Stranahan’s® Whiskey is touted for making some of the best whiskey in the West and stands as Colorado’s first legal whiskey distillery since prohibition. Uniquely Colorado, Stranahan’s embodies the spirit of the mountains and the rivers that flow through them in every bottle. Recently, we had the pleasure of fishing the Roaring Fork Valley with the founder of Stranahan’s, Jess Graber. What started as a day of fishing quickly became a masterclass in whiskey, filled with stories of how Stranahan’s Whiskey came to life. From a midwestern childhood to a successful career as a carpenter and a faithful day as a firefighter, we learned the story of what makes Stranahan’s “Colorado’s whiskey.” We sat down with Jess Graber in their tasting room in Aspen, Colorado, to learn more about this wild and exciting journey. The following interview sheds light on Jess, his passions, and what it takes to create a whiskey company rivaling the best in the world.
Flylords: Jess, off the bat, what was your childhood like? What was growing up like, and where were you?
Jess Graber: When I was a kid, I grew up in the Midwest. We moved back and forth between Kansas and Missouri. My dad was in the Corps of Engineers, so he would get transferred, and we moved. And we were somewhat suburban. Sometimes, we were out in the sticks. And so, I learned to love being outdoors. I remember every summer, my dad got a week off. We would pack up the car and come out to Colorado and camp. So that’s how I fell in love with Colorado. There’s nowhere else I want to be.
Flylords: How old were you when you made the move to Colorado, and what led to that move?
Jess Graber: I moved to Colorado when I was 21 years old. I wasn’t focused enough to stay in college or get along with the football coach, so I decided to get out of Dodge. I came to Colorado to enjoy the outdoors and become a “mountain man.”
Flylords: When you got to Colorado and got your feet on the ground, what was the first thing you did?
Jess Graber: Once I was settled, I put my manual and mechanical skills to use. I beat nails as a carpenter. Back then, if you got up in the morning and showed up, it wasn’t lucrative, but it was solid work and made money.
Flylords: How long were you a carpenter?
Jess Graber: Well, I was a carpenter for a long time. It started on the Front Range, where I learned the trade and honed my skills. When I moved to Aspen, I really started to hit a stride. People were hiring me, and then I needed help, so I gradually built a small construction company up in the mountains.
Flylords: What brought you out to Aspen?
Jess Graber: I actually made my way to Aspen through a friend of a friend who needed a carpenter. He had a partial log cabin built up on the side of the mountain and needed somebody to finish it. The offer was that if I finished the cabin, I’d get a free place to live and could continue working on the side. And so, I got a free place to live in Aspen and never looked back.
Flylords: When you get here, you’re working with your growing company, which is in high demand. Alongside this, when did distilling come into your life, and how did it enter your life?
Jess Graber: Well, I started distilling by happenstance, or as we say in Missouri, I stepped in it. I moved up to the mountains from Boulder in a small town called Nederland and ran into a guy that all I know as Larry the Missouri River rat. After becoming friends, Larry had a whiskey still, and he said, “I want to give this to you because I’m going back home, and I’m going to get in trouble.”
I knew what a still was, but I really didn’t know how it worked. He told me, “Well, it’s real easy. We’ll cook up some corn, and then after we do that, we’ll boil it off, and then everybody will be your friend.” So we did that. At this time, nobody was moonshining in Colorado. We made a batch up in the mountains, and everyone enjoyed it. That was my first successful distillation.
Flylords: After becoming a hobby distiller, how did you make that transition into doing it more frequently?
Jess Graber: Well, to be a hobby distiller, you have to have people who like your hobby. Luckily, I had that. The process took a while with a small ten-gallon still, but nobody else was doing it. It was fun being able to give my whiskey out as presents and hear people go, “Oh man, this is really cool.” It’s like I was making artwork, and people were appreciating my art.
When winter came, I really didn’t have much to do, so I’d set aside time in the summer and make one or two batches. By the time it was all done, it was probably about five gallons or 20 bottles. It was a fun activity and kept my interest up.
Flylords: When did that rev up and become something that you thought you could sell?
Jess Graber: I never really thought about going the commercial route until people started asking me to buy it. It turns out I gained a small reputation because it was still a small town, and I was making pretty good stuff. People were asking me, “Can I get on your Christmas list again next year?” And I’d go, “Why?” “Well, we’re not working together this year. I’m not working with this architect or this engineer, but I still want to be on your Christmas list.” And wanting to try and keep finding work, I said, “Sure.” So I thought, if it’s popular, maybe somebody ought to be doing this and selling it rather than giving it away.
