By Richard Thomas Thursday, November 1st saw the passing of Dave Pickerell, a pivotal figure in modern American Whiskey and it’s craft sector in particular. Pickerell went from a leading role at one of Kentucky’s big distilleries to become one of American Whiskey’s most influential consultants, helping numerous companies to establish sourced brands and build distilleries. Pickerell took his first ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: C+ Like their Oregon Single Malt, the Oregon Rye Malt from Rogue Ales (famous for Rogue Dead Guy Ale) is not actually “beer made from whiskey.” Instead, it’s whiskey based on certain specialized grains particular to Rogue’s beer-making operation: their Dream Rye and their Dare & Risk Malted Barley. The rye is also malted, and the ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Rye Whiskey was weakened by Prohibition and then done in by the Whiskey Bust of the 1970s, and is decline too with it the distilleries of Maryland. Thanks to the concurrent whiskey and craft Distilling booms, whiskey-making has returned to Maryland, and appropriately that return is based squarely on rye. Sagamore Spirit opened their plant ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Yesterday I was observing that even though craft whiskey has been a thing for at least a decade, there are almost no examples of a micro-distilled whiskey that is even several years old, let alone ten. In fact, the only one I can think of is Old Potrero Hotaling’s series, a periodic line of limited ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Anchor Distilling’s (now Hotaling & Co.) Old Portero is craft whiskey before there was craft whiskey, predating the movement we know today by almost two decades. However, it took the explosion of small distillers for Old Potrero to pursue brand expansions. After all, you need to know a market is there. Old Potrero 18th Century ...