The Whiskey Bible

“Simply having this book on your coffee table increases your Whiskey IQ by a few points. Open it up, read a few chapters, and aficionado status is yours for the taking.” –LEVAR BURTON

“If you want to know what whiskey is, where it’s from, how it’s made, who made it, and what it can do for you, you’ve arrived in exactly the right place.” –GARRETT OLIVER, Editor in Chief, The Oxford Companion to Beer and brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery

“Noah Rothbaum is genuinely passionate about whiskey, which he proves page after page. I will return to The Whiskey Bible again and again.” –MONICA BERG, bartender and co-owner of Tayēr + Elementary

“Strips away the myths and mystery, creating a judgment-free space to learn, ask questions, and deepen your appreciation for this beloved spirit.” –AMANDA FREITAG, chef, author, Food Network personality

“So entertaining I wanted to gulp it down in one sitting. A treat of a book.” –DES LINDEN, marathoner and author of Choosing to Run

“James Beard Award-winning Rothbaum has written a comprehensive history of whiskey from around the world. He intersperses anecdotes and his personal experiences into his text, making the histories come alive for readers.” –Library Journal

Noah Rothbaum has traveled the globe in search of a good drink, from the Arctic Circle to the agave fields of Mexico to Scotland’s whisky distilleries. He’s one of the world’s leading authorities on cocktails and spirits as well as a Kentucky Colonel, a James Beard Award winner and the author of the acclaimed drinks books, The Art of American Whiskey: A Visual History of the Nation’s Most Storied Spirit, through 100 Iconic Labels and The Business of Spirits: How Savvy Marketers, Innovative Distillers, and Entrepreneurs Changed How We Drink.

Noah is also the associate editor of the Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, which won the American Library Association’s prestigious Dartmouth Medal for the best reference book of 2021 and the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History, or Spirits. The Washington Post called it “the drinking buddy you’ve been waiting for.”

Previously, he was the editor of the Daily Beast’s Half Full section. Under his leadership, the site won the 2018 and the 2020 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication. He also co-hosted the podcast Life Behind Bars, which the New York Times called “a perfect comfort listen for the curious drinker.” The show won the 2018 and the 2021 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best Podcast Series. In 2022, he became a Fellow of the James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits at the University of Kentucky.

According to Chicago magazine’s former chief dining critic, Jeff Ruby, “Rothbaum knows drinking like Newton knew gravity, but he’s not all high and mighty about it, creating laws and whatnot.”