Flylords: Why Whiskey?
Jess Graber: Well, Whiskey is Colorado. Colorado is a vibrant and bold state, and so is its climate. Once you get off of the plains and the desert and into the mountains, you got to be hardy to live up here. You have to put up with snow, freezing temperatures, and all kinds of stuff. After a hard day outdoors, whether it’s camping, snowmobiling, horseback riding, or fly-fishing, if you’re out there, you want something that’s got a little meat in it, and whiskey’s got the meat. It’s something that tastes good and satisfies you.
Flylords: When did you switch to spending more time making whiskey rather than working your construction job?
Jess Graber: Well, I still worked my construction job to pay for the whiskey distillery. I tried to figure out a way to open a distillery because I knew I had a good idea, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it work. Then, on April 2nd, 1998, a neighbor down the road, George Stranahan, had a barn fire. Being a volunteer firefighter, I went up there and helped put the fire out. We started talking after the fire, and he started Flying Dog Brewery. I said, “George, I know you have your brewery going, and I have a little home distillery on the side. Would you like to try some?” He said yes, but I couldn’t make it out of my horse shed with snow still on the ground. So George let me use the extra room in his barn to make it.
I made a few batches and, later that summer, walked into the barn to find a couple of kegs of Flying Dog beer on the floor in between the stalls. I asked his ranch runner and said, “What are you going to do with that?” He says, “Well, next time we head back to Denver, we’ll take those kegs back down. They’re left over from a party.” And I said, “Well, can I have it?” And he goes, “What are you going to do? It’s old and flat.” And I said, “Well, there’s some alcohol in there, so let me cook it off.”
I put the kegs in the still, and I cooked it off. That’s when the cartoon light bulb went off in my head. The distillate that came out was much cleaner and much purer than the corn squeezes that I had done before. And I went, oh, it’s a refined whiskey mash, just like they make the good cognacs and brandies out of wine, not out of the grape skins. So, if we refine this whiskey mash, we can come up with a really good whiskey.
I prodded George about letting me open a distillery net to Flying Dog in Denver. It definitely took some convincing, but after I offered to call the whiskey Stranahan’s, George was in. I moved my operation to Denver and partnered with George to buy mash from Flying Dog. After a few goes and some recipe tweaks, we were up and running. Word soon got out, and people started asking, “Can we get it?” That’s how the commercial aspect started, and because the recipe was so good, we never deviated from that.
Flylords: Now that you’re officially in business with George and know you have a good product on hand, what comes next that eventually brings you guys to what Stranahan’s is today?
Jess Graber: We had a couple of things going for us. Number one is Rocky Mountain water. We have the best water in the world. I know Kentucky likes its limestone water, and Tennessee’s got its branch water, and everybody likes it. But our water comes from the snow from the sky. In whiskey, there is more water than alcohol, so if we cut it with swamp water, it wouldn’t taste very good.
The same water we use for our distilling process and cutting is the same water that we pull our fish out of. If it’s good enough for the browns, rainbows, and the cutthroats up here, it’s good enough for us. So we use that water, and we use that Colorado basis to say, “Hey, we’re a Colorado company. This is what we’re doing. We’re making a good whiskey, and we’re sticking with whatever Colorado has, and we want to be Colorado’s baby.” And it worked out.
Flylords: When did you begin fly fishing, and how did you find fly fishing?
Jess Graber: I grew up fly-fishing in the Midwest, mostly on ponds, and it was a way for me to learn how to fish on my own. My dad was an avid outdoorsman, and we’d go to Grandpa’s place in Central Kansas. They’d give me a fly rod and show me how to use it. I’d stand on the bank around the edge of the dam and throw little poppers for bluegill and sunfish. I could spend all day there.
When I got out to Colorado, everyone talked about trout fishing. Back then, there weren’t nearly as many people and next to no fishing pressure. I’d go to the local fly shop in Aspen, and ask, “What’s going on last few days?” They’d give me a couple of free flies, and I’d go out and catch a half dozen fish. So it seemed easy. It seemed natural.
Flylords: Having fly fished Colorado and being surrounded by water, what inspired you to use Rocky Mountain water in your distilling?
