By Richard Thomas Irish whiskey is booming, so much so that it seems a week doesn’t pass without a new distillery breaking ground or a new expression launch making a splash. This boom is a golden age in Irish whiskey for American drinkers in particular, since so much of what is going on in Ireland has the American market firmly ...

By Richard Thomas Iowa-based Templeton Rye found itself at the center of a minor flap after announcing their Templeton Rye Pork Project earlier this week. The project calls for using Templeton Rye’s spent mash grain as animal feed to raise premium hogs. Since turning spent grain over to animal feed is a standard practice in the distilling industry, ostensibly the ...

By Richard Thomas Twenty years ago, vodka was all the rage, but being trendy doesn’t necessarily make something better. Even now, with whiskey enjoying a resurgence in popularity, it is still outsold virtually everywhere by vodka, and by a substantial margin. Yet whiskey always has topped vodka, and always will top vodka, and fact well-demonstrated by the five reasons below. ...

By Richard Thomas According to Louisville Courier-Journal, Maker’s Mark announced Thursday that it is finally set to enact long-shelved expansion plans. This move comes after years of rising demand for Maker’s Mark, and after the Loretto, Kentucky-based distillery attempted to meet that demand last year first by cutting its whiskey from 45 to 42% abv, and then by resorting to ...

By Richard Thomas While illegal moonshining dominates the airwaves, it’s legal moonshine that has a growing presence on liquor store and bar shelves. Yet purists object to the very idea of any product made for retail sale being labeled “moonshine,” insisting that the term applies only to illegally made spirits. According to them, anything with taxes paid and calling itself ...