Denver for Whisky Lovers: Craft Meets Culture

Denver was one of the birthplaces of the craft brewing movement, which led to craft distilleries, some helmed by pioneering brewers. The city boasts some of the nation’s oldest craft distilleries, with an unusually strong focus on whiskey compared to other spirits, especially American single malt. But, from distilleries to bars with elaborate cocktails, Denver covers all the bases and is arguably the nation’s best big city for whiskey lovers. It’s also quite affordable.

Making Denver even more appealing is a reliable international airport with non-stop flights from around the country and the world. It has the best public transport connection to downtown of any U.S. airport, with direct rail service into the city’s Union Station, the heart of downtown, at just $10 for the 37-minute ride. Once there, most top bars, restaurants, hotels, and distilleries are nearby—some walkable, and none more than a short rideshare away. For sports fans looking to double up on the fun, the stadiums and arenas of the city’s pro teams—football, baseball, hockey, and basketball—are all in the heart of downtown.

Day One

The Oxford Hotel, which opened in 1891, is Denver’s oldest lodging, located just outside Union Station. In 1983 it underwent a three-year renovation, and today the Art Deco boutique gem basks in its carefully restored glory. The Oxford is filled with Western art and has embraced whiskey culture, with a 5-7 p.m. complimentary tasting of Colorado spirits in the lobby every night, including its private barrel four-grain bourbon from Laws Whiskey House. On Saturdays, this experience is elevated as local whiskey makers from Laws, Distillery 291, Branch & Barrel, and Deviation Distilling are on hand with more elaborate whiskey tastings. The Oxford is also home to Denver’s longest-operating bar, The Cruise Room, inspired by the ocean liner Queen Mary and opened the day after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. It serves the hotel’s private label whiskey but specializes in craft cocktails, with cocktail classes held on Thursdays and Sundays, typically once a month.

The city’s grandest classic hotel is the Brown Palace, established in 1892 and home to the upscale Churchill Bar, known for fine cigars and rare old scotch. One of Denver’s newest is the 16-room Urban Cowboy, a Western-themed boutique brand out of Brooklyn, in a 19th-century Victorian mansion with a vintage hand-carved saloon bar featuring a decent domestic whiskey selection.

When asked what things symbolize the city best, writer Rich Grant, author of “100 Things to Do in Denver Before You Die,” picked the annual distillery release of Stranahan’s Snowflake whiskey. “It’s always held on the first Saturday in December, you can only buy it here, it’s capped at three bottles per customer—one to drink, one to gift, and one to keep—and people camp out overnight. Many make it an annual pilgrimage, and some come by RV from a thousand miles away, picking up family along the way. It’s just a very big thing in Denver—a block party to buy whiskey.”

Founded by George Stranahan, who opened a brewery next to Coors Field stadium to produce Flying Dog beer in 1994, and volunteer firefighter Jess Graber, Stranahan’s was the first new distillery in Colorado since Prohibition. They began distilling next to the brewery and moved to the current location in the Baker neighborhood, south of city center, in 2009, offering Denver’s most comprehensive tour ($20, with a tasting of four whiskeys in the barrel room). What makes Stranahan’s unusual is that it uses only one mashbill and makes only American single malt, varied by how it’s aged and for how long. From that one-mashbill recipe have come more than 400 variations in the distillery’s 21-year history. All grain is Colorado-sourced, and water comes from the famed Eldorado Springs near Boulder.

Each annual Snowflake release is unique, and it’s always in high demand. The good news is that it’s available to sample at the distillery’s Western saloon-style tasting room and cocktail bar, including multi-year vertical flights. Take a tour, and afterward sample from the nearly 20 different whiskeys offered, from $9 for the Blue Peak, a 4–5 year old solera-style blend, to $20 for any of the past six Snowflake releases. They also have some experimental distillery-only releases, and their oldest age-stated is 10 year old Mountain Angel ($16). Choose your own flights, each with three 1-ounce pours and available at two levels ($25 and $35), while a four-year (2019-2023) Snowflake vertical is a bargain at $40. They have many whiskey cocktails, including classics ($12-$13) like the Old Fashioned and Sazerac, and seasonal specials.

Denver Distillery is nearby and makes a good follow-up, as it’s a great choice for lunch. A small artisan operation, it built its own pot still, practices open-air fermentation, mills the corn for its bourbon in-house, sources 100% Colorado grains, and collaborates with other local specialty producers. The mainstay whiskey is a single barrel four-grain straight bourbon aged 4-plus years. They also make rye (75% rye, 25% barley), Distiller’s Reserve Applewood Smoked straight rye with pine-smoked lapsang souchong tea from Denver’s own Ku Cha House of Tea, a Japanese-style shochu, and more.

