Twenty years ago, a scrappy spirituous startup planted its flag in a state primarily known for beer. Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey was a passion project for Jess Graber who said at the time that people had never heard of anyone making whiskey here.
“But I always thought Colorado should have had a whiskey. It’s a bold state. And the old cowboys certainly drank whiskey out here,” he told CPR News. “So we thought we would revive that.”
Stranahan’s bills itself as Colorado’s first legal distillery since the end of Prohibition in 1933.
Now it’s a caramel-colored staple on the state’s adult beverage scene, and its alumni have gone on to create other hard-liquor brands.
Just as Stranahan’s marks two decades, the American Single Malt Whiskey it produces has landed federal protection. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved the creation of an American Single Malt category.
“Our government recognizes and protects American Bourbon and American Rye as distinct products of the USA,” Stranahan’s head blender Justin Aden said. “We have lobbied as a collective of distilleries to have American Single Malt recognized the same way.”
Aden gave Colorado Matters Senior Host Ryan Warner a tour of the Denver distillery and their conversation follows.
Read the interview
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Justin Aden: Welcome to the production area of Stranahan's. You'll notice shiny tanks. It looks a lot like a brewery, and that's by design. We make 100 percent malted barley. That's what American Single Malt is, and that's exactly what most beers are. Our namesake, George Stranahan, was a beer guy. He founded Flying Dog Brewery, one of the most influential early craft breweries, and we took a lot of that expertise brewing and malting and brought it into making whiskey. One thing that makes us unique in American whiskey-making is we start off by making a wort or a beer.
We separate all of the grain off of the liquid and we just ferment that liquid. After that's done fermenting, we distill just that liquid, so the grain is off. That really changes the flavor profile that you get – versus distilling grain on. It's very, very important in the brightness, the crispness, the fruitiness in American Single Malt Whiskey, which is different from bourbon and rye, which are typically fermented and distilled with all of the grain still in the liquid.
Ryan Warner: Does that affect the color as well?
Aden: After distillation, all spirits are clear, but very good question.
Warner: The color happens, I gather, in the barrel as it sits and ages.
Aden: That's absolutely right. Some people are surprised to realize that all of that brown color is coming from the oak. In our case, we use new American oak – virgin oak as well. It's never been used previously. It's very common in single malt from around the world to use barrels that formerly aged bourbon, so they've been used once, and thereby impart a little less color that second time around.
Here at Stranahan's, we've always used virgin new American white oak, and that really is important for the flavor we impart into the spirit. I think it adds a little America to American Single Malt.
Warner: Of course, the insides of the barrels get charred, which lends a certain kind of flavor. What happens after you've used that barrel – because it's not virgin anymore? Do you ship that off to a winery or to other distilleries?
Aden: You can imagine we have quite a few people interested in our Stranahan's barrels when we are done with them. We always have an open-door policy for local breweries, cideries, wineries. If they're interested, we will loan them to them, no questions asked. Most of the time, though, we ship our barrels to Bushmills, which is in our family. They take them in Northern Ireland and age Irish Single Malt in them.
Warner: You tout that Stranahan’s is made with Rocky Mountain water. Is it just Denver Water water?
Aden: No. Since Day One, we have used Eldorado Springs water– beautiful water. It has finished second, third in water competitions around the world, which is pretty interesting that such a thing exists.
Warner: We have just passed the bottling plant where the clink of glass is a constant sound.
Aden: It is. It's something you almost don't hear after a while. It's the sound of productivity.
Warner: And profit, hopefully.
Aden: Ideally, yes. But one of my favorite quotes is “At a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but always fine whiskey.”
In here we have our very, very first ever barrel warehouse, and this is where you can see them sleeping. You can feel it's cooler.
Warner: This is called sleeping?
Aden: Aging, resting, we call it sleeping sometimes because – to me – it's a little bit of a sleepy place. Barrels are sitting there, they're mostly dormant this time of year. They're not doing too much, and they are just quietly becoming beautiful, well-aged spirit.
Warner: The extent to which you anthropomorphize these barrels is amazing, because “they're sleeping.” You also describe them as “breathing.” You very much see them as alive.
Aden: It's a question I've wrestled with a lot. To me, they're almost like house plants. They do seem to respond to good energy – to being taken care of and looked after. Now, I know that's totally silly, especially with a science background, but I do believe if you spend enough time in the quiet and the peacefulness of a rickhouse, something is a little bit deeper and larger than us.
Warner: What's the term rickhouse?
Aden: Rickhouse is the Kentucky way of pronouncing [and spelling] rackhouse. Usually it's a barrel rackhouse, a place where we rack and store many, many barrels.
Warner: Is it possible that the whiskey in one of these barrels is not good?
Aden: Very much so. Things happen, and that's a function of the fact that barrels are made out of Mother Nature. Inside these barrels you have how many different trees represented through the staves that they're constructed out of? And sometimes, for any number of reasons, some taste better than others.
Warner: Do you reject barrels?
