Over the past year or so, it seems that every fancy bar or ambitious restaurant cocktail list has included a barrel-aged cocktail: a cocktail mixed and ready to drink, but instead poured into a mini (or real big) barrel to mellow and take on a little oak flavor. Jeffrey Morgenthaler's method has spread to Chicago and San Francisco, Boston and New York, so of course the DIYers wanted to get in on the action. More

Brewers make wort and yeast make beer, right? And lots of healthy yeast can make low- or high-alcohol beers with fast, strong, and reliable fermentations. So what can the brewer do to get lots of healthy yeast? Make a starter. And to make a better starter, use a stir plate. More

Last summer I chaired a panel discussion at Tales of the Cocktail that touched on making everything from simple infusions to complex liqueurs and compound syrups, and this week--as part of the monthly Mixology Monday cocktail-blog event, this edition hosted at Pegu Blog--nearly 30 bloggers posted the recipes and results of their own explorations into DIY mixology. More