The Whiskey Ring Podcast

Are You In The Muff Market? Are You A Muff Liquor Man? Ok folks, we're going to have fun on this one. When I started the research for this episode, I wasn't sure whether the "Muff Liquor Company" name was a tongue-in-somewhere thing or a hard lean-in. Turns out it's the latter with a healthy dose of the former. It is a company based in Muff, Ireland that makes liquor, and yes the

Blueberry Muffins in Cognac and an Ice Cream Collab Waiting To Happen Allison Parc began as a ballet dancer, and nearly 20 years after leaving that career behind, she still exudes the confidence and posture of one about to assume first position. Her new career, embarked upon at just 23 years old, was wildly different: one grounded in a product of indulgence and imbibing. Even she w

Shochu Tradition Meets The New Japanese Whisky In Kagoshima, along one of the longest beaches in Japan, lies Kanosuke Distillery. Though the family has been distilling shochu for 140+ years, they hadn't entered the whisky sphere. That changed in 2017, with the first products coming out in 2021. This is a new standard for Japanese whisky, making grain whisky on shochu stills and us

He's ozonating spirits, y'all - what the hell. I'm thrilled to welcome back my friend, distilling guru, alchemist, historian, artist, swearer, and so many more things, Alan Bishop. There's no need for long show notes on this one. It's a wild ride, from injecting ozone into sunflower spirit to what it means to be the face and embodiment of a brand. Everything else in the middle is

Where I Spent More Time With A Cat Than In The Distillery Though I really ought to return! Leiper's Fork Distillery was founded by Lee Kennedy, who had a long-standing fascination with the history and science of whiskey production (starting with a Fox Fire book series I'd never heard of, all about Appalachian life). After experimenting with home distilling as a teenager, Kennedy p

Sugar Kelp, A Little Peat, And A Vision For The Future I first heard about - well, read about - Isle of Harris Distillery in Dave Broom's A Sense of Place. A small community known for its beauty, its tweed, and its declining population, its would-be savior was not a Scot at all, but an American who had grown fond of the area (owning an island nearby) and wanted to save it. How tho

An OG New York Distiller - But You May Know Them From Elsewhere Finger Lakes Distilling is one of the oldest distilleries in New York, having started in 2007. They're part of the Empire Rye collaborative, and are producing whiskies, brandies, vodka, and a soju spirit. But you probably know them for a serendipitous partnership: Pursuit Spirits, from Kenny and Ryan at Bourbon Pursui

High Malt Bourbon and Community Support, No LCP Needed: The Story Behind Chattanooga Whiskey A few years is a lifetime in craft whiskey, and few brands epitomize this more to me than Chattanooga Whiskey. When I first tried them - most likely their now-gone 1816, which was sourced transparently but not representative of where they are today - I was not a fan. Something was off, and

From Bogs to Bottles: Peat's Unbreakable Bond With Whiskey This one's for you, Bill. In this episode of the Whiskey Ring Podcast, I had the pleasure of welcoming Mike Billett, a peatland specialist and researcher, to discuss his newly released book, Peat and Whiskey: The Unbreakable Bond. His passion for peat led him to write a popular science book that not only highlights the scie

Untangling the Myths and Legends of Whiskey How many distillery tours have you been on? Are you a veteran of the hobby, or a new entrant looking to learn as much as they can, or perhaps someone on a family trip taking a brief trip to a nearby distillery for fun? Whichever of these applies to you, chances are you will hear something (probably multiple somethings) that are apocryphal