Barrel-Aging Your Booze

by | Oct 12, 2018 | Cocktails, Food & Drink | 219 comments

Barrel-aging booze is literally nothing more than pouring liquor from one container into another.  That’s it; if you can handle drinking out of a glass rather than the bottle, you have the necessary skill-set.  I discovered barrel-aged cocktails on a fishing trip this year, and thought “I gotta give that a try.”  This is my story (for the TL/DR crowd: its dead easy, as far as I can tell its very difficult to impossible to actually wind up with booze that’s worse than what you started with, so why not give it a go?)

Barrel-aging your own liquor and cocktails is done in small white oak barrels that have been charred on the inside, just like the big barrels the big boys use.  I got a couple of one liter barrels from Oak Barrels Ltd., because that’s who made the barrels at the bar on my fishing trip.  I have no basis for recommending any of the many barrel makers over any others.

So, how’s it work?

First, think about what size barrel you want to use; they range from one liter on up.   As with everything in life, there is a trade-off:  The larger the barrel, the slower the booze ages.  You can use a barrel probably 4 times, maybe 5.  I’m refilling the barrels immediately after emptying them – you can leave them empty, but they need to be cleaned and stored full of water.  A one-liter barrel will deliver around a gallon or so of booze before its done, and mixed drinks don’t store forever, so you need to think about how fast you will drink whatever you barrel-age.

To prep the barrel, rinse it out (it will have a few splinters and bits of charred wood loose in it), fill it with water and let it sit for a day, empty it out and rinse it again.  It may leak a little when you first fill it with water until the wood expands, but mine just got a few stains from the charred insides around a few seams.  If yours are leaking and won’t quit, you can use beeswax to stop the leaks.

Fill with your concoction of choice, right to the rim.  The holes on these small barrels are pretty, well, small – if you don’t have a small funnel, you will need one.  You will start losing volume due to absorption/evaporation.  At this point, recommendations differ: you can either top it off (what I am doing), or you can rotate the barrel a quarter turn each way every day or so to keep the wood from drying out.  In a dry climate (like mine), apparently what evaporates is mostly water, but in a more humid client its mostly alcohol.

A new one-liter barrel generally ages the first batch in a week or so.  Every subsequent batch takes longer.  Taste test periodically, and decant when you think its done.  I do think it’s possible to over-age liquor in these small barrels, since one batch of the Manhattans I am barrel-aging was getting really, really woody tasting.  Make sure you save some empty bottles, by the way, so you have something to decant into.

I’m using one barrel for Bulleit Rye, and the other for Manhattans.  A barrel is only supposed to be used for one kind of booze or cocktail, as the flavors soak into the wood.  For the adventurous, this is a challenge rather than a prohibition, and any scotch drinker knows that many fine scotches are aged in barrels originally used for something else (rum, port, you name it).  But I’m sticking with the recommendation that I dedicate each barrel to a single, delicious libation.

The first batch of rye took about 9 or 10 days before I really felt the “burn” had rounded off, but it was more woody and not as sweet as I recalled from my fishing trip.  It is a noticeably better rye than I started with – deeper/richer, with an oaky flavor.  Perhaps most importantly, Mrs. Dean now insists I use the barrel-aged rye for her cocktails, so I will be getting a bigger barrel when the current one wears out so we have an adequate stockpile of the barrel-aged stuff.  The barrel-aged Bulleit makes a phenomenal whiskey sour, one of her favorite cool weather cocktails.

The Manhattans age faster – I used Bulleit Rye (again) and Carpano Antica vermouth in the classic 2:1 ratio.  I think the sweeter vermouths might be too sweet for barrel aging.  The first batch was done in a week, and subsequent batches each took only a few days longer than the previous batch.  Doing a side-by-side with an unaged Manhattan, I can definitely say that I prefer the barrel-aged, which has a deeper flavor and starts getting some cinnamon and cherry flavors.  Needless to say, I use real maraschino cherries (sour cherries simmered briefly in maraschino liqueur and refrigerated), because the candied grocery-store maraschino cherries are an abomination.  I’m using a brighter bitters for these – currently, the Dashfire Old-Fashioned Bitters.  I think the more traditional bitters just get kind of lost in the oak and cherry flavors.

In doing a little research, I have run across some variations/recommendations.  Some of your artisanal types “season” the barrels for cocktails with port or possibly another kind of booze – I skipped this, but may try it sometime.  Opinions differ on whether to put the bitters in while aging, or when serving – I’m going with when serving because I like to try different bitters.  Some recommend going with 90 proof or stronger liquors, on the theory that they hold up better to barrel-aging.  I can’t recall ever objecting to higher-proof booze in my entire life, so Round 2 will involve a high-proof rye, if I can find one that tastes decent and isn’t obscenely expensive.  I’m still pondering what cocktail I might try barrel-aging next – I tend to like cocktails with citrus, but I’m suspicious that the acid will not play well in a barrel.

The other thing that barrel-aging can supposedly do for you is take cheap liquor and turn into the equivalent of something you can’t afford.  I think I’ll be trying that with tequila with my next set of barrels by getting some barely passable 100% agave plonk, and see how it goes.

