Aaron Goldfarb

Brooklyn

Writer and Author at Freelance

Now out! DUSTY BOOZE from @abramsbooks. Also: @nytimes, @wsj, @EsquireMag, @VinePair writer-at-large. Beer, whiskey, cocktails, 🍊 hoops

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Articles

Craft Breweries Take a Shot at Whiskey

1 week ago | craftbeer.com | Aaron Goldfarb

The days of beer geeks lining up outside for hours in the hopes of securing a case of canned “freshies” is all but over thanks to consumer changes partly brought on by the pandemic. In fact, some experts have argued we’re entering a new era for craft beer. In 2024, 399 breweries closed. Overall production was down 2%. Gen Z is drinking non-alcoholic THC RTDs (or something like that). What’s a longtime craft brewery to do? The answer, perhaps: make whiskey.
The Continued, Misguided Attempts to Make Pizza-Flavored Booze Happen

1 week ago | vinepair.com | Aaron Goldfarb

Like many things in the booze industry, it started with a press release. Arriving in my inbox in late March, it described a “technically complex” yet “fun” cocktail consisting of olive oil-washed Grey Goose, Lustau Blanco vermouth, and G.E. Massenez Garden Party Dried Tomato Liqueur, garnished with goat-cheese-stuffed charred olives. This was the Pizza Martini from The Flatiron’s Room.
The Bourbon Trail’s Best Kept Secret? World-Class Cocktails at Distillery Bars

3 weeks ago | vinepair.com | Aaron Goldfarb

It was a chilly Tuesday lunchtime when I sauntered into Wild Turkey Distillery’s tasting room in the Jimmy Russell Visitor’s Center. Expecting to grab a neat pour of the latest Russell’s Reserve Single Rickhouse, a distillery-exclusive single barrel pick, or maybe even the new Wild Turkey 101 8-year-old, I instead noticed most visitors were drinking an Ectocooler-green cocktail. Curious, I saw the small bar had a cocktail menu — and a pretty ambitious one at that.
A Quest to Drink 3,000 Beers and the Quiet Comeback of Ticker Culture

1 month ago | vinepair.com | Aaron Goldfarb

He kept popping up on my FYP page on TikTok and my “suggested for you” on Instagram. A thin, middle-aged man with rectangular glasses, often wearing a Penn State hat over his shaggy hair. In a warm but excited voice, he would introduce every one of his reels the same way: “I’m Alan and I’ve had over 2,900 different beers.”As craft beer began to boom in the aughts and 2010s, so emerged the ticker.
The 25 Most Important Tequilas of the Last 25 Years

1 month ago | vinepair.com | Aaron Goldfarb

As people partied like it was 1999, they were almost certainly drinking vodka, which at the time accounted for about a quarter of the spirits market. Craft beer was just on the precipice of booming. The cocktail renaissance was on the horizon, too. The rise of bourbon would be meteoric and significant. But it was tequila that I think, ultimately, would define drinking in the first quarter of the 21st century.
Utopias, Nuclear Penguins, and the Quest for the World’s Strongest Beer

2 months ago | vinepair.com | Aaron Goldfarb

April 16, 2009: A landslide in Kyrgyzstan kills 16 people. Bolivian police foil an international plot to assassinate President Evo Morales. And, in Fraserburgh, Scotland, BrewDog provocateurs James Watt and Martin Dickie dress up in penguin costumes to announce the release of the supposed “world’s strongest beer.”If today Watt, Dickie, and BrewDog are seen as lame and out of touch, if not reprehensible, back in 2009 the upstart brewery was on the cutting edge of the industry.
The Biggest 'Sliding Door' Moments in Drinks History

2 months ago | vinepair.com | Aaron Goldfarb

A sliding door moment is a seemingly minor event that changes the trajectory of everything. The phrase comes from a mostly forgotten 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow rom-com, “Sliding Doors,” which cleverly depicts the two wildly different paths her life takes depending on whether she catches a train on the London Underground. Though the film was mildly received, the term has transcended its origin and become as much a part of the common vernacular as “saying the quiet part loud” or Groundhog Day.
Types of Bourbon: An Expert Guide With Recommendations

Mar 18, 2025 | epicurious.com | Aaron Goldfarb

Few spirits are regulated as strictly as America’s bourbon whiskey. In 1897, in hopes of curbing widespread adulteration within the alcohol industry, Congress enacted the Bottled-in-Bond Act. At the time, unscrupulous distillers were known to doctor their products with unconventional ingredients like prune juice, tobacco, and even shoe polish.
Get to Know the Different Types of Bourbon

Mar 18, 2025 | yahoo.com | Aaron Goldfarb

Perhaps surprisingly, there is no minimum aging requirement for bourbon, but anything aged for less than four years must be labeled with its aging duration, known as an age statement. If labeled “straight,” the bourbon has been aged in new, charred oak barrels for at least two years. (And “Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey” is straight bourbon produced exclusively in the Commonwealth.) Budget buy: Wild Turkey 101 Bold in flavor and finish, to be sipped over ice at a dive bar.
Hand-Pulled Heady Topper Is the Ultimate Bucket-List Beer Experience

Mar 12, 2025 | vinepair.com | Aaron Goldfarb

I’ve drunk Fou’ Foune by the wood-burning stove at Cantillon, sipped the legendary Trappists at Westvleteren, gulped Tankovna pils in Prague, hoisted steins at Weihenstephan, gulped Guinness straight from the factory, ticked the variants at Dark Lord Day, lined up for Younger, muled Julius, and pilgrimaged to Hill Farmstead. I’m 46 years old. I’ve been drinking craft beer since college. I’ve been writing about craft beer for nearly 20 years.