Aden: You have to. It doesn't come up a lot. We're 20 years in and very good at this, and for the most part, that does not happen, but occasionally there are definitely barrels that can be better than others. Your job as a blender is to find a way to get the most out of that barrel no matter what … mix it with other barrels and create something that's right-on-profile and nobody knows.
Warner: And that means they need a Head Blender, which you've been since 2023. Justin, is that a job you apply for?
Aden: It sure is. I knew at a young age I wanted to study science, and when I was a little bit older, I fell in love with spirits. I went to school to study the art of making alcohol. My passion within that world has always been whiskey. I've made a lot of vodka and gin, and I've made a lot of bourbon and rye in my lifetime, but when the opportunity to become the first-ever Head Blender at a 20-year-old and storied distillery like Stranahan's, I was very, very honored to be accepted into this position.
Warner: I find that as I get older, I like bitter tastes more than sweet. I shudder to think of the grasshoppers I drank as a 20-something. (It was basically like melted mint-chocolate-chip ice cream.) Have your tastes evolved as well?
Aden: Somewhat. I've gotten very, very dialed into our specific style of spirit – an American Single Malt. But it's very important to branch out and test yourself and treat yourself to other profiles.
As I get older, I think I appreciate the other attributes of a fine whiskey more than ever… things like mouth feel. Everybody talks about color and aroma and flavor, but you have a structure to it, you have a feel. That could be the linger– what you experience after you've swallowed – and those kinds of notes, as I get older, are something I really care more about.
Warner: Mouth feel? An unsophisticated person would say “it feels wet.”
Aden: That it does. But depending on things like alcohol content and how many long-chain fatty acid molecules are in there, it might feel oily or viscous. You could have a very fruity style that's going to be short and abrupt and almost grippy or sparkly or brisk on the tongue. There's a whole wide world that's outside of just flavor and how you construct a whiskey.
Warner: When did you drink whiskey for the first time, and were you underage?
Aden: I was very lucky to spend some of my childhood in Europe. The drinking age is a little younger over there, particularly if you're with your family at dinner, so I was exposed very early on.
Warner: Do you remember liking whiskey the first time you tried it?
Aden: The first spirit I remember having was a Calvados, so that is a French apple brandy-style spirit made in a very specific area around Normandy. We were probably visiting the World War II Museum or whatever we were up to, and that was the first liquor I can remember drinking, and I absolutely loved it.
Warner: In the announcement of your hire in October '23, a line stood out to me, “As the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's official designation of the American Single Malt category quickly approaches, Aden's hire comes at a critical time.” Will you translate that for us?
Aden: So our government recognizes and protects American Bourbon, American Rye as distinct products of the United States of America. We have lobbied as a collective of distilleries to have American Single Malt recognized the same way. The bureau is the government body in charge of making those decisions and enforcing them. Any day now we are very optimistic and hopeful that we will see the whiskey called American Single Malt recognized and protected to the same standards that American bourbon and rye are.
Warner: How would you describe Colorado’s spirit scene these days? Is it still eclipsed by beer?
Aden: It obviously has a reputation as a great beer state, and it always has. And even within metro Denver now, you see quite a few terrific young upstart craft distilleries – making a variety of styles of spirit, not just whiskey makers. It's been a joy to get around and meet some of the people behind these operations and, of course, taste what they're making.
Warner: I realize we can't end this whole thing without a taste. Justin, what is in your hand there?
Aden: This device is called a barrel thief. This is what you stick inside of a cask and “thief” or “steal” a little bit of the whiskey out to taste.
Warner: There's a little plug. What is that made out of?
Aden: We call that a bung. In this particular case, it's a silicon bung because we are checking this barrel frequently, but normally you would make that out of oak just to send it away, and so it ages normally.
Warner: Wait. When I was a kid and people called me “a bunghole,” is this what they were talking about?
Aden: It very well could be. This particular barrel is what we call a Sauternes finish. Sauterne is a dessert wine. It's a sweet, fortified wine from France in this case. We took our Stranahan's American Single Malt, and after it aged for nine years, we transferred that liquid into this former Sauternes cask, thereby being imparted with some of those notes.
Warner: So this is not a virgin cask!
Aden: No. The original whiskey started in that virgin cask, but then we do what we call “whiskey finishing,” and that's where, after it's primary-aged in a virgin American oak barrel, we transfer the contents into a different style of barrel to get new notes put onto it.
Warner: What should I be smelling and trying to taste for?
Aden: You tell me. This is always the fun part for me. Let's go. Cheers!
Warner: I feel like it's too easy to say caramel, but I'm getting caramel just in the nose.
Aden: You are spot on with caramel. Maybe a little bit of butterscotch and vanilla. Those are very popular notes from American oak.
Warner: Is it OK that I'm getting a coffee finish?
Aden: I completely agree with you on that note.
Warner: I think you say that to everyone. Someone would be like, "I think I'm getting pineapple," and you'll be like, "Yes, of course, pineapple, Fred."
Aden: It's all about what you enjoy. Taste is so personal. Who's to say that what I'm depicting as coffee isn't pineapple to you?
