Original subtitles

Whiskey is a mash from grain,

which is you cook grain and you get the sugar out

of it.

You let yeast eat it, and then you cook that off, and

then it's stored in oak cask or container.

Howdy. I'm Jeff Graber.

I'm the founder of Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey.

First legal distillery in Colorado since prohibition, and now we're kind of

Colorado's favorite song, and I'm glad we are, and we still love Colorado.

Come on, buddy. Come on.

The women in my life, my wife and my daughters, have a different philosophy

I do about horses.

They like to pamper them a little bit more than I do.

And that's okay if that's what they want to do, but I don't always pamper them

when I do that. So I go out and...

chores that have to be done.

They've got to be fed and they've got to be cleaned.

You take care of them and they're nice to have around and get rid every once in

a while.

Not too much anymore but I'm just not a goat farmer.

I moved to Colorado from the Midwest because I wanted to be a mountain man

now I'm

living my dream.

I moved down to Woody Creek from Aspen in 1990, so that was 35 years ago.

Good morning. It was the only place I could afford, and my wife had a horse,

I had a horse, and that horse shed also had room for, in the summer, that you

could set up a still and run a batch or two. So I was a hobby distiller.

which is better than saying a moonshiner.

I didn't charge anybody for it, but it was fun, and it became kind of a

Christmas present that I would give out.

Rather than giving out a plate of cookies at Christmas, you bring a little

of this and go, oh, oh, wow.

As I practiced and I read about it and I learned, I got better at it. I mean,

you ought to get better at it after 30 years.

I learned about aging and learned about getting an oak chip and getting some

color into it and softening up the bite of the alcohol and learning how to test

for proof.

And people were going, well, I want to get on your Christmas list again.

And I said, well, there may be a commercial application. And I started

around and I go, well, nobody's had a distillery in Colorado before.

And nobody's made whiskey.

specifically whiskey. It had to be whiskey because you think John Wayne

walked into a bar in Colorado and said, hey pilgrim, how about a mango infused

vodka and make it a double?

Cavalier. He's pretty cavalier.

You know, there's an element of being a cowboy, a little bit of recklessness you

have to have, fearlessness, unafraid to be a trailblazer and a pioneer.

The way Colorado is as a state, it needed to have its own whiskey, and it

be unique and it had to be different.

It took me a while to figure out how to do that.

I had a family to feed and buildings to construct, and, you know, I just

couldn't up and do it, and I didn't have the money either, so it took a little

while.

We make American single malt, so obviously it's made in America, but

means it's made out of 100 % malted barley.

Traditional American whiskey is made from corn, and so that becomes a

It has to be at least 51 % corn.

There's straight rye whiskey, that's 51 % rye, and all sorts of places on the

planet can create those same recipes, but they're going to have their own

influences and takes and spin on it.

Here in Colorado, at higher altitudes, barley was available, and I thought that

that would be unique, and it would be a unique flavor to Colorado. So we used

barley like a single malt, like Scotland, but we treated it like an

bourbon. So we used a total American bourbon process.

The state is an epicenter of American brewing and malting know -how, and then

usually that gets turned into beer.

What if we took it one step further and made a whiskey out of it?

So it's got the combination of both, and people seem to enjoy that.

I certainly do.

We are at the start of production, so first we're going to start by making a

beer -like substance called a wash. We're going to do 100 % malted barley.

basically going to cook that grain, break it down, and we're going to have a

liquid called a wort.

That wort's going to go over into the boil kettle.

And then the whirlpool, we're going to clarify that wort. And it's going to be

nice brown sugary liquid.

We add a brewed yeast.

We're going to let that do its fermentation, do its thing. It's going

those sugars we made from that grain and turn that into alcohol, where we now

have a substance after seven days called a wash.

These are going to be custom copper stills from Vendome.

We're going to fill them with the wash that we just made out of fermentation.

We're going to boil them using steam coils on the inside.

And the alcohol is going to start to separate out from the water.

Once it's in the column, it's going to hit something called a bubble plate. And

it's going to hit that, condense back down, boil again, condense back down,

again, and then go down that long copper condenser. That condenser is going to

cool that vapor back down, turn it into a distillate form, where we now have a

40 % alcohol mixture.

And this is where we're going to refine that alcohol.

We're going to go through the same process as the first one.

By the time it comes out of the still here, it's going to be 70 % alcohol, 140

proof. We're going to cut that down to 110 proof and then go into our new oak

barrels from there.

