Noah Rothbaum

Noah Rothbaum is 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 hosts the podcast Life Behind Bars with legendary cocktail historian David Wondrich, which won the 2018 and 2021 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best Podcast Series. According to the New York Times, it’s “a perfect comfort listen for the curious drinker” and Imbibe UK says it “is informative, fun and seriously witty.” In addition, Rothbaum is the author of the book The Art of American Whiskey: A Visual History of the Nation’s Most Storied Spirit, through 100 Iconic Labels and the forthcoming The Whiskey Bible. He is the associate editor of the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, which is slated to be published in the fall of 2021. His first book, The Business of Spirits: How Savvy Marketers, Innovative Distillers, and Entrepreneurs Changed How We Drink, was published in 2007. According to Chicago magazine’s 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.” And The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog called him “one of the smartest tipplers (and writers on spirits) we know.”