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  This Friday at Vault & Vator, award winning mixologist Kirk Ingram will debut two new limited edition aged cocktails: An aged Negroni and an aged Manhattan.The basic body of each cocktail may seem familiar—equal parts Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, Campari and Beefeater gin for the Negroni, and two parts Rittenhouse rye, one part Carpano Antica sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters for the Manhattan.But the over the top lavishness of the cocktail aging process sets these drinks apart. In the same way barrel aging a harsh, burning raw distillate can turn the liquid into the smooth delicious bourbon America loves, barrel...

  Kristian Niemi, the owner of Bourbon Columbia, and the host of the Great American Whiskey fest put together this amazing cocktail using the Cherry Bottle Aging Stave.  The first step is to use a Cherry Bottle Aging stave in a bottle of Larceny Bourbon for 2-3 months.  After that, feel free to enjoy the Larceny on its own, and follow the directions below to create this amazing cocktail! 2oz Cherry Wood-infused Larceny 3/4oz Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur (from Haus Alpenz) 1/2oz Tempus Fuget Creme de Cacao 2 shakes Fee Brothers Barrel-Aged Bitters Build in glass over large cube and...

What is Negroni Week?  Negroni week is an annual charity event where bars and restaurants feature an Italian cocktail known as the negroni.  A portion of each negroni purchased will go to the charity of choice for each restaurant.   History of the Negroni The Negroni is a very old cocktail that dates all the way back to 1919 in Florence Italy.  Count Camillo Negroni concocted it by asking the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the Americano, by adding gin rather than the normal soda water. The bartender also added an orange garnish rather than the typical lemon...

After a recent dinner conversation in Charleston, I realized that using staves to age alcohol had another distinct advantage over barrels.  Depending on the size of barrel you are comparing a stave to, staves use roughly 4-20 times less wood than a barrel does to age a given amount of liquid.  More specifically, a 53 gallon barrel uses 4x the wood as staves to achieve the same wood surface area to liquid volume ratio, and a smaller 1 liter barrel uses nearly 20 times as much wood as a stave for the same liquid volume.  These figures do not even...