Interview With Craft Distilling Expert And Master Distiller John Jeffery By Richard Thomas Although the American craft distilling boom is still a relatively new phenomenon, it already has some well-established figures, and by that I mean other than Chip Tate. John Jeffery was the head of a university distilling research program before moving over to work at one of the ...

By Richard Thomas As I keep an eye out for whiskey fans among actors, artists, authors and the like, one of the things I have noticed is how popular the “water of life” is with those notables of the more underground persuasion. This was certainly the case several years ago, prior to the current big whiskey boom, and it seems ...

By Kurt Maitland Earlier this year, Dale DeGroff aka “King Cocktail”curated a George Dickel Rye and Cocktail Event at Bacchanal in NYC. You know Dale from our interview with him earlier this year as well as his having written some of the best cocktail books in circulation, such as his classic The Craft of the Cocktail and The Essential Cocktail. Dale ...

By Richard Thomas As with so many things trendy, New York hosts one of the hottest whiskey scenes in the U.S. Between the liquor companies, stores and bars, it seems every single day hosts not just one, but several tasting events. At the same time, New York remains one of the national centers for indie music. Keeping both things in ...

By Richard Thomas In their quest for authenticity most legal moonshiners try to lay claim to some kind of illegal connection, but few come across as authentic as Silver Trail Distillery’s Spencer Balentine. With family roots in Western Kentucky ‘shining, Balentine can talk the talk, so much so that he appeared as “The Legal Guy” in Discovery Channel’s Moonshiners. He walks ...