By Richard Thomas The Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB for short, is the agency responsible for regulating what appears on the labels of alcoholic beverages in America. If an enthusiast is familiar with the agency, that knowledge likely comes from a time when blogs and bourbon forums were rife with discontent over inconsistently applied ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Brimstone builds on Balcones’s inaugural effort, Baby Blue. One of the earliest hits of the craft whiskey scene, Baby Blue’s major innovation was being a corn whiskey made entirely from Hopi blue corn. Taking the same distillate, the distillery then smokes it with Texas scrub oak. The usual process for smoking whiskeys is to smoke ...

The clouds parted and the sun shone just as crowds gathered in front of Dueling Barrels Brewery & Distillery for a look at Eastern Kentucky’s first combined beer, bourbon and moonshine operation. Gleaming copper pot stills towered in the background as Alltech officials and community leaders cut the ribbon on the highly anticipated project, which will open for public tours ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Moonshine has a reputation for being rocket fuel. In truth, illicit moonshine often is fairly high octane stuff and for sound economic reasons. Although stories of white lightning being distilled so high as to be able to run a car off it are usually just that, stories, the proof often is high because it’s easier ...

Kentucky Mist, heretofore best known as the moonshine-making micro-distillery that got into a trademark tussle with the University of Kentucky, has announced they are moving on up. Currently located in Whitesburg, Kentucky, part of Southeastern Kentucky “coal country,” the distillery says they have at The Summit in Lexington. The Summit at Fritz Farm is a new, upscale and mixed residential-retail ...