Bottom line:  Barrels are pretty cheap (one liter barrels are less than $30 each, or about $6 – $7 per use), and the results have been easily worth it so far.  The “work” involved is mostly taste-testing and topping off the barrels.  If you like experimenting and getting a little more hands-on with your liquor, either straight sippin’ liquor or cocktails, you should give it a try.

About The Author

R C Dean

R C Dean

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219 Comments

  1. Swiss Servator

    Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker?

    • Count Potato

      Ask OMWC?

      • Jarflax

        doesn’t he use the “help me find my lost puppy” gambit?

      • AlexinCT

        I thought he did chloroform, not booze…

    • Q Continuum

      GHB is fastest.

      • Gustave Lytton

        “Hey hey hey!”

      • Mr Lizard

        Thank you for the well-endowed double mammal post in the lynx thread.

        And happy rotation anniversary of your puny world passing your hatching day.

      • Q Continuum

        I made it one more year before the orbital bombardment begins.

    • AlexinCT

      I plan to hit me some hard bourbon tonight as well Q.

    • Jarflax

      The Ardbeg tastes so smoky I feel like I am drinking smoked fish. I like smoked fish, and I like scotch, but somehow the combination is unsettling.

    • commodious spittoon

      I’ll be indulging in the best gin New Amsterdam has to offer.

      • Rhywun

        I haven’t seen a gin from them…. I really like their vodka. Something to look for next time.

      • Timeloose

        its not bad gin.

    • Spudalicious

      I like the Uigeadail quite a bit but I give a slight edge to the Correyvrecken. I think it has a slightly rounder flavor profile.

    • Florida Man

      How’d you like the AR pistol?

      • Q Continuum

        I love it. The Shockwave brace is actually hugely functional and awesome. I’m gonna go shoot it again today!

      • Florida Man

        Nice. Glad you’re happy with your purchase.

      • Raston Bot

        Fun! What’d you get?

    • Raston Bot


      Jimmy Kimmel
      ‏Verified account @jimmykimmel

      Jimmy Kimmel Retweeted Lynzy Lab

      This song is great and I am excited to have Lynzy Lab on the show tonight to play it LIVE! #DayOfTheGirl @MercedesLynz

      get me Barfman, stat!

      • ron73440

        I thought the first season of The Man Show was some of the funniest stupidity on TV.

        Who the fuck is this asshole?

  2. The Other Kevin

    I’ve made wine at home for years, mostly from whatever fruit is available. I never knew you could buy one of these barrels. I’ll have to give it a try. Thanks!

    • AlexinCT

      Barrels are for uppity people man. Pruno is the way to go…

    • Nephilium

      Used bourbon and whiskey barrels are available as well. You can also pick up staves or spirals (of the used barrels) if you’re planning on doing smaller batches. Not quite sure how well that would work with wine though.

  3. Creosote Achilles

    Ohhh, ho. I may have to do this. It had never occurred to me to make a batch of cocktail and barrel age it.

  4. kinnath

    I have five 10-liter medium-toast French oak wine barrels that I haven’t done anything with yet.

  5. Suthenboy

    Nice.
    Buying a bigger barrel, huh? I can see how that little hobby could get out of control. It is clearly an art and more experimentation with bigger barrels will always be needed.

    • R C Dean

      I see you are on to my nefarious plan. Bwa-ha-hic-ha.

      • Suthenboy

        I know danger when I see it. That could be as bad or worse than a gun habit.
        Soon you will be waking up in the middle of the night “Hey, you know what I haven’t tried yet…” then digging in the couch cushions for change to buy more barrels.
        I am picturing a rack 6 feet high by 8 feet wide with about 50 barrels on it, each one labeled and dated and clip boarded list hanging on the wall next to it.

      • MikeS

        ^THIS!^

        I was laughing and nodding my head at the same time while reading this.

      • Nephilium

        I was looking to see if I had any pictures from the barrel aging rooms at a couple of the local breweries. Unfortunately, I do not. So you’ll have to deal with someone else’s picture from Fat Head’s. I’ll be in that room Tuesday for the Jameson’s Caskmates special tasting session.

      • R C Dean

        Umm, we actually have a small built-in wine rack in our house that could be modified to hold the one liter barrels. Not that I’ve measured it or anything.

      • Timeloose

        To fill those racks, you need to start doing DOE’s with different barrels, additives, and time as variables. Full factorial

      • Don Escaped Texas

        Finally someone who thinks like I do (you’re F ed).

        So where do we get estimates for the necessary standard deviations?

      • Timeloose

        We would have to determine what the approximate ranges would be for the response variables. I would say 2 response variables such as complexity and smoothness. Each response should be a 1-5 with 1 being a very smooth vodka and 5 being rot gut tequila or whiskey. 1 for Complexity could be a one note whiskey like Old Crow vs a 5 for a world class Bourbon or Scotch.

        The standard dev of a range of 4 (5-1) would be estimated to be ~1.

      • R C Dean

        My method:

        Rye barrel is on the right, Manhattan barrel is on the left.

        Every few days, take a small sample. If its good, bottle it. If its not, wait a few days, take a small sample, etc.

      • R C Dean

        A rack 6 feet high by 8 feet wide would probably hold at least 80, probably more, of the one liter barrels. They are surprisingly small. Just guessing, it would hold around 50 of the 10 liter barrels, which would be (takes off shoes, carries the 1) over 130 gallons of booze, or the equivalent of 650 bottles.