Jess Graber: Yeah, the purity of the Rockies definitely played a big part in deciding the water we used. Currently, we use a couple of different forms of Rocky Mountain water. We use some El Dorado spring water, which is an ancient spring, and then we use processed water that’s charcoal filtered from the mountains. But back then, you could drink out of practically any stream as long as the cattle weren’t grazing in it. I mean, how much better does it get?
Flylords: Back to your distilling journey. When did everything finally hit you? That this could be a full-time deal, this could be your life?
Jess Graber: Around 2005, I was still doing construction and commuting down to Denver a couple of days a week. I was working seven days a week, but we were getting so much interest that it was shocking. That’s when I bought another still to double our production from three barrels a week to six barrels.
Then, in 2006, we started selling, and it was kind of like Johnny Appleseed selling apples. I drove all over the state of Colorado with whiskey in the back of my truck. I’d introduce it to people as Colorado whiskey, and they’d respond with, “There’s no Colorado whiskey.” And I said, “Yeah, there is. I make it.” By word of mouth, it started to grow, and more and more liquor stores started to carry it.
At this time, the fishing crowd also picked up on it. Standing in the cold water all day is tough, but a little flask can provide you with the warmth you need to fish comfortably. Being the only Colorado whiskey maker, our product went hand in hand with fly fishermen.
Flylords: So, it’s after 2005, and whiskey has officially become your full-time gig. Tell me about 2007.
Jess Graber: Well, 2007 was when we finally started to turn a profit. It was a good thing, and it was a bad thing. The good thing was we were in the black. The bad thing was that I had to spend a lot more time in Denver to get it up and running, which meant leaving the mountains. I had a wife and kids at home, so that was a tough decision. Then, I started turning down construction work, and that was the transition period. But, by mid-2008, there wasn’t a single construction job to be done, and the whiskey was flying off the shelves, so I’m going, “God, we’re going to make it.”
Then, in late 2008, a big distributor picked us up. I remember that they came in, and we made a handshake agreement. They wanted 13 pallets, and we only had six pallets on the floor. We needed two bottlings to catch up to do that. I said, “Yeah, we’ll get it to you next week. No problem,” and the rest is history.
Flylords: What company was it that gave you your first chance?
Jess Graber: That was a company called Republic National, a distribution company. But, at that point, because we were starting to get noticed, Proximo, the distribution arm of Jose Cuervo, started taking an interest in us as a growing company. We talked, and we started dancing around, and they came up with a million ideas. Finally, we came to an agreement that they would take care of me, they would run the business, and I would support them from outside the business. So they took over the business in late 2010, and at that point, I’ve been happy ever since.
Flylords: From the beginning to where it is now, would you ever have imagined Stranahan’s would get to this point if you were talking to yourself about making your first batch of whiskey?
Jess Graber: In my wildest dreams, I never envisioned the path that this took, and I’m very proud of it. It’s just that the sheer volume and the sheer growth of it is beyond what I was trying to do. I was trying to do a small little operation that was really high-quality and that people would go, “Yeah, this here’s another part of Colorado.” To have it become so successful after that was a surprise. I’m happy about it, but it was a surprise because I wasn’t a venture capitalist trying to grow something. I was just trying to make really good whiskey.
Flylords: As of today, how many bottles is Stranahan’s distributing worldwide every year?
Jess Graber: We produce around 2,500 barrels a year, which translates to close to 40,000 bottles. That’s a lot of bottles, and we are on the smaller side of what some manufacturers produce.
Flylords: We’re sitting here in the Aspen tasting room, and we were just out fishing on the Roaring Fork. How do you think Stranahan’s embodies the spirit of Colorado?
Jess Graber: Well, I go back to where Colorado needed a whiskey. It didn’t need another spirit because Colorado has the spirit. So, getting out on the river, there’s a spirit there. When you go out and walk into the water, you realize that water’s in the connection, and the whiskey all comes together. And it’s there, and you’re out there experiencing that. That’s why Colorado wanted a whiskey. They wanted something that was all part of that outdoor spirit.
Flylords: Is Stranahan’s involved in any conservation efforts?
