While Amy was visiting over the weekend, we took a tour of the Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Distillery.  I made the reservation late on Friday night, and decided to do the 1pm tour.  We arrived about ten minutes early, and noticed that the attached restaurant, Rackhouse Pub, was hosting some sort of event for American Craft Brew Week.  Could this be any better?  Good whiskey and good beer all in the same location!  The tour started just a few minutes late, but the wait was well worth it.

Two Stranahan’s employees greeted us near the bar of the Rackhouse, asked for our IDs, and then quickly began the tour for the small group of just over a dozen people.  We were led into a large open warehouse that was filled with various tanks for mashing, fermenting, and distilling.  We were guided through the full process of creating whiskey, and I quickly realized how similar it was to brewing beer, at least in the early stages.  The distilling process was something that I wasn’t too familiar with, and the guide explained it in great detail.

After everyone in the group had a full understanding of the process so far, we were led into the cellars to see both empty and filled oak barrels.  The process of aging the whiskey is known as maturation, and though easy to understand, the sight of so many filled barrels is pretty cool to see.  Finally, at the end of the tour, each tour goer is rewarded with a free sample of this wonderful whiskey.  Before tasting, we were given a variety of glasses filled with a small amount of whiskey for smelling.  The idea was to show how much the smell can change in differently shaped glasses.  Finally, I tried smelling the whiskey in my provided tiny plastic cup, but after little results, I allowed my tongue to do the tasting for me.  Yum!