        If you’ll excuse me, I need to call the guy who did the cabinets for our kitchen.

  6. Q Continuum

    Scotch rankings:

    1) Bruichladdich Octomore
    2) Laphroaig Quartercask
    3) Talisker Distillers Edition
    4) Caol Ila 18
    5) Lagavulin 16

    Fight me.

    • R C Dean

      The Lagavulin 16 is slightly superior to the Laphroiag Quartercask, based on an actual back-to-back taste test a few years ago. Not enough to make it worth the extra coin, to me.

      Never had the Octomore or Distiller’s Edition, don’t recall the Caol Ila clearly enough to have an opinion on its ranking.

    • The Last American Hero

      Macallan 18 or go home.

  7. commodious spittoon

    Since we’re going all vintage what with barrels rather than nice modern plastic jugs from the bottom shelf…

    Rapier vs. longsword dueling.

  8. MikeS

    This is great. It had never occured to me to barrel age at home. I will be doing this.

    1. I’m surprised at how little time it takes. I mean, I thought barrel aging took months. Is that just a matter of scale? A full size barrel takes longer just because of greater volume?

    2. Maybe a dumb question, but there’s no reason one couldn’t decant the barrel back into the bottle it came from and store it that way, right?

    Great recommendation RC! Thanks for sharing.

    • Nephilium

      For question 1, you’ve got it. Smaller volume barrel has a higher percentage of the spirit in contact with the barrel. The larger the barrel, the longer it takes to get any character from it.

      For question 2, for businesses, that would probably violate labeling laws. For home use, you could put it back into the bottle with no issue. That should work fine for any of the straight spirit aging. Mixed drinks would still have a shelf life. And you could of course, pour a small sample off first (then replace it with stock spirit) to see if it’s aged to your taste yet.

    • R C Dean

      Neph answered question 1.

      You’ll need some extra empty bottles, because you won’t get a perfect match in the volumes of the bottles you are pouring into the barrel with what is coming out. The barrels are different sizes than the bottles, and you have the topping off (if you go that route). I get smoking deals on handles (1.75 liter bottles) of Bulleit, so I have been using those so far. If you use fifths, you will need to buy two fifths to fill a liter, and will have extra in the second fifth for topping off, but too much will come out of the barrel for a single fifth bottle to hold.

      During the Great Margarita Experiment of ’13, I accumulated a bunch of empty handles (1.75 liter) of tequila, so I have a stash.

      • MikeS

        Thanks Nephi and RC. Question 1 was one of those where I “opened my mouth” before thinking it through a little bit.

        The handles of Bulleit go on sale here for damn good prices occasionally, as well. I can’t wait to try this.

        Mike’s shopping list
        1 oak barrel
        1 handle of Bulleit Rye

      • Nephilium

        You can also buy empty bottles (I’d recommend one’s with the swing-type lids) at any homebrew shop or places like World Market.

    • kinnath

      Surface to volume ratio. Surface goes up by the square of the radius; volume goes up by the cube of the radius. So the bigger the barrel, the smaller the surface to volume ratio.

      • R C Dean

        I was told there would be no math.

      • Jarflax

        Toroidal barrels!

    • R C Dean

      Oh, and regular barrel aging doesn’t take just months, it can take years. The “Lagavulin 16” scotch, for example, was barrel-aged for 16 years. You can’t even call it scotch unless the youngest spirit in the blend has been barrel-aged for at least 3 years.

      • Nephilium

        Because it’s here, but any Scotch with an age statement (x years) the age is of the youngest barrel used in the blending process. There will be multiple barrels used, and the rest all have to be older.

        And Irish whiskey can’t be called that until it’s been in the barrel for at least 3 years and 1 day (yes, they did that on purpose).

      • Nephilium

        There are some that claim faster aging, I have been… disappointed in everything I’ve tried from them (Bulleit is cheaper and better).

  9. Spudalicious

    Thanks for the article. I have one of those small barrels and was planning on filling it with a white dog rye. I may rethink that and go with one that has some age to it.

    • R C Dean

      You might try the white dog – that’s what they put in the big barrels at the commercial distilleries. If it doesn’t work, I think you could use regular rye, like I did, in the same barrel – it still rye.

  10. Sean

    Very interesting. I’m intrigued about aging cheap tequila.

      • R C Dean

        Put another way, the difference between cheap booze and expensive booze is mostly how long its been barreled.

  11. Sean

    Have you tried upping the proof of your original batch by adding some grain alcohol?

    • R C Dean

      Never occurred to me. Might be interesting.

  12. Q Continuum

    On topic question:

    Can you take crap, plastic bottle whiskey and improve it by doing this?

    • R C Dean

      I think so, yes. I don’t know how good it could actually ever get, but I think the barrel aging would absolutely improve it.

      • Florida Man

        I read a book on home distilling, so obviously I’m an expert now, and what I’m curious about the cheap liquor is where they make the cuts in the distillation process and if that puts a hard limit on how good the finished product can be.

      • Nephilium

        Where’s gbob when we need him. But, based on my limited knowledge, the cuts are to get rid of methanol. The number of distillations the wash is run through, the aging process, and the blending process would be your real keys to better whisk(e)y. I can’t even imagine the difficulty in taking a selection of various barrels through the years, and blending them to a consistent product when water is added to get it to the proper proof.

