Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Matt Malloy will never forget the first time he had to throw out a batch of beer. The recipe, a barleywine aged in Barbados Rum barrels, picked up musty ...

Napa Valley residents are used to seeing wooden wine barrels: in wine caves, stacked outside warehouses and even cut in half and filled with flowers on neighborhood lawns. Barrels are everywhere in ...

Russ Karasch opened a plastic bag filled with strips of wood the color of the best part of a piece of toast. “Smell this,” he said. The aroma was intoxicatingly comforting, like roasting a chocolatey ...

“There’s a discrepancy between coopers and distillers of how much flavor comes from the barrel and how much comes from the actual distilling process,” says Adirondack Barrel Cooperage co-owner Joe ...

KASOTA, Minn. — The creation of a wine barrel is a slow, measured dance between wood, cooper and fire. Minnesota Grape Growers Association members got to observe this dance first-hand during a barrel ...

One aspect of maturation, however, is rarely highlighted. Low-entry barrel proof dramatically impacts a whiskey’s texture and flavor. Below is an overview of the practice and how it shapes a whiskey.