Binny's Blog

Matteo Meletti joins Barrel to Bottle to discuss his family's 155 year history of making amaro.

Our resident loud amaro lover Pat is back to torture Roger with twelve different Amari, running the gamut from extremely bitter to refreshing and subdued.

How did an outwardly Italian man end up in Eugene, Oregon making amaro? Find out as we talk with Elixir Spirits co-founder Andrea Loreto.

Last week it was new wines, this week it's new spirits. Pat once again overdid it and brought too many new items for us to sample.

Pat is constantly extolling the virtues of aromatized wines. Finally, we have a guest who will actually agree with him and won’t just make fun of him. Jake Parrott is a friend of the pod and the Whiskey Hotline and is also the national sales director of Haus Alpenz. What Jake sells, and Pat loves, is woefully esoteric. But Binny’s customers, and Barrel to Bottle listeners, are enthusiasts.

Carbonnade à la Flamande is a Flemish beef stew indigenous to Belgium and the beer centric areas of northeast France. It only makes sense that northern European climes, heretofore unsuitable for the cultivation of wine grapes, would develop a beer-based stew akin to Beef Bourguignon.

Roger was recently asked about his "Aha Moment" in beer; that one drink that makes you realize what beer (or wine, or spirits) is capable of. For him, it was tripels.

In this very special bonus episode of Barrel to Bottle, the team shares a sneak peek at Goose Island's 2020 Bourbon County lineup.

Seipp Brewing Co. was known as the Beer that Built Chicago, and at one time it was the best selling beer in America. It survived the Chicago Fire, but like many other Chicago breweries, couldn't survive Prohibition.

It's hard to believe Half Acre Brewing Co. is now considered a veteran of the Chicago craft beer scene. But 14 years will change a lot of things.