Distillery tours run 45-60 minutes and include tastings of any two spirits ($12). Cocktails include an Old Fashioned ($12) and smoked Manhattan ($14), both made with their bourbon. The food menu is in keeping with their local partnerships and showcases British-style savory pies from Denver’s Pastry Republic, including favorites like Shepherd’s Pie, Chicken Curry, and Steak and Stout.

Also nearby is Laws Whiskey House, which has been here for 13 years but just opened a brand-new distillery tour experience and tasting room in December 2024. Deep-dive tours are described as “nerdy educational” with a guided tasting at $20, offered several times daily from Wednesday to Sunday. Like Stranahan’s, Laws uses exclusively Colorado-grown grains and sources its water from Eldorado Springs, but it makes a much broader range that includes bourbon, rye, corn, and wheat whiskeys. There are four different tasting flights offered, with Four Grain bourbons, ryes, bonded whiskeys and “create your own,” three one-once pours for $15-$20. Cocktails include classics like an Old Fashioned, Whiskey Sour, and Boulevardier ($12-$13), as well as funky options including an Orange Whiskey Creamsicle with 4 year old bonded wheat whiskey, vanilla simple syrup, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and Jarritos lime soda ($12).

A good choice for dinner and more drinks, The Whiskey Biscuit is south of the city and serves Southern-inspired food—think fried chicken and gravy, pork green chili, mac and cheese, and appetizers like fried green tomatoes and fried pickles. The whiskey list is entirely domestic with 16 Colorado whiskeys plus 85 other bourbons and ryes, including hard-to-find Weller, Van Winkle, and Smoke Wagon. The Thorogood Flight honors rocker George Thorogood’s hit song “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” with an ounce each of Weller Special Reserve and Johnnie Walker Red plus a 10-ounce draft beer ($18).

If the suburban Englewood location is too far afield, consider another Colorado specialty, slow-smoked barbecue. The state recently got its first edition of the vaunted Michelin Guide, and Smok, in the trendy River North neighborhood (RiNo) was the sole barbecue joint to earn recognition. Smok serves all the usual suspects, like brisket, ribs, burnt ends, pork belly, chicken, and sausages, and signature cocktails include a smoked Old Fashioned with J. Rieger’s Kansas City whiskey, turbinado sugar, and Angostura bitters ($10).

If you have any energy left, pop into The Cruise Room at the Oxford for a nightcap.

Day Two

Snooze A.M. Eatery is a small national chain that’s very popular in Denver, with nine locations, including Union Station, about a two-minute stroll from The Oxford. In keeping with the theme, consider the signature pancake flight, with one pineapple, one cinnamon roll, and one strawberry shortcake pancake—or choose any three flavors and build your own. It’s also known for its huge breakfast burrito and eggs Benedict options, including barbacoa and pork belly.

If you want a dose of Denver culture, the most popular attractions include the ultra-modern Denver Art Museum, where several buildings house over 70,000 works. The city is famous for having 300-plus days of sunshine annually, making the 23-acre Denver Botanic Gardens another top draw. For something more out of the box, Denver is one of just five U.S. cities with an interactive attraction by art collaborative Meow Wolf. Convergence Station is the work of several hundred artists, spanning four floors, hidden passageways, and catacombs. The Meow Wolf model is art as theater, with haunted house elements and hidden “plots” for visitors to discover and unravel, and this is the largest location at 90,000 square feet.

If your focus is purely whiskey, there are more distilleries to explore. Spirit Hound Distillers is another older producer, born from beer and launched by head distiller Craig Engelhorn, the brewer at Oskar Blues. Inspired to try whiskey, he spent 500 hours building his own still, then created a 100% malted single grain in 2012. Since then, he has experimented with offbeat casks, like a rare 1961 solera barrel of palo cortado sherry that he personally selected in Jerez.

Spirit Hound makes only single barrel whiskeys and uses exclusively Colorado grains. “We’re small, so we embrace that and keep it all single barrel all the time,” says Engelhorn. With limited distribution, the dog-friendly tasting room and cocktail bar downtown is the best place to try its whiskey (the actual distillery is in Lyons, Colorado). You’ll find an upbeat dog theme and neighborhood feel with trivia, board games, bingo nights, and live music. There are five whiskey cocktails offered, including the Robert Burns with cask strength American single malt, vermouth, tart cherry syrup, walnut extract, and cacao bitters ($15). One and a half ounce pours of any of the whiskeys on hand run just $9.