Jess Garber: Yeah, we’re getting more involved in that space. We just worked with the Greenway Foundation down in Denver, and just last week, we did a river cleanup and took over 1400 pounds of trash out of the South Platte River. We had 75 volunteers. We donated all of the tour proceeds that day to the Greenway Foundation for the conservation work they’re doing on the South Platte. I mean, that’s the closest water to our distillery. It literally runs not even a hundred yards from our distillery. It’s right on the other side of the highway, so we took care of that river and cleaned it up. We’ve also done stuff with Trout Unlimited, the Elk Foundation, and various hunting clubs. We try to support those types of things because we think that they fit hand in glove with what we’re trying to do, the Colorado spirit.
Flylords: If you were to describe a glass of just your base-level whiskey to someone who had never tried it, and you really wanted to sell them on it but authentically sell them on it, how would you describe it?
Jess Graber: Well, I’d say it has most of the normal whiskey-tasting notes because whiskey gets 60% of its flavor from the barrel, and it gets a hundred percent of its color. But it’s going to have coffee, caramel, toffee, chocolate, and some banana. I think there’s a little more chocolate in our whiskey than a lot of other whiskeys, and I think you’re going to find it amazingly smooth because of our clean distillation process and the clean Colorado water that we cut it with. We hear it all the time in the tasting room, “Well, I don’t normally like whiskey, but I like this whiskey.” So I think it’s very approachable. It’s got a soft palate. It’s still whiskey; it’s got plenty of kick, but it’s not something that’s going to burn you when you try to taste it.
Flylords: What type of whiskey is Stranahan’s, and what defines that?
Jess Graber: Stranahan’s is a fairly new type of whiskey in the United States. It’s a single malt whiskey, and most people think of single malt as having to be a Scotch, but it’s not. Single malt means that we’re making it from malted barley. We’re not using corn, we’re not using rye, we’re using a hundred percent malted barley, which also adds to the softness of the flavor of the whiskey. Now, it’s partly for convenience because barley was available at Flying Dog, and it’s partly because it’s also unique to Colorado. There was no one else. There was one other guy who was making a single malt, but he was bringing in peated malt to try and copy a gin. We never tried to copy a gin. We tried to make this uniquely Colorado so that the flavor, the profile, and the taste were all going to be totally different from what anybody else was used to.
And people kind of expect that from Colorado. Colorado’s a different place, and it needs to be bold. It needs to be strong, and it needs to be different. There was no official government category for single malt. And the government is close to now establishing, just like they’ve established standards for bourbon or corn whiskey, what an American single malt is. An American single malt is 100% malted barley made with local water and aged in barrels, and they’re working on the aging because Scotch is aged in used barrels, and we age in new barrels just like bourbon. We’re following the American whiskey process, but we’re just using barley instead of corn. So people are getting used to that, especially because it tastes good. The more they taste it, the more they get used to it.
Flylords: What does the distilling process for a bottle of Stranahan’s whiskey look like in terms of what you’re allowed to give away?
Jess Graber: The straightforward process of making Stranahan’s Colorado whiskey is to get barley that’s grown 90% in Colorado in the high plains on the southern side. We crack that barley, and then we cook it, almost like making a soup. When we heat that up, the sugar in the malted barley is released. We take that sugar water, put it in another pot, and add yeast to it. We let the yeast eat the sugar, and yeast eats the sugar and turns it into either carbon dioxide or alcohol. We control the temperature of how the yeast eats and how the yeast lives, so we get a long period of time where the yeast eats and it doesn’t die off.
Once the yeast eats and creates that low-grade alcohol, we put that in the still. We try to cook it at a low temperature so the alcohol boils off first and leaves the water behind. And then, once we get that level of alcohol, then we put it into another still and cook that alcohol off, leaving the water behind. And then, we’ve got about 140 proof of alcohol. Then we take it, and we add water again, our Colorado water, and bring it back down to about 110 proof, and that’s what we put in the barrels. And then, the barrels do their magic.
Flylords: What, outside of ingredients, sets Stranahan’s apart from other whiskeys?
Jess Graber: Well, I think the people who work with Stranahan’s are really proud of the fact that we are proudly Colorado. If you say, “I’ve worked for Stranahan’s,” people think that’s pretty cool. They’re there to maintain the quality, and I think there’s a pride in that. I mean, everybody loves producing their own whiskey. I’m not impugning any other whiskey makers, but they want to keep this uniquely Colorado. They want to keep it part of the growth, and no matter how big it grows, they still want it to be, “Hey, this is from Colorado. This is really cool. Not everybody does this.” And so, they’re creating their own form of their artwork that they want people to enjoy.
