Zak Stambor

Uncle Nearest Whiskey, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

How Uncle Nearest Whiskey came to honor the black distiller who taught Jack Daniel his stuff

February 21, 2020 at 10:10 p.m.

The idea behind Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey was simple: to honor Nathan "Nearest" Green, the relatively unknown enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey. Of course, the...

The hot toddy is the simplest of drinks: Combine your choice of brown spirit, such as bourbon or rum, with lemon juice, honey and hot water.

The hot toddy — it won’t cure you, but you’ll feel better. Here is why some call it the chicken soup of the cocktail bar.

February 3, 2020 at 10:10 p.m.

Last winter I had a dreadful cold. The type of cold that seems to never end. The type of cold where your body aches, your head throbs, you can't ever...

Can’t find Pappy? Try another wheated bourbon, like Weller — but it can be scarce too

December 3, 2019 at 3:40 p.m.

It's natural to want what you can't get. The desire for the unattainable is a large part of Pappy Van Winkle's mystique. Although it's been years since I last tasted...

Energy City Brewing's Milkshake Pumpkin Spice beer is a hazy, milkshake IPA that's brewed with pumpkin pie spices.

Though pumpkin beers are falling out of favor, you can still find great pours, like Milkshake Pumpkin Spice IPA

November 21, 2019 at 7:02 p.m.

Practically from the beginning, there were pumpkin beer haters. Every year come fall it seems few beers provoke stronger emotions than pumpkin beers. That's despite the fact that pumpkin beers...

Destihl Brewery's Cranberry Criek is a kettle sour produced with cranberry and sweet cherry purees. It's an easy-drinking acidic beer that allows the fruit — sweet cherries complement the tart cranberries — to shine.

Cranberries in your beer? For Thanksgiving, look for styles that balance the tannic and tart fruit

November 21, 2019 at 6:36 p.m.

Cesar Marron loves cranberries. Not cranberry sauce. Not the sweetened, dried cranberries known as Craisins. But the unadulterated, unsweetened, tannic, tart fruit. "I pop them in my mouth and munch...

Almanac spent about two years working on its series of mixed culture sour beers that it could package in cans. The Sournova line, that's the cherry in the glass, are dry with a burst of fruit flavor, sour without having a sharp bite, and incredibly refreshing.

Canned sour beers that explode with flavor, but won’t explode the can

July 23, 2019 at 4:11 p.m.

It was only about a decade ago when sour beer wasn't much of a thing. Neither was canned craft beer. But over the past decade, both sour beer and canned...

Brewers' Bridge is a saison collaboration by Allagash and Dupont breweries. It's a slightly hazy, straw-colored beer with a grassy aroma that's a little funky and a little peppery.

Two storied brewers, Allagash and Dupont, come together to celebrate a storied style, saison

June 18, 2019 at 11:51 a.m.

The story behind how Allagash Brewing Co. and Brasserie Dupont came to collaborate on a saison begins with the style's idiosyncrasies. After all, saison is a style full of contradictions....

Fred Noe and Shinji Fukuyo have their stamp all over Legent because the whiskey is the first collaboration between Beam and the House of Suntory.

Legent bourbon, the first release from Beam and Suntory houses, blends traditions and flavors

June 18, 2019 at 12:48 p.m.

The signatures of Fred Noe and Shinji Fukuyo adorn the bottle of Legent, the first new bourbon brand that the distiller formerly known as Jim Beam (now called Beam Suntory)...

Zwickelbier is an unfiltered German lager that's cloudy, refreshing and sessionable — which means it's time for this beer to start trending.

Zwickelbier: It’s time for this beer trend to take off

May 31, 2019 at 9:03 p.m.

If beer trends followed a logical path, we'd be starting to see the zwickelbier craze take off. After all, zwickel sits in the middle of a number of disparate currents...

Kilbeggan Small Batch Rye includes about 30 percent rye in the mash bill. The grain hasn't been used in Irish whiskeys in decades, as farmers shifted to growing barley.

Irish distiller Kilbeggan brings back rye in a nod to the old days

May 31, 2019 at 9:01 p.m.

There’s no other whiskey quite like Kilbeggan Distilling Co.’s Small Batch Rye, a limited-release, pot-distilled Irish whiskey with a mash bill that’s roughly 30 percent rye. The significant amount of...

All Stories