It's new American white oak every time from the independent stave company.

Each individual piece of wood is going to be called a stave.

They're going to burn them for about 35 seconds.

So that's going to open up the pores of the wood and allow the whiskey to soak

in. And that comes out as the barrel breathes throughout the big temperature

swings we have here in Colorado.

And that's where we're going to get all of our color and a lot of our flavor.

What is whiskey?

Man, it's a lot of good things.

You know, from the molecular level, the simple answer is it's a mixture of ethyl

alcohol water and all sorts of other compounds and molecules that provide

flavor, that provide aroma, that provide color. But essentially, it's a pretty

simple thing, right? And it's actually pretty easy to make, but extraordinarily

hard to make well.

My name is Justin Aiden. My title is head blender of Stranahan's American

Mall here in Denver, Colorado.

That means I have the privilege of quality control and liquid creation of

everything that goes into a bottle or into a barrel here at the distillery.

I always like to write down my very first impression on the nose.

In this case, that was a citrus bomb.

They only have to make sense to me. They don't need to make sense to anyone

else. I know what that means.

My degree was in microbiology and molecular genetics with a specialization

ethanol fermentation science.

You could go into beer with that or winemaking, but I kind of had a laser

on making whiskey since I was 21 years old.

Taste, I always try to cover four different attributes.

Opening, ideal, mouthfeel.

finish and kind of that overall there's a lot of times whiskey has a really

beautiful opening really beautiful aroma but it doesn't last right it kind of

falls down i think whiskey exists at the intersection of science and art

you'll

put a ceiling on how good you'll ever be if you don't understand the science

right because so much of this is happening at a molecular level

And so much of this is mother nature and things that are happening you can't

control. And then, of course, father time. And I don't know what's more

and romantic than that. But I can take this info later on, start looking for

barrels that were really high in aroma, for example.

This one got a three.

I'll revisit that one if that's a component of a blend I'm looking for.

You know, having an opportunity to be expressive, choosing flavors, keying on

certain elements in a whiskey drinking experience that you prefer.

For me, mouthfeel is a big one.

And I think it's kind of the one that's talked the least about in whiskey.

Everybody talks about flavor, of course, and aroma and color and maybe the burn.

If I can add that fourth sense, how it feels on your palate, that's where you

can start to transport people.

When you taste a lot of whiskeys in series like this, I usually use one

In the rickhouse, you do something called giving it back. So when you're

with your sample, you throw it right back onto a barrel, you rinse your glass

out, and you start over.

It used to be, if you didn't have a little methodism in Kentucky or

you just weren't.

breaking into the whiskey game, you know, and Strain of Hands really changed

everything and deserves to be recognized for what it did for this movement in

this country.

Whiskey production is a pretty labor -intensive process.

Barrels can be up to a 500 -liter barrel, so you're talking 300, 400, 500

easy.

I go home with...

Steam burns and dirt under my fingernails.

Jeff started out saying, we're going to make basically a Colorado whiskey that

cowboys can be proud of.

A lot of our packaging has throwbacks to the cowboy culture.

Miners and cowboys used to use these caps as cups, and also if they heated

up over fire, plastered on top of the bottle, it would seal down to the glass

it cooled.

We're finally on batch 289 of original.

We've been doing this for a long time since the flagship.

It's come a long way.

21 years later, we're at a point where we've gotten so good at this that the

real mission is to compete internationally.

I want to go toe -to -toe with the best single mall makers in the world.

And it's just funny how we're both getting at the same thing.

That happens every 35 minutes.

I don't mind it.

I think those little micro vibrations are probably pretty good for the

My name is Devin Urschel. I'm the head mixologist

for Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey.

Can't think about whiskey cocktails without thinking about the old

It's one of the oldest cocktails that there is. In fact, the word cocktail was

first printed in 1806. It was basically a spirit, sugar, water, and bitters.

whiskey, sugar, bitters, water, tequila, sugar, bitters, water, rum, et cetera,

gin, et cetera. But around 1870, somebody came around and they invented

they called the improved.

whiskey cocktail.

They added a little bit of absinthe, a little bit of Luxardo Maraschino

But around the turn of the century, people started missing the old whiskey

cocktail. So when they would go into bars, they would ask for the whiskey

cocktail made the old -fashioned way.

And that name sort of stuck, and that is how we get the old -fashioned that we

know and love today.

All right, so let's make it. The most important thing, two ounces of your

favorite whiskey.

