Inspired by Breweries, Colorado Distilleries Are Releasing a Collaboration Whiskey on Friday

On Friday, May 19, seven Colorado distilleries will release Colorado Distillers Collaboration Straight Wheat Whiskey.

Five years ago, 291 Colorado Whiskey, Bear Creek Distillery, Laws Whiskey House, Old Elk Distillery, State 38 Distilling, Wood’s High Mountain Distillery and Woody Creek Distillers came together to create this special spirit; proceeds from its sale will benefit charities handpicked by each distillery.

State 38 co-founder Sean Smiley was instrumental in getting the project off the ground. “At the time, I was the president of the Colorado Distillers Guild,” he says. “The idea came from just visiting breweries around Colorado and seeing [the collaborations].”

In the brewing industry, collaborations are commonplace, whether it’s neighboring breweries, cross-country partnerships or even international collabs. Yet in many other beverage worlds, including that of spirits, it just doesn’t seem to happen often.

“I asked, 'Why the hell aren’t we doing this in distilling?'” Smiley recalls. “You never hear of Jim Beam collaborating with Jack Daniel's.” So he set out to get a group of Colorado distillers together for this special project. After getting a positive response from Bear Creek right away, he started to ask more people.
“The biggest question everyone had was, how can we do this legally?” he says. The distilleries contacted the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and figured out the logistics, making sure the proper documentation and tax work were filed. Once that component was taken care of, participation solidified.

Smiley then began reaching out to manufacturing and supply partners, telling each company that the distilleries were coming together to do a charitable project, and asking if they would donate for the cause. “The partners all said yes, 100 percent,” he says. Donations included wheat from Colorado Malting Company; barrels from Independent Stave Company, Canton and Atlas Barrel Company; bottles from O-I Glass; corks from Tapi Group; and labels from Columbine Label Company.

Each of the distilleries brought twenty gallons of spirits to Laws Whiskey house. Distilled from 100 percent Centennial wheat grown in the San Luis Valley, the spirits were blended in a mixing tank before aging for five years. “It could’ve been three or four years, or even seven years,” notes Smiley. But after everyone in the group tasted samples from the team at Laws, it was unanimous: the whiskey had the flavor profile that the distillers wanted.
State 38 and Woody Creek also have their own collaboration project in the works. That spirit is a year older, but it’s made with rye instead of wheat. Smiley explains that rye often needs a little more time in the barrel, so he expects it to be ready in the next year or two. That project will also benefit local nonprofits.

For the wheat whiskey collaboration, each of the seven distilleries picked out a local charity to donate proceeds to. The organizations include Bridge of Hope, Urban Peak, Chaffee County Community Foundation, Larimer County Food Bank and Cattlemen’s Days Tough Enough to Wear Pink.

Given how well this all came together, could there be additional collaborations in the future? Smiley says that's the plan. At the bottling party, head distillers and owners from each business gathered and all agreed that they want to do more together. The group is looking at October for the next fill, with plans to release a new collaboration every two or three years, in order to keep it special and unique while raising funds for causes that are important to each distiller.

In the meantime, those interested in purchasing a bottle of this first collaboration whiskey will have to act fast. Each distillery only has 105 bottles to sell, and they go on sale for $74.99 on May 19.