To the south of Denver’s Downtown is the Stranahan’s distillery. It is a pioneering place in more than one regard – not only was it the first legal distillery in the state of Colorado since the Prohibition era but it was also one of the first to make American single malt. Now over two decades later, Colorado boasts almost 90 whisky distilleries and American single malt has just been legally recognised and protected. On an unseasonably warm Autumn afternoon, we paid a visit.
Stranahan’s was founded by Jess Graber in 2004. He was a part-time firefighter and part-time brewer. He was joined by George Stranahan in the early days – the story goes that he became a major investor after Graber saved his property from damage after attending a barn fire. Originally, they were distilling some of Graber’s beer and making it into whisky. A new distillery at the current location was built in 2009 with further investment coming when it was purchased by Proximo Spirits in 2010.
Our tour guide was Katie, who turned out to be the perfect host – knowledgable, fun, engaging and relaxed. The tour also turned out to be perfect and slightly different from most. This would involve tasting samples of different whiskies at different points of the tour, including one at the very beginning – the four year old Blue Peak, their core whisky bottled at 43% ABV/ 86 Proof. This was light, refreshing and sweet with plenty of woody spice. A decent way to begin.
As we finished sipping our Blue Peak, Katie explained that American single malt must be made in the USA and at one facility using 100% malted barley – this is essentially the same model as Scotch whisky and has been expanded and made legal since our visit last October. Stranahan’s keep everything local and use one tonne of barley per week. This is a mix of different roasts, including chocolate malt, which is prepared specifically for Stranahan’s by the malting company.
The malted barley is milled down to become grist and placed in the mash tun. Warm water is added to extract the soluble sugars. Each resulting batch of distillers wort is 1,200 US gallons (4,540 litres). This is then boiled in a large kettle to kill off any undesirable bacteria, before being cooled and sent to one of the distillery’s nine stainless steel fermenters. A proprietary strain of yeast is added and left to do its magic, turning the soluble sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This takes five to seven days depending on the time of year and results in wash with a strength of around 5% ABV.
Stranahan’s has three wash stills and two spirit stills. These have capacities of 1,300 US gallons (4,920 litres) and 300 US gallons (1,135 litres) respectively. This is where what Stranahan’s do and how Scotch single malt is made differ. The stills are not pure copper pots as found in Scotland, but hybrid stills that are part pot and part column still. They are made of copper and this style of still is often found in American whiskey. The stills were made at Vendome Copper & Brass Work in Kentucky.
The first distillation in the larger wash stills is also known as ‘the stripping run’ and takes the wash from 5% ABV to 40% ABV (80 Proof). The stills are run at a low boil, meaning the temperature is high enough for the alcohols to evaporate but not the water. Copper is a natural purifier of alcohol and strips some of the undesirable naturally occuring compounds from the spirit.
The second distillation takes place in the smaller spirit stills and this takes the spirit from 40% ABV to 70% ABV (140 Proof). This is brought down in strength to 55% ABV (110 Proof) with local water from Eldorado Spring in The Rockies – the spirit is then filled to new American oak barrels. As Katie said “our whisky starts off like Scotch single malt and finishes more like bourbon”.
We move to a small warehouse area where we sample a couple of whiskies as Katie runs us through the maturation process. The first is the Stranahan’s Original, their flagship single malt which is bottled at 47% ABV (94% Proof). This has increased in age in recent years and is now a marriage of whiskies ranging from four to seven years old. The second was the Diamond Peak, an ex-rum barrel finished whisky bottled at 45% ABV (90 Proof).
The cask type used for all initial mauration of Stranahan’s spirit is the same as that used by the majority of Kentucky bourbon and rye distillers – virgin American oak with Level 3 char. This sees the interior of the barrel scorched with flame for 32 seconds. The char acts as a filter by removing impurities from the spirit, while imparting desirable compounds in to the whisky. These include caramelised wood sugars, vanillins and tannins. Their casks are made at the Independent Stave Company’s two cooperages in Kentucky and Missouri.
Stranahan’s has three climate controlled rickhouses. Denver’s very dry climate means that they lose more ‘angel’s share’ than warmer or more humid places. The climate control reduces this loss by around half from 15-16% evaporation per year to 8%. This is still a large amount when compared to Scotland’s 1-2% ‘angel’s share’. While initial maturation is in virgin American oak, Stranahan’s then switch some of their whiskies to alternative casks such as the ex-rum barrels used for Diamond Peak. This is not allowed in traditional bourbon maturation.
The relaxed tasting experience in the small warehouse was at an end and we moved to the bottling plant. All Stranahan’s is bottled on the distillery site and by volunteers. This tradition began with the very first whisky that was bottled just two years after inception and has continued ever since. The regular ‘bottling parties’ are said to be legendary with the volunteers sharing a whisky or two once the batches are bottled.
Our final stop on the tour is the tasting room. This is wood clad and has the feel of something between a whisky rickhouse and ski lodge. Here we tasted our final whisky – the distillery exclusive Ex-Red Wine Cask. With that we said our goodbyes to the other members of the tour and the fabulous Katie, and had a good look around the well-stocked retail space. They had a great selection of merchandise and all bottlings in their whisky range including another distillery exclusive (the Ex-Apple Brandy Cask Finish), which we ended up purchasing.
Attached to the distillery is a bar. This serves drams of all of the Stranahan’s range, including some rare and retro bottlings, and a mix of classic and contemporary cocktails. Here, we sat and chatted to a couple of people from our tour group. The next thing we knew it was almost two hours later and time for a taxi to drive us back to our hotel in Downtown.
Visitor Information
The distillery is open seven days a week and offer a wide selection of tours – ours was the American Single Malt Whiskey Tour and cost $20 per head and lasted just over one hour. They also run innovative events such Comedy & Cocktail and Jazz Under The Stills evenings. For the full listing of tours and events, please visit www.stranahans.com.
