SOMETHING IS BEING BUILT HERE.
A destination Colorado distillery for the Rocky mountains – designed from the ground up to be extraordinary. Architecturally. Operationally. In every way that matters.
WHERE IT BEGAN
THIS ALL STARTED WITH A WEDDING IN SCOTLAND…
We weren’t there to start a distillery; we were actually in Scotland for a wedding. We had a ball touring the distilleries and tasting the different regions.
But something happens when you put two Americans from Colorado on a train through the Scottish countryside. At every turn: “You’ll need the bigger car, with the bigger trunk, for your American luggage.” The hotel offering the ground floor room for “the water pressure you Americans are used to.” The cheerful assumption that we Americans needed more of everything.
We took the trains. We ate in small pubs at impossibly small tables. We walked all day, everyday. We felt more connected than ever before. To the land, to the pace of things, to the countryside and the people.
We came home with a completely different feeling of our place in the world, and a new feeling of stewardship.
We immediately scaled down. Stef sold her Armada SUV. We stopped eating meat, beef especially, because of what meat farming costs the land. We started composting. Stef spent a year on the paperwork and policies to earn Actively Green certification. Spence started weighing every bag of trash, recycling, and compost at the Wee Dram.
These weren’t grand gestures, they were the obvious next steps once you’d seen another way of living.
And when it came time to build our business? We built it the same way.
Not because it’s good marketing. Because what else would we do?
THE BUILDING
In the heart of downtown Minturn we’re building what we believe will be a destination Colorado distillery, and one of the most distinctive distilleries in America.
The upper half is whitewashed stucco, Doig ventilators cresting the roofline, and MINTURN WHISKY running across the north face in letters you simply cannot miss. The lower half is black-painted woodwork, gold accents, leaded glass doors, stone-faced benches out front. Outdoor seating on both sides. A corner lot that invites you in from any direction.
The building incorporates an original arched window salvaged from the former Mountain Pedaler bike shop that stood on the location, a nod to the neighborhood’s history and to the people who loved this town long before us.
A NOTE FOR INVESTORS:
This is a tangible real estate asset in one of the highest-value counties in the American West with a functioning hospitality business inside and a building people will drive up a canyon to visit. Architecture and engineering are complete. Permits are pulled.. Shovel-ready.
You Found It!!! Secret 6 out of 8
This content is usually only available for our Subscribers! But you’re curious-er than most…so here goes
Our complete guide to Scotch, Bourbon and American Single Malt – and exactly where Colorado fits in.
Read the guide
IN PROGRESS, AS COVERED IN THE VAIL DAILY
THE SINGLEMALT SNOWMELT PROJECT
A CIVIC PARTNERSHIP WITH THE TOWN OF MINTURN
The hill outside our front door is genuinely dangerous in winter. Rather than salt it, which damages pavement, harms wildlife, and contaminates the waterways we’ve pledged to protect, we’re working toward something no craft distillery in America has done before.
The excess heat from distillation, which a typical distillery simply dumps as waste, is captured and routed through two separate closed-loop circuits via a heat exchanger. One heats the building and the other heats the street.
This project is currently in development in partnership with the Town of Minturn, and is seeking civic and grant funding to complete the road circuit. We’ll get there.
Loop One: The Building Circuit
Heat from the condenser routes through super-insulated storage tanks to bathrooms, the tasting room, the kitchen and dishwasher, and The Whisky Wash laundromat. Nothing purchased and nothing wasted.
Loop Two: The Road Circuit
A second loop passes through a heat exchanger and out under the pavement melting ice on a steep approach year-round. No salt or chemicals, just the heat whisky-making generates anyway.
Inspired by the WETS (Water Energy Thermal System) pioneered by Marble Distillery in Carbondale, CO. We are building on their foundation with a dual-circuit design and novel applications throughout the building.
Built smarter, not just built
When you’re building from the ground up in the mountains in 2025, there’s really only one way to do it. Every system in this building is doing two or three things at once.
1) The Whisky Wash
What looks like a neighborhood laundromat — “Minturn Laundry,” labeled right on the building exterior — conceals a speakeasy entrance to the tasting room. Pull the right thing and you’re in. The washers and dryers run entirely on heat recycled from the stills. The street has no idea.
2) 16KW Solar Array
The south-facing metal roof carries a 16-kilowatt solar installation. Colorado gets 300 days of sunshine per year and at nearly 9,000 feet, we’re closer to the sun than almost anywhere in the contiguous US. This is a power plant built into the architecture.
3) The CO₂ Loop
In partnership with CSU’s mechanical engineering program, we’re developing Colorado’s first closed-loop carbon capture system at craft distillery scale, capturing CO₂ from fermentation and selling it to local restaurants for their soda systems. A new revenue stream built entirely from what used to be waste.
4) Nothing Wasted
Spent barley, typically discarded after mashing, is being explored as a low-glycemic protein source for local production. High-efficiency boiler. Heated gutters that drain below grade. Every material decision considered because that’s how we build.
PARTNERSHIPS & WHAT WE DO TODAY
THE PEOPLE PAYING ATTENTION
CSU Mechanical Engineering · Senior Capstone Project
Colorado State University’s mechanical engineering program selected our carbon capture challenge as a formal senior capstone project, a multi-semester academic commitment to solving it at craft distillery scale. The only comparable precedent is Familia Torres in Spain, one of the world’s great wine estates.
Year One — Complete
The capture system has been designed and built. The contraption works.
Year Two — Pending Distillery Progress
Refinement and full-scale testing awaits the distillery build. We’re ready the moment the building is.
Georgia Tech · Marketing Partnership
Our marketing strategy is being developed in partnership with a Georgia Tech MBA program, because good ideas deserve rigorous thinking.
WHAT WE DO TODAY
- Actively Green certified — the Wee Dram is our certified location. A year of policies, audits, and documentation to earn it. Spence weighs every bag of trash, recycling, and compost every day.
- 1% of every bottle sold goes directly to the Eagle River Coalition, protecting the watershed that gives our whisky its character.
- Compostable cups only. Tasting room furniture sourced from antique and thrift, not new materials, not new waste.
- We live it before we build it. The values in this building didn’t start with an architect. They started on a train in Scotland.
THE WATER BENEATH ALL OF IT
Our water comes from the Mount of Holy Cross Wilderness and requires only simple sand filtration before it touches a drop of whisky. Locals say the water in Cross Creek runs sweet, and if you’ve tasted our single malt, you already know they’re right. Protecting that water isn’t a cause, it’s just obvious.
BE PART OF IT
THIS BUILDING WILL BE BUILT
We’re seeking $5 million to break ground on what we believe will become a landmark of American craft distilling and a beacon for how mountain businesses get built. Architecture and engineering are done. Permits are pulled. Shovel-ready. If you’d like to stay close to this project or see the full investor package, we’d love to hear from you.