By Debbie Shocair Rating: B Right from the heart of moonshine country, Franklin County, Virginia, comes a new member of the American Craft Corn Whiskey movement. Franklin County Distillery’s (FCD’s) White Label Corn Whiskey builds on the reputation that authentic bootleggers built, and claims to offer a “true taste of history and heritage in every bottle.” Corn whiskey can be ...

By Richard Thomas One of the slew of accessory products that came out as a result of the Bourbon Boom were home-aging kits. Many of these were nothing more than oak sticks, with variations adding textured surfaces, charring or toasting. There have also been miniature barrels and, strangest of all, twirling whiskey sticks. The usual advised method for using the ...

By Richard Thomas Vermont is a little state. Only Wyoming has fewer people in it, and in geographic size it is typical of the small states of New England. Yet that little place is renowned for its natural splendor, and that combined with an iconoclastic streak have given rise to Vermont having a reputation for craftiness in many things. Charming ...

By Richard Thomas I was presented with a minor personal dilemma recently, very much in the vein of trivial “white guy problems,” because of a new book that word of came across my desk. Like many a Gen Xer guy, I’m a huge horror fan, dating back to the low budget, VHS-bound slasher movies of the 1980s. Yet, while I ...

There Is Much More To Whiskey-Making In Iowa Than Just Rye By Richard Thomas One of the peculiar features of the craft whiskey picture in the Hawkeye State is just how big a presence rye has in it. This is because of Templeton Rye, the notorious bottler that preceded the emergence of Iowa’s first micro-distilleries by several years. Templeton sourced ...