By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Although aging beer in old whiskey barrels caught on in the United States at least a decade ago, the idea has been slow to make its way elsewhere. Indeed, over in Scotland they were aging whisky in beer barrels before they were aging beer in whisky barrels, but that is starting to change now. One such ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- It’s a good time to be drinking in America, with decades-long interest in craft beers, fine wines, and good spirits spurring small, high-end producers across the country. The days when your choices were “Mass Market Product A,” “Mass Market Product B,” and “Subpar Product #1” are long gone. One way in which these parallel developments ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Finishing beer in bourbon barrels isn’t a trend anymore; it’s a fixture of the craft beer scene. Yet in my book, it’s not the bourbon barrel ales that occupy center stage in this particular category. That place is reserved for bourbon barrel stouts. Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company has already made quite a splash with ...

Part II of our Interview with Town Branch Distillery of Lexington, Kentucky By Richard Thomas This continues our interview with Mark Coffman (Engineering Director) and Ken Lee (Master Brewer) of Town Branch Distillery, the first bourbon distillery to operate in Lexington, Kentucky in more than 50 years, and makers of Town Branch Bourbon, Pearse Lyons Reserve, and other whiskey products. ...

Interview with Town Branch’s Ken Lee, Brewery Manager, and Mark Coffman, Director of Engineering By Richard Thomas When Alltech expanded it’s brewery by adding Town Branch Distillery, it became the first company to make bourbon in Lexington, Kentucky since the closure of the Old James E. Pepper Distillery in 1958. During a recent visit to this latest addition to the ...