News & Features

Happy Hour Q&A with Stowloch Whiskey’s Mark Sutherland

This week’s spotlight is on Stowloch Whiskey from Stone Ledge Spirits. We talk with CEO Mark Sutherland about their first aged whiskey, the company and more. Stone Ledge Spirits Company is headquartered in Missouri. Its production facility is in the Ozark Highlands, allowing the company to utilize the naturally filtered water due to the limestone foundation of the region, along with high-quality Missouri barrels, and a 200-year legacy of Ozark Highlands distilling.

News & Features

Happy Hour with NextDay co-founder Leigh Phillips

This week’s spotlight is NextDay and its co-founder Leigh Phillips. After careers spent in computer programming, math, law, and then management consulting, Leigh set out to build something of his own. He started NextDay, a company that believes life is for living, and creates easy-to-trust, easy-to-ingest products to help people feel great. Launched a month before the start of the pandemic, Leigh and co-founder Solomon Mangham faced unique challenges on top of starting a business.

News & Features

Happy Hour with author Andre Darlington

This week’s spotlight is on Andre Darlington, spirits writer/author, whose latest book Bar Menu: 100+ Drinking Food Recipes for Cocktail Hour at Home is now available. Darlington is a drinks, food, and lifestyle writer based in Philadelphia and North Carolina. He is a former restaurant critic and award-winning wine and spirits columnist.

News & Features

Happy Hour with Cut Above Zero Proof Spirits

This week’s spotlight is on Andrew Solis, artist, entrepreneur and founder of Cut Above Zero Proof Spirits. Solis spent nearly two years working with mixologists and flavor specialists to create a portfolio of four spirits, including a Gin, Agave Blanco, Mezcal and Whiskey, that replicate the flavor profiles, nose, mouthfeel and finish of the original premium spirits allowing consumers to either reduce or replace the amount of alcohol in a cocktail; all without sacrificing the enjoyment and experience of a properly crafted cocktail.

News & Features

Happy Hour with Shiner’s Nick Weiland

This week’s spotlight is on Nick Weiland, Senior Brand Manager for Shiner Beer. The Spoetzl Brewery was founded in Shiner, Texas, in 1909, by Czech and German immigrants brewing beer with old-world traditions and recipes for Central Texas. Since then, the brewery has grown to be one of the largest independent craft brewers in the country with beers available in all 50 states and Mexico. The brewery recently completed their Tex Hex IPA trilogy series of release.

News & Features

Happy Hour with bartender and author Chris Vola

This week’s spotlight is on bartender and author Chris Vola. His latest book, CHEERS TO TODAY: 365 Cocktails Because Every Day is a Holiday, is now available and features a number of cocktail recipes ready to make everyday a special occasion. From variations to newly invented libations, CHEERS TO TODAY gives readers a reason to imbibe, but it also teaches about classic cocktails and their offspring, encouraging readers to get just as creative as this never-ending list of occasions.

News & Features

Happy Hour with Osena Spiked Coconut Water

This week’s spotlight is on Osena Spiked Coconut Water. Co-founders Chris Allen and Vicente Surraco met at college while studying business, bonded over the similarities of their Latin American families, and then decided to create a venture that reflected their values. The founders know how culturally important coconut water is in Latin markets, where it is an everyday beverage, and thus knew Osena would resonate with people from these cultures as well.

News & Features

Happy Hour with Sean Lawson

This week’s spotlight is Sean Lawson, who founded Lawson’s Finest Liquids. It started as a home-based 1bbl nanobrewery in 2008 before expanding production capacity in 2011 and 2014, then growing to include distribution across nine states in the Northeast. In 2018, Lawson’s Finest opened its popular destination Brewery, Taproom and Retail Store in central Vermont’s Mad River Valley town of Waitsfield.