      • UnCivilServant

        Where’s gbob period? I haven’t heard from him in weeks (and was really expecting to)

      • Nephilium

        Don’t know. I was just noticing that I didn’t remember any posts from him recently. This post is right up his alley too.

      • Florida Man

        Sure but it’s not a hard line, it’s percentages. Later cut and earlier stop should yield a superior product but at the cost of waste.

      • kinnath

        The cut goes back into the next batch. It is not wasted.

    • Suthenboy

      Try filtering with activated charcoal and then aging in the barrel. Just a thought.

      • kinnath

        Whiskey barrels are charred, meaning the inside is activated charcoal.

      • UnCivilServant

        That burnt wood flavor is really a negative. just run the corn liquor through filters and don’t soak it in oak.

      • kinnath

        Then just stick to vodka.

      • Raston Bot

        ^RUSSIAN BOT!!

      • Fourscore

        For about 25 years I tried aging the alcohol internally. Seemed to age about 8 hours maximum and when I woke up I felt as if I had aged about 25 years. Now I stick with day old coffee and not look in the mirror. Truth hurts.

      • The Bearded Hobbit

        Then just stick to vodka.

        We took the tour of the Dickel distillery this summer and the lady giving the tour suggested using the un-aged corn liquor in place of vodka in mixed drinks (she suggested Bloody Mary). I haven’t tried it yet.

        … Hobbit

      • Timeloose

        The dude at the Irish whiskey distillery was selling the un-aged spirts for mixing as well. Tasted like vodka with a bit of a malty flavor. Reminded me of moonshine where it had a hint of corn flavor.

      • wdalasio

        just run the corn liquor through filters and don’t soak it in oak.

        Then you wind up with the most foul tasting swill you ever put in your mouth. May you be sentenced to a lifetime of drinking Old Smokey.

      • robc

        At one of the bourbon tours (probably Woodford), i tasted some of the pre-bourbon that was about to go into the barrel. It tasted like bad tequila.

    • kinnath

      yes

  13. Rhywun

    OT: Today’s entry in “wypipo so racist”

    I’m really baffled by their insistence on posting one of these stories every. single. day.

    • Brochettaward

      1. Would not.
      2. Beliveallwomen

      • Brochettaward

        I hate everyone in that video.

      • Rhywun

        Good position to take by default.

      • kinnath

        would not believe all women

    • Suthenboy

      Was the boy’s name Emmet Till?
      I think it was Ed Wuncler who pointed out sometime in the last two weeks that the rational of #BleeveHer is identical to what got Till murdered. Now we have this. Of course this is where this was always going.
      Same kind of thinking gets you the same kind of behavior.

      • Rhywun

        This is less about #believeher than it is about the Post cashing in on racism hysteria. Change the complexion of any of the participants and it never would have been printed.

      • Suthenboy

        I just thought the similarity was striking. White woman at grocery store makes hysterical accusation against a black minor. Same behavior follows.

  14. KSuellington

    Great article RC. How do you know that the barrel has reached its end? What do you do with it after? Thanks! I might just try this.

    • kinnath

      The barrel goes neutral, meaning it no longer adds oak character to the product. However, barrels do other things as well. Both water and alcohol evaporate through the wood leaving behind the chemicals that provide color, aroma, and flavor. Thus you are concentrating the parts of the product that you want. I assume the charcoal in the barrel will continue to extract bad flavors from the product after the wood flavors are gone, but I don’t know for how long.

      So the real work is aging in new and old barrels then blending for optimum flavor.

      • Nephilium

        So the real work is aging in new and old barrels then blending for optimum flavor.

        And this is the primary reason I’m not that interested in home distilling. Lots of aging, storage space, trial and error, and loss for something I can get at a reasonable price at the liquor store. And from what I recall, bourbon is the only whiskey style that requires a new barrel for aging. The Irish whiskey distillers use nothing but second (or later) use barrels. Primarily bourbon and sherry barrels.

      • UnCivilServant

        I looked at it and found it was still a federal crime. That gets a bit awkward for a line peon in state government.

      • l0b0t

        My dad looked into it for the production of motor fuel during the gas crunch of the 1970s and the process was one of the things that turned me against the state. If memory serves, a hobbyist distiller’s permit was required for anyone producing fewer than 500 gallons per year but the process was quite onerous. It involved several onsite inspection visits from BATFE, a requirement to denature the spirits at the spout, and (worst of all) the posting of a surety bond (cash only) in the amount the production would have been taxed if it were beverage alcohol… a young anarchist is hatched.

      • Timeloose

        +2 Duke Boys.

    • Nephilium

      You could turn it into fodder for smoking something. Or strap them onto your feet as small stilts…

      • UnCivilServant

        Wasn’t it whiskey – wine – beer – smoker fuel?

      • kinnath

        Whiskery barrels are charred — set on fire and turned into charcoal — on the inside. Wine barrels are toasted.

        Whiskey barrels provide charcoal filtering and wood aging at the same time.

        Wine barrels only do wood aging.

    • R C Dean

      For this kind of aging, I think I will be retiring barrels when it just starts taking too long to get good results. My current rye barrel has been on its third load for a couple of weeks or so, and tastes like it needs maybe another week. If the fourth load takes a month, I think I’ll retire it.

