Some of the things we discuss during this home bartender spotlight interview with Sam Vieira include:

• How Sam made his way to spirits & cocktails via the wide world of fermented beverages, even dipping his toes into the world of brewing.
• Which experiments, bottles, and equipment buys made the greatest impacts on his home cocktail game early on.
• Best practices for cobbler shaker and boston shaker usage, maintenance, and safety.
• The record-keeping practice that Sam developed, first on paper and then in the digital space, to help build his cocktail repertoire and expand his library of flavors and recipes.
• A few tips on taking your tasting notes game to the next level
• What to drink with Wilford Brimley, of Walker Texas Ranger fame.
• And much, much more.

In this post-distillery-tour interview with Bryan Davis of Lost Spirits Distillery, some of the topics we discuss include:

• Bryan’s thoughts on the impact his accelerated approach to barrel aging has had on the spirits industry at large.
• How Lost Spirits uses innovation as a way to contribute meaningfully to the global conversation that all distillers and consumers are currently engaged in.
• Thoughts on building the perfect distillery, and why the goal doesn’t need to be selling more and more cases of booze.
• The story of how Bryan learned to make his first (and last) cocktail from legendary New York Bartender Sasha Petrasky.
• Why the end of the 19th century was the peak of American and English culture, in terms of innovation.
• And much, much more.

What's shakin, cocktail fans? 

Welcome back to another episode of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

This time around, we enjoy Part I of a Two-Part Episode featuring Bryan Davis of Lost Spirits Distillery in Los Angeles, CA.

Bryan takes us on a tour of his Wonka-esque distillery, where we meet his sidekick, TESSA, taste lots of rum, brandy, and whisky, and learn all about accelerated barrel aging, British naval rum trivia, and the battle between bacteria and yeast.

This is a crossover episode with our friends at the Spirit Guide Society Podcast, led by Pedro Shanahan and based in the Seven Grand whiskey bar in Los Angeles, CA.

This episode is a tasting led by Tomatin brand rep Scott Fraser. The bottles we'll taste through are:

• Tomatin Dualchas
• Tomatin 12 Year
• Tomatin 14 Year
• Tomatin 15 Muscatel
• Tomatin 18
• Cu Bocan
• Tomatin 36

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to the Spirit Guide Society Podcast, available for free wherever you go to download your podcasts.

Pedro Shanahan is the host of the Spirit Guide Society Podcast. He is a pioneer in the Los Angeles spirits scene, a member of 213 Hospitality, and a passionate facilitator of the Seven Grand Whiskey Society, Las Perlas' Mezcal Collective, and the Rum Society at Caña Rum Bar

Some of the things we cover in this bourbon-punctuated conversation about flavor and hospitality include:

• How a yoga teaching actor with an improv background harnessed his creative powers to help build one of LA’s most exciting and revered spirits and cocktail programs.
• Why the Seven Grand whiskey society was formed, and what sorts of people turn out week after week to sample beautiful spirits from the US and abroad.
• Pedro’s unique approach to leading people of all experience levels through the complex and heady world of flavor.
• How to comparatively taste whiskeys with an eye toward how those spirits were created and which production or aging methods might be responsible for the flavors in the glass.
• Deep thoughts about hospitality, flavor architecture, and raisin bread.
• And much, much more.

In this interview with bartender, Instagram icon, and hospitality guru Paul MacDonald, some of the things we discuss include:

• How Paul approaches a hospitality situation with different types of customers. He walks us through some of the questions and decision paths that he follows to create an excellent cocktail experience that’s personalized to each customer who walks in the door.
• Which house-made ingredients are his go-to flavors for wowing guests and creating drinks that disrupt that traditional linear flavor experience we’ve come to expect. We’ll explain what we mean by a “linear” flavor experience during the interview.
• The way Paul develops new cocktails, and how he turned to the Fibonacci Sequence as a new and unexpected paradigm for creating drinks.
• A few tips for taking your cocktail instagram to the next level
• Deep thoughts on everything from Martinis to bar interior decorating
• And much, much more

What's shakin, cocktail fans?

Welcome to this special year-end episode of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

In this show, we give you a rundown of 2018 by the numbers and hit a couple of the most memorable clips from our interviews over the past year.

In this conversation with Brittany and Joe from Wight Tea Co., we cover a broad range of tea-related topics, including:

• How a sibling joke in the midst of a recession kicked off a decade-long collaboration to create delicious tea blends for home consumers
• The agricultural origins of tea, which share many things in common with the way we think about wines and spirits as agricultural and human-processed products.
• The difference between a tea, a tisane, and a chai
• Quality indicators to look for when selecting your next tea or matcha at the store
• How to use teas in cocktails, toddies, and punches with an eye toward pairing a blended herbal product with a distilled spirit
• And much, much more

In this episode, we provide a special rundown of the best holiday cocktail gifts for 2018. We cover gifts in the low budget range ($100). And we segment our recommendations for cocktail novices, enthusiasts, and experts.

In the end, we have great cocktail gift recommendations for one and all.

This episode is all about homemade liqueurs, which are becoming a more and more popular hobby and gift item as people learn more about home bartending. As it happens, we were able to furnish a case study on the subject.

In this interview with Eric's Mom, Sue Rose, some of the topics we discuss include:

• How we picked our homemade liqueur project and sourced the initial ingredients
• What logistical steps to take to ensure that you produce a delicious and shelf stable liqueur.
• How to determine which online recipes are legit, and which are just in it for the Insta.
• Thoughts on assorted topics like Armagnac, brix, bottle design, and long-distance collaborations
• And much, much more.