Of course, we're going to be using Stranahan's original.

I always say the old -fashioned is an incredibly easy cocktail to make. It's

also a really easy cocktail to mess up. Now, we're going to also be using a rich

Demerara syrup.

Demerara is an unrefined sugar. That means it hasn't been processed, so it

hasn't had the molasses stripped off of the sugar crystals.

It gives this sugar sort of a toffee, almost woodsy character to it, which

beautifully with whiskey. We are going to use only a quarter ounce of this.

That rich syrup is going to make this a little bit thicker, which is going to

add a beautiful texture and mouthfeel to this cocktail, while not over

-sweetening the cocktail.

We're going to add about three dashes of Angostura bitters. I like Angostura

quite a bit, so I'm going to go ahead and throw that fourth dash in there,

Very important to my style of old -fashioned. I'm going to throw one dash

orange bitters in there as well.

We are going to be expressing some orange oil over the top of this

I want to connect the aromatics of this cocktail to the flavor of the cocktail.

Now it is going to be time to stir.

When you're stirring a cocktail, you want to have about at least double the

height of your ice to the liquid that's in that glass.

It's very important to the process.

You want to look for a couple visual cues when you're stirring a cocktail.

want to see that the outside of the glass is starting to form a bit of a

You also want to see that that ice has sort of fallen into the cocktail.

That is how you know that you've reached the perfect amount of dilution.

We use clear ice made by Colorado Ice Works here at Strand Hands. Now we're

going to take a strainer and just strain that right over the top.

of this beautiful clear ice cube.

There we go. Get a nice orange swath there.

We're just going to pinch it right over the top.

Wipe that right around the edge of our drink. Stick it right there. And a

Luxardo maraschino liqueur cherry right there in that little curl.

The perfect old -fashioned made with Stranahan's original American single

whiskey.

Cheers.

You have some younger brothers? Yes, I am. Jesse and the buddies are old

from the valley, of course. They started out as young bucks in this valley. They

were volunteer firemen.

When the call would come out, when somebody needed help, and we were able

respond, and we were able to help people.

And that's really rewarding.

How's that fire down valley?

It's out.

Did that rain last night?

Yeah.

The rain did it. Yeah.

That's an accomplishment.

And then my family and being able to survive here in this family and survive

Colorado and grow up and go, hey, I'm there.

I finally made it.

Now it's a little late in the game, but at least I made it there, you know,

across the finish line.

Maybe we don't fully comprehend the work ethic that brought them to that bar

stool. You must be part of the action.

And the things that they did to get here.

The American dream is the ability to improve yourself.

Take a chance and go for an idea and go for a dream. If you do

that, you've got a chance.

The opportunity is there. Sometimes it's clouded and it's difficult.

Now they just look like a museum piece and where they have a whole narrative, a

whole story.

to tell that can inform all of us, there's a lot of different ways to live

get to the end.

It's become as the whole valley has.

It's changed, and change is inevitable.

I'm not against it, but it's become a little more gentrified.

They'd like to see old guys like me move out of the neighborhood and have

somebody else come in and spruce it up, but I'm going to stay there for a while

longer.

My name is Ryan. I'm one of our mixologists here. We're doing something

special today. We do a regular volunteer bottling program.

They are not being paid to be here. They came in on their own free will.

There's about 25 ,000 people on this list, so we have 20 of them behind me

today. This is the last step.

Make sure every bottle of Stranahan looks absolutely perfect.

We're the first distillery in Colorado since Prohibition.

Here we are, the most awarded, number one selling American single malt of all

time.

the category leader, but also one of the pioneers in American whiskey

craftsmanship. Everything is hand -bottled here at Stranahan.

Thank you.

I had that right to you, my man. I believe that what Stranahan's is

a reflection of our sense of place, our farmers that are excellent at what they

do and grow, our molesters, our fermentation, and our brewers.

and our climate, and I believe that what that all comes together as is a little

bit of bottled joy.

This elixir that's been around since as far back as human beings have been

getting together that has this funny ability to make you hold on to a hug an

extra second or laugh a little harder, dance a little goofier, and gives you

some of those most cherished moments and evenings in your lifetime.

That's what I love about whiskey. That's why I fell in love with whiskey. And

that's what I set out to make every day is something that rises to that

occasion, something you want to share with total strangers that become friends

or friends that become best friends.

It's an incredibly romantic thing to get to make whiskey that people bring into

their lives and share with each other in special or sad moments.