      The Manhattan barrel is also slowing down by quite a bit. Its on its fourth load, also for a couple of weeks or so, and tastes like it may need another few days.

      After? I expect I’ll just keep them as decorative items somewhere.

      • MikeS

        Do you think a person could sort of hone out the inside and re-fire it to “re-charge” it?

      • kinnath

        Are you an experienced cooper? If not, the answer is no.

      • kinnath

        This time with a bit less snark.

        French wine barrels (59 gallons) run around $1200 bucks a piece (the last time I looked). These get used 2 years, maybe 3.

        There are places that take the barrels apart; plane or sand off the interiors; re-assemble them; and re-toast them. The reconditioned barrels are around half the price of the originals. These are experienced barrel makers.

        I have friends that are craftsmen that won’t touch barrels. It is not easy work.

      • MikeS

        So you’re saying there’s a chance? Ha-ha. Thanks for your second answer.

        File this under; if it were that damn easy, everyone would be doing it.

      • R C Dean

        These barrels are put together with steel bands that are pinned. Completely disassembling and reassembling these barrels would be a real chore without exactly the right equipment, I suspect. I think getting the right char on the inside is probably an art, as well – barrels are charred when they are assembled except for one end.

        These little ones are just so cheap to replace that unless you want to be a hobbyist cooper, it just wouldn’t be worth it.

        Reading kinnath’s commentary, I’m thinking he should have written this post. The sum total of my knowledge is on display here, but it sounds like he knows a lot more.

      • kinnath

        My familiarity is mostly with wine barrels and their use.

        I have seen videos of whiskey barrels being “charred”. Essentially, the are put over a massive bunsen burner and set on fire. I have no idea how they know when to stop.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krL-xrIyn1Q

        My brother made wine barrels for a living back in California. He worked closely with an old guy from France that ruled the shop with an iron fist.

        I have a friend that made one barrel — one and only one — just to know that he could do it.

    • Gustave Lytton

      But he said it in Swedish, right? So the assimilation program is working.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      All cultures are not equal, and some are objectively barbaric.

      • Drake

        And some are suicidal and too dumb to continue to exist.

  15. robc

    I didn’t put it on my list, because, gift horse and all that, but barrel-aged beers are not my thing.

    Especially the bourbon barrel ones with a strong bourbony taste afterwords. I love bourbon, I love beer, but they don’t mix.

    Woody is okay, and I have had some winey beers that I liked too, so I guess it isn’t the barrel aging, its the bourbon (or other whiskeys).

    • kinnath

      I don’t care for whiskey-barrel aged beers. But wine-barrel aging of sour ales does great things for the beer.

      • robc

        Exactly my point. I think of it as barrel-aged but it isn’t that, its the whiskey.

      • kinnath

        If you really want whiskey and beer, just buy a boilermaker right?

    • robc

      I was referring to BIF, and I did send my donor a short list of nots, but barrel-aged would have made a longer list. My list was stout and pumpkin.

      • UnCivilServant

        So a pumpkin stout aged in whiskey barrels, got it.

      • robc

        My beers ARE coming from New York (and going to NY).

      • Nephilium

        Yeah, the bourbon barrel beers that have worked best for me have all been stouts or porters. The barrel aged IPA’s still just don’t work right to my tastes, as the oak isn’t really a complimentary flavor to the hop notes. What’s your opinion of Goodwood brewing down in your neck of the woods? They age everything over wood.

      • robc

        I think I have only tried one of their beers.

        They are an interesting company, under the Bluegrass Brewing name I used to drink them a lot.

        So, quick history, just because it is weird (but not so weird that some of the same stuff has happened elsewhere, even with Goose Island):

        BBC (bluegrass brewing company) started as a brewpub about 25 years ago. About 20 years ago, they opened a brewery also. It was technically a different company as the owners sold some equity in the brewery to get funding so ownership percentages weren’t the same for brewpub and brewery. That didn’t last long, there was a split, and they ended up as the totally different companies making the same beers (partly). The brewery went thru some ownership changes over the years and the current owners finally changed the name and the philosophy.

        Funny story, back a decade ago when they both had the same name, the brewpub was at Great Taste. They didn’t fill out their profile completely, so for the program someone looked up their info on the website. Only they went to the brewery website. Which was out of date, so it listed their head brewer as the guy who was, at the time, the head brewer at New Albanian. He was the original brewer at the brew pub and had moved to the brewery and had then left them. He found it hilarious…the brewpub brewer didnt.

      • Nephilium

        Yeah, when I was down there I was talking to the bartender who told me the story between BBC and Goodwood (from their point of view). BBC used to distribute up here, but they pulled out quite some time ago.

        Ohio has no shortage of strange brewery related lawsuits. TLDR: Columbus brewery opens, they want to serve food. They partner with someone to open a restaurant (under different ownership), and the restaurant is named the Columbus Brewery Restaurant. Eventually the brewery decides to add a restaurant of their own and end the partnership. Lawsuits ensue.

        Hell, Fat Head’s (over 20 GABF medals and counting) started as a partnership. The owner/head brewer had partnered with some people who pulled out. So he drove out to Pittsburgh to meet with the person who owned the Fat Head’s restaurant to try to convince them to fund his brewery/restaurant. They’re up to three locations in the Cleveland area, the original Pittsburgh one, and plans for one in NC. They had a location in Portland who decided they wanted to end the partnership, as they didn’t like the Fat Head’s branding and decor.

