Barrel Room Chronicles

On this episode of Barrel Room Chronicles I speak with Steve Akley, founder of the ABV network about his whiskey journey and how his hobby grew into the network he has today. Then later in the show I speak with Bob White, founder of Kentucky Guides LLC, on how he went from local newspaper reporter to small business tour guide and entrepreneur. Guest Bios Steve Akley is the owner of the ABV Network...

In this episode of Barrel Room Chronicles you’ll get a glimpse of 291 Colorado Distillery when I speak to Michael Myers in Tales from the Still . 291 Colorado Whiskey is a uniquely American story – honoring the Western whiskey of a bygone era, 291 is the passion project of a former New York City fashion photographer and was first created in a small basement from a one-of-a-kind still constructed f...

On this episode of Barrel Room Chronicles, you’ll get a behind the scenes look at Mrs. Robinson’s Irish Pub in Toluca Lake California in today’s Tavern Talk . I’ll catch up with owner Brett Robinson and talk about how he became the proprietor of the pub and how he has weathered the pandemic. But first, I’ll chat with whiskey filmmaker Bo Cumberland in Tales from the Still . Bo Cumberland is a vide...

On this week's episode of Barrel Room Chronicles, I visit Frey Ranch in Fallen NV. So if you are watching this on www. BarrelRoomChronicles.com, YouTube or Spotify, you are in for a treat! After our in person interview, Colby takes us on a private tour of the distillery and later in the show Chef Louise Leonard dishes out some good cooking ideas with the Frey's Single Grain Oat Whiskey! Barrel Roo...

On this episode of Barrel Room Chronicles , we discover the long lost  whiskey history of Peoria, Illinois. Andy Faris and Jeff Murphy join me  in a conversation about how they are working to bring back one of the  cities greatest distilleries from pre-prohibition era. Plus, Chef Louise  Leonard chats with me about her cooking creation using the wheat  whiskey expression f...

On this episode of Barrel Room Chronicles , A Glass Apart Author Fionnán O’Connor, shares how his academic career collided with the water of life. As an undergrad at UC Berkeley, he taught a one unit class in the  Celtic Studies department about the amber spirit. This experience helped lead him into his post graduate work on the history of lost Irish  Whiskeys. With a grant from the Iris...

On this premiere episode of Barrel Room Chronicles, Bernard Walsh shares  his whiskey journey, while tasting through several expressions from his brand, Writers Tears.  Bernard also talks about his involvement with  Left Bank, a documentary about four remarkable women who made the first publication of Ulysses (by author James Joyce) possible in 1922—and  lastly, he tells us abo...

This week's guests on Spirits of Whisk(e)y are Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman, founders of Honkaku Spirits, US importer of a rapidly expanding portfolio of Japanese spirits, including koji whiskey and a wide range of shochus. Listen and learn how Christopher, a university lecturer turned certified sake and awamori expert, and Stephen, a clinical epidemioligist and medical educator, went...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Rhonda Kallman, Founder & CEO of Boston Harbor Distillery . Located at The Port on Boston Harbor in a renovated 1850s brick and beam building, the Distillery produces an expansive portfolio of distilled spirits, with a particular focus on whiskey, including a bottled-in-bond single malt. Listen and learn how the matriarch of Boston's craft beer move...

