Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey distillers in the US, Stranahan's is said to have "kicked off the Colorado distilling craze" with its whiskey and the designation it invented, Rocky Mountain Whiskey. It was Colorado's first microdistillery, and the state's first legal distillery since Prohibition. The first batch of Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey was distilled in 2004 and bottled in 2006. Stranahan's was sold to New Jersey-based Proximo Spirits in 2010, with operations remaining in Colorado. By 2012, Proximo had increased whiskey production from around 12 barrels per week to 30, with plans to grow into the high forties. Stranahan's was sold in 38 states and 7
Whiskey Rebellion Farmers living west of the Appalachian Mountains distilled their excess grain into whiskey, which was easier and more profitable to transport over the mountains than the more cumbersome grain. A whiskey tax would make western farmers less competitive with eastern grain producers. Additionally, cash was always in short supply on the frontier, so whiskey often served as a medium of exchange. For poorer people who were paid in whiskey, the excise was essentially an income tax that wealthier easterners did not pay. Small-scale farmers also protested that Hamilton's excise effectively gave unfair tax breaks to large distillers, most of whom