      • robc

        I still think the worst brewery lawsuit involved West 6th’s logo. I might have felt a small touch of understanding for Magic Hat’s side if they hadn’t referred to the 6 as an “Inverted nine” in their lawsuit.

      • robc

        That is bad. WTF were they thinking?

      • Nephilium

        I have no idea what was going through Tony’s head with that lawsuit. The attempts to defend it on Twitter for a while were entertaining. There’s a small part of me that wishes it had gone to trial just to see how many other breweries jumped in on Sierra Nevada’s side with briefs showing how many beers have IPA on the label.

  16. Pope Jimbo

    That’s it; if you can handle drinking out of a glass rather than the bottle, you have the necessary skill-set.

    Glass? Bottle?

    What sort of fancy Dan are you RC?

    Beer: aluminum can
    Moonshine: mason jar
    Booze: plastic traveler bottle

    Those are the allowed containers

    • robc

      Babies drink from bottles. I don’t even know what to think of people who drink from cans.

      • MikeS

        Answer: slack jawed inbred tractor humping meth children

    • UnCivilServant

      That reminds me. I have a jar of peach ‘moonshine’ in the fridge that is actually pretty good. (In quotes becuase it was not made in the backwoods by an unlicenced still)

    • Chipwooder

      A thermos is also acceptable for liquor as a container for situations where drinking is frowned upon.

    • R C Dean

      What sort of fancy Dan are you RC?

      Do you even avator, bro?

  17. Suthenboy

    Just seen on teevee: An ad for the Colbert show, not sure of the date because it’s wife’s recording but fairly certain it is new.
    Colbert doing standup – ” I am going to tell guest that I had this crazy dream where Hillary Clinton is not the President and Jared Kushner is in charge of the middle east”
    *laugh track*

    How fucking pathetic.

  18. Brochettaward

    The Democrats are pumping tens of millions of dollars to this cunty Beto guy. I don’t even think it’s particularly because of some delirious hope that he’ll win the Senate seat. I think it’s just that they’re swooning over him the way they did Obama. They’re a party incapable of escaping the cult of personality. It’s all they have at this point.

    • Chipwooder

      $38 million in Q3!!! Seriously! They’re lighting a Great Pyramid of $100 bills on fire so that Rob O’Rourke might, just MIGHT, lose by less than a 10 point margin. Talk about pissing your money away. And for what? A dimwitted aging rich kid whose claim to fame is that he looks like he might be a particularly retarded Kennedy cousin and once played in a terrible garage band no one’s ever heard of?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Ha, nice Kennedy dig.

      • Tres Cool

        According to wiki, he seems to have a dilute connection to the Kennedy administration. His mom was the step-daughter of Kenndy’s Sec. of Navy.

      • MikeS

        Maybe he is? From Wikipedia:

        …O’Rourke is a fourth-generation Irish American…the son of Melissa Martha (Williams), a stepdaughter of Fred Korth, Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy

      • Tres Cool

        Great minds or something….

      • MikeS

        Indeed.

    • Brochettaward

      Which leads me to another point – just how obsessed with spending the two parties are. They’re convinced that it’s the critical factor in these races despite the actual evidence indicating it doesn’t really make the difference. Cruz is out their prostituting himself and fear mongering. His completely safe seat could go blue if you don’t throw money at me, too! Not blowing money means they’re complacent…not like there aren’t a dozen other things besides money spent that impact a race.

      If I were in a position where anyone cared what I thought about anything, I’d be pretty damn content with the Democrats pouring $40 million into a Senate seat they have no real chance of winning.

      • Suthenboy

        It’s all about the money. There is a reason people go into congress with a worth close to upper middle class and after a few years are worth tens of millions despite their paltry salary. Campaign spending is how you spread to cronies that will help you later. Even if Beto loses he will have a soft landing.

      • kinnath

        The progressive mindset is always “we need to spend more money”.

        If they spend a lot of money and get the right answer, well that’s proof they were right.

        If they spend a lot of money and get the wrong answer, well that’s proof they didn’t spend enough money.

        Of course, a bullshit artist with a twitter account defeated the most heavily funded presidential candidate in history. Which is somehow proof we need to get money out of politics.

        Fuck, those people never make sense.

    • Suthenboy

      Good. Spend more.

    • Raston Bot

      the lyrics to that ukulele song posted above and performed on Kimmel last night are about Beto O’Rourke but nobody seems to have noticed..

      https://twitter.com/mercedeslynz/status/1049215347025465344

      “THANK GOD YOUR DAD’S THE JUDGE AND YOU WON’T BE CONVICTED”

      • libertarianjoe

        Man, I just feel really bad for that chick. She clearly has some serious mental issues if she’s walking around in such a constant state of fear and anxiety. This is what happens when you tell people that they are victims for their entire lives, and should be afraid of a certain group. They actually believe it’s true

  19. Chipwooder

    Wow, the new DGAF Republicans are turning out to be quite amusing.

    • Sean

      ^^^ Awesome.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Love it

    • MikeS

      That’s awesome. And it’s really rich for those idiots to bring up due process.

