The whiskey bubble, in addition to fostering alternative universes of stupidity, has also inspired significantly more people to sharply focus on whiskey’s history and craftsmanship. Fred Minnick has emerged as a central educational figure, publishing essential books like Bourbon Curious and Bourbon: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of an American Whiskey.

He is constantly tasting, engaging the community and writing. Minnick thinks the next spirits category to take off could very well be rum and, whether he’s correct or not, you’ll be glad you read this book.

Fred Minnick truly needs no introduction, but he deserves one anyway. He is a bestselling whiskey author, a judge for the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and World Whiskies Awards, a bourbon ambassador for the Kentucky Derby Museum, a contributor to Whisky Advocate, a photographer, and a guy willing to talk bourbon with literally anyone on Twitter. Without question, his face belongs on any Mount Rushmore of bourbon experts. In his fourth book (due in October), Bourbon: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of an American Whiskey (BourbonRebirth, using his own hashtag), Minnick traces the entire tumultuous history of bourbon from the dawn of our nation to the present-day boom.