Hey Spirit of Whiskey fans! Check out our new spin off series, Barrel Room Chronicles , hosted by Kerry Moynahan. BRC will bring you more whiskey, more spirits, more stories, and most importantly, more people of the food and beverage industry. Each episode will have a variety of new segments including Dram Diaries, Tales From the Still, Tavern Talk, Whiskey Whereabouts, Club Corner, and fan favori...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Louise Mc Guane, Founder of J.J. Corry Irish Whiskey and Ireland's first modern whiskey bonder. Listen and learn how this daughter of Irish agriculture enjoyed a career promoting a global portfolio of spirits with the likes of Diageo, Pernod Ricard, and Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton before returning to the family farm to revive the generations-old practic...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Mark Reynier, Founder of Waterford Whisky in Waterford, Ireland, the Emerald Isle's oldest city, as well as Renegade Rum Distillery on the tiny Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Listen and learn how this former wine merchant went from resurrecting Islay's long-shuttered Bruichladdich Distillery and helping to revive the tradition of Scottish gin makin...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Paul John, Chairman of John  Distilleries in Goa, India, makers of Paul John Indian Single Malts,  some of the world's finest and most award-winning whiskies. Listen and  learn how the company, founded in 1996, grew from an idea to a leading  spirits manufacturer in less than a decade—not just in India, but across  the globe—int...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Harris Cooper, PhD, Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Emeritus, at Duke University and author of American History Through a Whiskey Glass. Listen and learn how Dr. Cooper, the editor and author of numerous social science textbooks and an avid student of American history, went from hosting whiskey and music pairing dinners with his wife to beco...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Matthew Cordiner, Global Brand Ambassador for Single Malts at Scotland's John Dewar & Sons. While this Speyside native grew up in the village of Craigellachie, home to one of the single malt whiskies in his charge, it was a chance summer position as a distillery tour guide that opened his eyes to the possibility of a career in promoting the water of...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Joe Beatrice, Founder of Louisville, Kentucky's Barrell Craft Spirits and his newest project, Stellum Spirits. After a successful career in advertising, founding and leading Blue Dingo Digital in the 1990s, the Boston native and New York technology and marketing entrepreneur turned his talents to whiskey and rum, launching Barrell Craft in 2013. He...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Dave Beck, a 3D digital, game, and new media artist. He's also a professor of game design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, in Menomonie, Wisconsin. All very exciting stuff, but just why are we featuring him and his work in this space? Well, he created Distilled, a board game of spirited strategy based on his sabbatical research in—where else?—Scotl...

This week's guests on Spirits of Whisk(e)y are the powerhouse trio who quite literally run, distill, and blend Penderyn, the first whisky made in Wales in over 100 years. Listen and learn how CEO Stephen Davies, Distillery Manager Laura Davies, and Master Blender Aista Phillips followed unlikely career paths to producing award-winning single malt whiskies and other spirits at the Welsh Whisky Comp...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Kaitlyn Tsai, Global PR Officer at Taiwan's Kavalan Distillery, recognized by the spirits press as maker of multiple best-in-class whiskies, including the celebrated Vinho Barrique. Listen and learn how Kaitlyn went from a successful career in film production to representing Taiwanese whisky before a global audience, in the process being named Icons of...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Donal O'Gallachoir, Co-Owner & US National Brand Manager at Ireland's Glendalough Distillery, in County Wicklow, just south of Dublin. Founded by five friends, including Donal, with a mutual love of Irish whiskey and Irish lore, the distillery is located in a narrow glacial valley—"Glendalough" is Irish for "the valley of two lakes"—in the Wicklow M...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Seth Benhaim, Founder & CEO of L.A.'s Infuse Spirits, makers of Broken Barrel Whiskey. Listen and learn how this inveterate entrepreneur went from infusing premium vodka with fresh and dried whole fruit to creating a range of whiskeys that employ broken barrel staves in an oak bill unique to each expression. Plus we catch up on what's new with past...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Daniel Szor, Founder & CEO of The Cotswold Distilling Company, operators of Cotswolds Distillery in Shipston-on-Stour, a small town in Warwickshire, England. Listen and learn how this native New Yorker went from managing currency investments in Paris and London to making exceptional English single malt whiskies, as well as a range of distinctive gin...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y  is Dr. Don Livermore, Master Blender at Hiram Walker & Sons Limited. Located in Windsor, Ontario, just across the Detroit River from Motor City, the historic Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery is Canada's oldest—and North America's largest!—and home to a vast range of spirits and brands, including a distinguished quartet of Canadian whiskies: J.P...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Rob Arnold, Master Distiller at Firestone & Robertson Distilling Co., in Fort Worth, Texas, makers of TX Whiskey. Fort Worth, aka Cowtown, was at one time home to the world's largest horse and mule market. Now, however, thanks to the pioneering work of this third-generation whiskey professional and bona fide Renaissance man, it's a center of whiskey...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Robin Robinson, author of The Complete Whiskey Course: A Comprehensive Tasting School in Ten Classes. This veteran of the spirits sector has led a full and colorful life in whiskey, traveling the globe as both brand ambassador—Compass Box, anyone?—and whiskey educator, and now he's compiled that expertise and that experience into one handy and remarkabl...