunters” and “Ghost Hunters Academy” as well as the Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures” and “Paranormal Challenge.”
An estimated 4,000 people received lobotomies at the asylum and over 2,000 people are buried at the asylum’s cemetery. The exact number of individuals who perished at the asylum are unknown, but estimates range from 4,000 to 30,000. The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum closed in 1994.
Pennhurst State School and Hospital was built in 1908, originally as the Eastern Pennsylvania Institution for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic. 350 bottles rested in the site’s most paranormally active areas, including the Quaker and Mayflower buildings, as well as Limerick Hall, which only recently opened to paranormal investigators.
The asylum, which was eventually dubbed as the “Shame of Pennsylvania,” was built to house 500 individuals – but became overcrowded with a peak of 3,500 people in the 1950s, many of whom were admitted as children. Patients were confined to cribs as adults, administered punitive injections, and subjected to solitary confinement. With such a tragic and tortured history, Pennhurst holds some of the most well-documented paranormal activity in the world – including physical contact with ghost hunters, inexplicable door slamming, disembodied voices, and full body apparitions. The site has been investigated by A&E’s World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt, Ghost Hunters, and Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventurers. Pennhurst closed its doors in 1987.
The limited edition bottles (750ml, 44% ABV, SRP $179.99), which will be available online at ShopHarridan.com, are packaged in bespoke cases inspired by early 1900s medicine kits. A portion of proceeds will go to Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance, as well as The Friends Auxiliary. The set includes gloves for safe handling and an authenticity card. Each label is hand-numbered and denotes which haunted asylum housed the bottle. Inside each bottle is Harridan’s award-winning, 88-proof vodka.
“As always, it’s up to each consumer if they wish to keep the bottle sealed or enjoy,” says Bridgette Taylor, Founder and CEO of Harridan Vodka. “This year’s Reserve is particularly tragic and tormented. I have not yet decided if I will consume this edition, and I hope we can do a small part part to preserve the history of these institutions.”
Founded in 2020 by Bridgette Taylor, Harridan Vodka is ultra-premium, certified organic, and only double-distilled from locally grown New York State corn. The “Spirit of Defiance,” this female-owned and operated handcrafted spirit defies the vodka category with its complex, sippable flavor profile; and defies the spirits industry overall with its unabashed feminism and fascination with the occult. For more information, please visit www.harridan.com for more info.
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