The Family Jones Spirit House is another highly regarded producer that sources all of its grains from just four regenerative Colorado family farms that custom-grow varieties of heirloom grains. With more a bar than distillery feel, Spirit House is renowned for cocktails, seasonal menus, and a strong neighborhood following. One of the unusual things you can only try here (when available) is the Pechuga-style corn whiskey, inspired by the tradition of making celebratory mezcal with a chicken breast in the still, except they use pork belly and a rack of ribs that were cold smoked with barbecue-rub spices, producing a fatty mouthfeel and a barbecue spice finish. It also makes Automatic Jones, a popular line of ready-to-pour bottled cocktails. Most production has been moved off-site in the eight years since it launched, but the small pot still on a loft above the bar is still used to make experimental runs and individual 53-gallon batches of wheat whiskey. On Saturdays at 2 p.m. it offers a guided tour of the distilling process with tasting flight ($30). Tuesday to Saturday a happy hour runs 4-6:30 p.m. with $8 bourbon Highballs and $12 ready-to-serve Automatic Jones Smoked Old Fashioneds.

Leopold Bros. is another highly regarded distillery that relocated here from Michigan two decades ago, expanding into its current site and modern zero-waste distillery in northeast Denver in 2014. As the name suggests, it is owned and run by two brothers, one an engineer, the other a Munich-trained brewer who made beer throughout Europe before turning to whiskey. One signature is their Three Chamber rye, distilled in a custom three-chamber still, based on pre-Prohibition documents, using heritage Abruzzi grain, plus a variety of other rye and bourbon expressions. Tours, tastings, and cocktails are offered only on Saturday (11 a.m.-5 p.m.), with the one-hour tour at $20.

There are several other distilleries in the suburbs. Talnua in Arvada claims to be “America’s first single pot still whiskey distillery, where Gaelic tradition meets American pioneerism.” They have a cocktail lounge that currently offers nine whiskeys, including distillery-only releases, flights, and tours with guided tastings. Branch & Barrel in Centennial was launched by a group of friends with a homemade still and makes a flagship straight bourbon—made with only Colorado grains—and several limited tasting room-only releases that are aged in wine, beer, cognac, port, and other barrels; tours are offered. Downslope Distilling in suburban Englewood not only offers tours and a tasting room, but also monthly hands-on three-day distilling workshops ($750).

If you have room for more whiskey and cocktails, you’re definitely in the right city. Denver has the first outpost of famed New York craft cocktail bar Death & Co. beyond the Big Apple, in the Ramble Hotel. Perhaps a Mr. Brightside, with Rittenhouse rye, oloroso sherry, cabernet sauvignon, cinnamon, lemon, vanilla, and peanut butter ($19), or a Cursed Crew, mixing 12 year old Macallan Double Oak scotch with Santa Teresa rum, plus Averna amaro, Lustau PX sherry, cinnamon, and melted butter, served hot ($20).

Denver also has an outpost of famed Los Angeles whiskey bar Seven Grand, with close to 800 offerings, plus its signature Whiskey Society, hosting a visiting distillery every Wednesday night. Depending on rarity, these guided tastings run $25, $50, or $100. There’s a very extensive selection of Colorado whiskeys, a Suntory Toki Highball machine ($12), and several rotating single barrel offerings. Whiskies are one-ounce serves, but you can try half-ounce pours to sample pricier selections like Highland Park 1990 at $500 an ounce. But most are between $10 and $100, the well bourbon is Evan Williams at $5, and the place has a license to sell full bottles.

The Whiskey Bar is a neighborhood watering hole. Best known for its value proposition, it’s a bit dark, with pool tables, sports on TV, and happy hours 4-7 every day. Many offerings are $10 or less, including scotch bargains such as Bowmore Small Batch, Compass Box Great King Street Glasgow, and Chivas Regal 13 year old. Then there’s Michter’s rye for $12, Yamazaki 12 year old for $45, and Balvenie 12 year old DoubleWood for $18—all great deals. Two other Denver hotspots are Dirty Laundry, a causal “Midwestern-themed” bar serving food like Chicago-style hot dogs alongside 400-plus whiskies, and The High Lonesome, a neighborhood cocktail bar with pool tables, pizza, an Old West flair, and more than 150 whiskies.

For dinner, hit Steuben’s Uptown, a Denver institution with an elevated diner/coffee shop menu featuring classic American comfort food: fried chicken, meatloaf, entrée salads, and exceptional burgers. They also have a big bar with 50-plus whiskies. It’s an appropriate way to end an amazing whisky weekend in Denver.