- 1. You're making spirits right here in Denver. What about this city, this neighborhood, that shows up in what you're creating?
Denver is our home. We grew up here, so our feelings about Colorado and our community show up in everything we do. We ferment and distill 200,000 lbs of Palisade Peaches every year. We also malt, ferment, and distill hundreds of thousands of pounds of Colorado Corn, Rye and Barley. Colorado is literally in everything we make!
- 2. What does a typical day look like for you, and what part of the process do you love most?
A typical day is filled with Dad jokes, technical decisions like how's a particular fermentation or aging regime is fairing, and long term planning. We have to look at where a Bourbon or our Peach Brandy, for example, will behave in over 10 years of maturation in casks. I love it all, and there is very little of my day that I don't enjoy. I'm the luckiest man you'll ever meet.
- 3. What's something most people don't know about distilling that would surprise them if they walked through your doors?
There's not much that doesn't surprise folks about what we do here. Coloradoans understand beer. I think a right of passage for Coloradans is a brewery tour at places like New Belgium, or Bierstadt Lager House. It's right up there with a show to Red Rocks, or buying a Subaru. But I think folk treat me like a bit of a wizard, because they don't understand distilling. It's like a black box to some folks, and most folks can't wrap their head around the fact that everything we put in bottles in turned into a gas at least once!
- 4. If someone reading this has never visited your distillery, what's the one reason you'd want them to come in?
It's just a big piece of your culture in Colorado that most don't get to enjoy. A tour shows you a combination of science, craftsmanship, bad puns, agriculture, engineering, architecture, water conservation, and art. There's really no place like Leopold Bros. anywhere in the country, and distillers from all over the world come to see the things that we do that no one else does. It's quite humbling.
- 5. What makes you different than any other distillery?
We're the only distillery in the world that has a Three Chamber still that's produced whiskey and Peach Brandy. We're also one of two distilleries in the world that malts 100% of the grains it uses. We're also the only distillery in the world that produces Vinegars made from Peach and Pear Brandy. I could go on....
- 6. What's next for you? Is there something new you're working on that Denver should know about?
We just released a line of vinegars made from Peach Brandy. Each bottle has 6 pounds of Palisade Peaches in them. This was a staple of SouthEastern cooking (think South Carolina and Georgia) in the 1800's and folks will get to enjoy our Peach Brandy Vinegar for the first time in over 100 years.
"There's really no place like Leopold Bros. anywhere in the country, and distillers from all over the world come to see the things that we do that no one else does. It's quite humbling."