by Michael Shoer | Jul 20, 2026 | The Ascent--Coming of Age
Trust, but Verify the Mash Bill The mash bill is the load-bearing fact of a barrel deal — and the easiest thing in the transaction to assert and the hardest to check. That gap is where the seller has always lived. Every barrel trade rests on a claim. This is an...
by Michael Shoer | Jun 30, 2026 | The Ascent--Coming of Age
MARKET STRUCTURE · ISSUE Nº 01 The Last Opaque Market Bulk whiskey is the final great commodity inefficiency. It is about to become someone’s opportunity. Here is how a barrel of aging whiskey changes hands in 2026. A broker hears that a distillery has surplus...
by Michael Shoer | Jun 30, 2026 | The Ascent--Coming of Age
PROLOGUE -- ISSUE 00 BASE CAMP. Here is the strange fact at the center of this market: a barrel of aging whiskey, an asset that can be worth thousands of dollars and take a decade to make, still trades the way it did fifty years ago. A broker makes a call. A number...
