Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Tour

So Coloradans like their booze. If you come here and go to a liquor store, you will see a lot of homegrown alcohol. Sure, we’re famous for our beer (Coors! New Belgium! Breckenridge! So many more!), but we also have wine, mead, vodka, whiskey, tequila …

One of the more famous whiskeys we have here is Stranahan’s. They start the distilling process like a bourbon, but finish it like a whiskey (or something like that) so it’s a Colorado straight whiskey, something completely unique.

The brainchild of a Woody Creek man and a volunteer firefighter, Stranahan’s is located in the old Heavenly Daze brewery on Kalamath St. and visible off I-25. The stuff is popular (most liquor stores can’t keep it on the shelves) and yet the whole operation is small enough that you can do tours and, if you can win their lottery, help bottle it yourself.

I’m not a big whiskey drinker (I’ve shot it, but I don’t like it), but Brandon is. So, on Labor Day, he signed us up for a tour and we went with our friends Genevieve and Jeremy. Since I don’t particularly care about the booze, I took pictures.

I will say, however, that the tour was highly informative and they got deep into the science of making whiskey, which was really cool. Totally didn’t dumb it down at all. Plus the smells weren’t as bad as they are in breweries (I. Hate. Hops.), so that was a plus.

Brandon in the bar before the tour.



Barrel room.



Tasting glass.

Riding the barrel.

Whiskey still life.

(Thought the sepia filter worked out awesome for these.)