The Bartender's Library: A Guide to Curating Spirits and Creating Cocktails--From the Multnomah Whiskey Library by Adams, Brett

The ultimate guide to whiskey, brandy, rum, agave spirits, gin, vodka, and more--and how best to drink them. From Portland's Multnomah Whiskey Library spirits educators and authors of Raising the Bar.

Here is the ultimate guide to curating your spirits and building your home bar. Knowing the process of making spirits, from fermentation to distillation and manipulation, is key to understanding what goes into the bottle, how to select them, and what you're tasting. Seasoned bar professionals Brett Adams and Jacob Grier walk you through the fundamentals of spirits--from fermentation and distillation to cask aging--so you can pick bottles confidently and curate your collection.

The Bartender's Library is a comprehensive handbook and a tool for discovering what you like and how best to drink it, whether as a pour, a flight, or a cocktail. Included are:

• Guides to curating and collecting individual spirits
• Specific flights to help you explore categories and develop your palate
• Recipes for cocktails, including the Whiskey Library's signature old fashioned
• And much more.

Whether it's demystifying myths (older does not necessarily equal better) or helping you decipher industry lingo, Adams and Grier equip you to purchase with precision. With encyclopedic knowledge and surprising curatorial insights, this book is a chat with your favorite bartender, best enjoyed with a glass in hand.

UNIQUE EDUCATION: Unlike most cocktail books, this guide teaches you to buy, mix, and drink by spirit--including whiskey, rum, bourbon, vodka, and more. It also goes beyond the cocktail to help readers conceive of and collect spirits to be enjoyed as pours and flights.

MULTNOMAH WHISKEY LIBRARY: The Whiskey Library is an institution both in Portland, Oregon--where it is routinely named one of the city's top ten bars--and in the global spirits world. It partners with distilleries and producers around the world to create educational spirits programming.

CLASSIC GIFT-READY PACKAGE: With a molded spine, lush endpapers, and a flight tasting card tucked into a library card-style pocket, this makes an irresistible gift and a handsome addition to any bar cart or book library.

Perfect for:

• Spirits enthusiasts and those who want to make careful choices when investing in bottles
• Cocktail lovers and home mixologists
• Someone looking to build a home bar and explore their own tastes
• People new to or intimidated by bar culture
• Gift-givers looking to pair a book with a bottle for birthday, holiday, housewarming, Father's Day, Mother's Day, or any special occasion

Author: Brett Adams,Jacob Grier
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Published: 10/13/2026
Pages: 376
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.15lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.00w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9781797235660

About the Author
Brett Adams has over two decades of experience working in restaurants and bars and is the spirits curator and education manager at the Multnomah Whiskey Library. He is the coauthor of Raising the Bar. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and cats, where he spends his time skiing, cycling, and trying to persuade people to put more vermouth in their martinis.

Jacob Grier is a writer, bartender, and close-up magician. His previous books include Cocktails on Tap, The Rediscovery of Tobacco, The New Prohibition, and (with Brett Adams) Raising the Bar. His writing has appeared in Slate, The Atlantic, Reason, Inside Hook, Imbibe, and many other publications. He is also the founder of the international Aquavit Week and the link-sharing platform Seabird. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he can be found riding his bike to coffee shops, playing soccer, and performing card tricks on street corners.