    • Naptown Bill

      Thank god there’s finally a responsible adult in those children’s lives, if only for a few minutes.

    • libertarianjoe

      That is incredible. I hope this trend of just telling the fucking truth for once continues

    • Gustave Lytton

      Sandwich making takes a toll.

    • Brochettaward

      Batshit ukulele player/Texas dance faculty member above – would.
      ENB – would not.

      All rulings are final.

      • Trolleric the Goth

        yeah, wow, ENB used to be a solid would, too.

        too much woke exposure

      • wdalasio

        too much woke exposure

        I was pretty much thinking the same thing. In hat picture Subwoofer posted, she has a bitter look to her.

    • Drake

      She looks really stressed. And would be better off without the dye-job.

    • R C Dean

      I do not recall her as having nearly as much of the bunny-boiler look before.

    • Chipwooder

      That chick’s younger than me??? Weigel in Drag is aging hard.

      • R C Dean

        How old is she, anyway?

      • Chipwooder

        37 or 38, I think?

    • Q Continuum

      She’s too skinny and probably out in the sun too much.

      Put on about 10 pounds and it’ll fill out that skeletal, emaciated look, then get some laser treatment and chemical peels for the face.

      That’ll at least postpone the inevitable.

  20. kinnath

    From Google News — the totally unbiased news aggregation site — a story from Vox.com “The Supreme Court: Should We Abolish It?

    I did not bother to follow the link.

    Fuck these people.

    I need more guns.

    • ron73440

      I need more guns.

      Don’t we all?

      • Sean

        And ammo.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s an interview with a Harvard Law prof, Mark Tushnet, and by extension, another argument for abolishing Harvard Law.

      There are two components of the case for getting rid of judicial review. One is that, as a matter of basic democratic principle, the people ought to be able to consider policies and then vote on them without having the courts step in and say “no.” So from a democratic point of view, it’s hard to justify allowing the courts to single-handedly overrule popular will whenever they choose.

      The second component is that judicial review may actually impair the public’s ability to engage in serious thinking about what the Constitution means, and what we want to do in light of what we think our Constitution says. In a way, the Supreme Court simply takes on this conversation for itself, and leaves the citizenry as bystanders.

      • kinnath

        So Tushnet thinks pro-sports should get rid of all the referees then.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Let the fans decide who wins the game.

      • AlexinCT

        Now this could be some seriously interesting spectator sporting…

      • Suthenboy

        “One is that, as a matter of basic democratic principle, the people ought to be able to consider policies and then vote on them without having the courts step in and say “no.”

        Exactly why the founders set up a Republic, not a democracy. The left rules with the mob, or as they put it the tyranny of the majority. That is exactly what the courts were established to prevent. Aside from woke studies and post-modernism have any of these guys studied any actual history or law? I am convinced our former Constitutional Scholar In Chief has never even read the thing.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        people ought to be able to consider policies and then vote on them without having the courts step in and say “no.

        So he’s for the tyranny of the majority and to hell with minority rights and protections. Why do I get the feeling he’s not thinking this all the way through?

      • Brochettaward

        The Founding Father’s almost instantly resorted to abusing their powers and ignoring the Constitution not too long after the ink was dry. Judicial review is the only realistic means of enforcing the Constitution. Without it, it really would just be a piece of paper long since forgotten.

        This Tushnet guy has been pushing this position for a while. He’s a socialist who admits that if he were a judge he would rule in ways to advance the cause of socialism and who bitches about the failure of constitutional law when judges go and allow gay marriages (he is a gay Catholic, but still a staunch opponent to gay weddings). I’m not sure if that makes him more or less consistent.

        Regardless, democracy produces results that the people most likely to extol the virtues of direct democracy usually find abhorrent. In the case of Trump, they can continually whine that Hillary won the popular vote. But when we look at Brexit, or we see the condemnation of duly elected politicians in places like Russia and even Africa and you can see that their commitment to actual democracy and majoritarianism is a result of their misguided belief that real majority is on their side.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Exactly, he’s an “ends justify the means” guy, which means you believe a single damn word that comes out of his mouth.

      • Brochettaward

        He apparently is not a Catholic, but a non-observant Jew. His daughter is the gay anti-gay marriage Catholic.

      • Raston Bot

        find/replace “democratic” with “mob rule”

      • R C Dean

        Not going to Vox, but the quoted bits above may just be him saying what the arguments are, without necessarily supporting them.

        it’s hard to justify allowing the courts to single-handedly overrule popular will whenever they choose.

        Of course, the popular will included outlawing abortions and not licensing or legally recognizing gay marriage. I want to hear somebody arguing that its illegitimate for SCOTUS to invalidate a statute, and that means legal abortions and gay marriage are illegitimate as well until adopted by elected legislatures and executives.

        the quality has ranged from minimally competent legal analysis to extremely bad decisions that are announced without a clear or compelling explanation.

        Well those opinions are written by the clerks, who are the law students you taught. Doesn’t say anything good about the legal academy, does it, Mark?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        He’s a liberal Borkian. Namely, he thinks the legislature can tell the Court to go fuck itself. Which makes sense, because he’s neither a textualist nor an originalist.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      LOL

      Sean Illing
      And what of the “legal quality” of the work they’re doing?

