Join us as we celebrate the launch of Malört: The Redemption Of A Revered & Reviled Spirit. Author and journalist Josh Noel will be at Porchlight to celebrate with inspired drinks and live music.

About the Author

Josh Noel is the author of Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out. He wrote about beer and travel for the Chicago Tribune for over a decade; he has also contributed to This American Life and to the New York Times and other publications. He has become one of the nation’s most recognizable beer journalists, winning multiple awards from the North American Guild of Beer Writers.

About the Book

Malört may be the worst thing you’ll ever taste. But the story of how Malört came to be may just be the most interesting you’ll ever hear.

Known primarily for its intense bitterness, the infamous Chicago liqueur has been compared to “a forest fire, if the forest was made of earwax.” Yet lurking in the horror and the mockery lies the truth of Jeppson’s Malört: we keep going back for more.

Author and beer expert Josh Noel unpacks a uniquely American tale, equal parts culture, business, and personal relationships— involving secret love, federal prison, a David vs. Goliath court battle, and, ultimately, the 2018 sale of Jeppson’s Malört, which made Pat Gabelick, a 75-year-old Chicago woman who spent much of her life as a legal secretary, into an unlikely millionaire.

There were cultural shifts and fortunate timing that helped transform a drink rooted in centuries-old Swedish tradition into the American sensation it is today.

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