Distilling Research Grant Report: Fermenting with Saltwater
In 2018, Cape Town, South Africa, narrowly escaped “Day Zero,” the point at which the city would run out of fresh water. In 2020, Sydney, Australia, implemented water restrictions. In 2023, about 51% of the continental United States is...
The Terroir of Tea
Coffee-infused spirits have been a bar staple for decades. Now, some spirits brands are venturing into the taste of tea.
Expanding from its native range spanning the Eastern Himalayas to Southeast Asia, tea has become a touchstone for cultures around...
Grape Gins Down Under
In 2015, Four Pillars launched its Bloody Shiraz gin, which is made by steeping its Rare Dry Gin in shiraz grapes from the Yarra Valley, resulting in a sweet, vibrant, yet still “ginny” spirit. Since then, the grape-based gin...
Navigating Old Texts
Sometimes old texts offer a window into the past that is also a path toward the future. Other times they include ingredients that are best left behind. Old texts can be used as inspiration by distillers so long as...
Branchwater Farms Digs Deep
Branchwater Farms in the Hudson Valley, New York, community of Milan was born of a midstream career change by wine sales veterans and husband-and-wife team Kevin Pike and Robin Touchet. Pike spent several years directing sales for national importer...
Heritage Grains
You are what you eat.
We scan labels for details of where the ingredients were grown, where livestock was reared, the exact variety of apple. Food sure, spirits? Not so much. A label will likely reveal the percentage of rye...
The Spirit of Rye
Carlo DeVito is a lifelong publishing executive whose clients have included adult beverage authors Kevin Zraly, Matt Kramer, Oz Clarke, Clay Rison, Salvatore Calabrese, Jim Meehan, and other authors such as Stephen Hawking, Dan Rather, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,...
The Primer Portion
When Romans arrived in northern France two millennia ago they found the locals drinking not water but a rough cider from wild apples. According to records from that time it tasted awful but was preferable to falling ill from...
From DoD to C2G
How two Department of Defense chemists made Southfork Vodka the darling of California’s cocktails-to-go revolution
Bottles were pouring with pride as California announced it was keeping a new cocktails-to-go program for at least another half decade. Last fall’s decision to...
Craft Distilling’s Pied Piper of Heritage Corn
The founder of award-winning Wood Hat Spirits, promoter of ancient varieties of whiskey’s cheapest ingredient, says in the future everyone must have their own corn.
You don’t know jack about these topics compared to Gary Hinegardner: Yellow Dent corn, Bacillus...