      Mark Tushnet
      I think the honest answer there is that, in the modern era, the quality has ranged from minimally competent legal analysis to extremely bad decisions that are announced without a clear or compelling explanation.

      Translated: They’re not giving me what I want. I guarantee he agrees with Kagan’s long-winded hack opinions.

      • ron73440

        I agree, some of their rulings do not have a clear or compelling explanation, but I bet we would disagree on which ones.

        It is impossible to argue with people who don’t speak English.

    • Suthenboy

      All these types are doing is bitching that their power is limited. They make whatever argument serves to give them more power right now. That is all this is.

  21. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Stock market is struggling to recover today. The last thirty minutes should be interesting. And I’m betting Monday is going to be even more interesting.

    • Nephilium

      I’ve got a meeting with a Financial Planner on Monday (after the markets close), it could be very interesting.

    • grrizzly

      Russell 2000 is trying to stay in the green in the last minutes. It was the first index that started crashing last week when Dow Jones was still setting records. The other indices are doing all right today.

    • libertarianjoe

      meh, doesn’t bother me. If you’re not retiring or needing money from your investments over the next year, why does it matter what the S&P does week to week? Just looking right now, S&P is down 5.94% this past week, but since this time last year, it’s still up almost 9%.

      It’s hard to lose money in a down market if you don’t sell out when the market is down. That’s why i get frustrated reading headlines like “Guess how much money Warren Buffet lost in the past week”.

      He didn’t lose anything lmao, cuz he’s not an idiot and he didn’t sell out at the bottom.

    • ron73440

      I made it halfway through.

      So dramatic and painful.

      That can’t be real, can it?

      • Rhywun

        I didn’t make it past the photo at the top.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m frustrated and embarrassed, my boyfriend of three years said to me, with how worked up you are. He didn’t find palatable my rage, the anger I felt for Trump, for the men and women who voted for him, was in fact embarrassed that I led 90 students from my small Ohio university through the streets of Washington with half a million Americans. We’d ridden through the night on a Greyhound—some of my best and brightest undergraduates—and when I returned, delirious for sleep but feeling righted, in some small way satiated, he stood there in the hall and told me he was overwhelmed.

      All of you women with your labia hats, he said. All of you with your clitoris signs.

      The March, it seemed to him, was half a million people coming together in a collaborative act of inefficiency. Our anger was unpalatable—more than that, it was a waste. He shared in our frustration, agreed Trump was an embarrassment, a terrible man, but found himself exhausted by the outrage and activism borne of contemporary feminism.

      Or maybe he’s worried that someone who is so dedicated to being consumed by rage might someday turn on him,

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^^THIS GUY GETS IT^^^^

      • Drake

        #metoo!

      • ron73440

        It seems an exhausting way to live.

      • Rhywun

        Maybe he doesn’t like shacking up with a far-leftist – because that’s what “The March” is about, not “feminism” or some such thing.

    • wdalasio

      That was a strange read. Basically, their beaus are ditching them because they’ve turned into entitled psychopaths. She just can’t see that anything might be women’s fault

      • AlexinCT

        I often wonder about people that keep doing the same shit and have everyone react to it the same way only to conclude the problem is with the people reacting to their shit…

      • Drake

        She’s incredibly free of introspection. It never occurs to her that these women have gone off the rails.

    • libertarianjoe

      Wait, so men don’t want to be around women who spout absurd political grievance bullshit 24 hours a day?

      My favorite is the woman who’s husband burned all her Shillary merch

      • Raston Bot

        okay, you sold me.. now i have to click it.

      • libertarianjoe

        First comment is gold: “If you talk in real life the way you write then maybe, just maybe, he’s tired of listening to all of your bullshit.”

      • Chipwooder

        I’ll take “shit that didn’t happen” for $400, Alex.

    • Drake

      …the way he scowls or rolls his eyes when she suggests the honeyed ham.

      I can assure you that I’ve never scowled or rolled my eyes and a honeyed ham.

      • Count Potato

        Euphemism?

    • Drake

      A friend theorizes that these men, on some level, actually hate women, have always hated women

      They can’t just hate your crazy behavior? Your constant bullshit? The Maoist Cultural Revolution you’re trying to pull?

      • Naptown Bill

        I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest maybe they don’t hate all women.

    • Naptown Bill

      That is hilarious. Not just the piece itself, but the tremendous lack of self-awareness involved.

    • Sean

      The comment section is surprisingly good.

      • Timeloose

        Agreed, no one is buying her whine.

      • Drake

        It must have been linked to some sort of red-pill site.

      • Raston Bot

        the “long on cat food futures” one made me stifle a laugh here in cube land.

    • Chipwooder

      Christ, no wonder my wife hates most other women.

      • Count Potato

        Most women hate most other women.

  22. J. Frank Parnell

    Doing a side-by-side with an unaged Manhattan, I can definitely say that I prefer the barrel-aged

    By “unaged” here, do you mean you’re using unaged rye?

    Just curious if you’ve tried aged rye + unaged vermouth and how it compares to the aged (rye + vermouth).

    • R C Dean

      Aged Manhattan = rye and vermouth aged together in the barrel.

      Unaged Manhattan = rye and vermouth poured directly into the glass.

      I should try the aged rye and unaged vermouth for a side-by-side. Excellent idea.

  23. AlmightyJB

    Great article! Thanks for sharing!