Rye Whiskey

How You Turn Rye Into Gold.

No shortcuts here — just 100% Colorado-grown Elbon rye, milled, mashed, distilled, and bottled on-site in Basalt. Aged a minimum of five years in #3 charred new American oak for a wild, spice-forward flavor with notes of pepper, citrus, oak, and a clean, lingering finish.

Platinum winner at the 2025 LA Spirits Competition and Gold at the 2025 Ascot Awards.

90 PROOF | 45% ALC/VOL

Tasting Notes

Each bottle of our 100% Colorado Straight Rye Whiskey is crafted using locally grown rye, with the desired rye spice on the initial palate, it finishes with cinnamon, fruit and vanilla. This whiskey is truly a special spirit that will quickly become the go-to rye for any whiskey aficionado.

Tasting Notes

Each bottle of our 100% Colorado Straight Rye Whiskey is crafted using locally grown rye, with the desired rye spice on the initial palate, it finishes with cinnamon, fruit and vanilla. This whiskey is truly a special spirit that will quickly become the go-to rye for any whiskey aficionado.

Don’t sweat the technique

Mash Bill:

This is an easy one! Our Rye Whiskey is made from 100% Colorado Elbon Rye. That’s it.

Milling & Cooking:

After receiving the grain, we mill onsite to a 1/16th inch sieve (coarse flour consistency). The milled grain and pure Rocky Mountain water are then combined and brought to the 6,000L mark in the cookers. During cooking an all-natural enzyme is added to help convert the starches to sugars (saccharification) and help control the consistency of the mash (liquefaction).
Cooking takes 3-5 hours.

Transfer & Fermentation:

When the cooking is done, we transfer the mash (aka beer) to a jacketed fermentation tank of equal size. A Distiller’s Yeast is pitched and fermentation begins. Our typical fermentation takes 4.5 days, yielding a mash at 8-10% alcohol by volume (abv).

Note: Industry standards are 3 to 4 days.

Distillation Part 1, Oscar (From mash to low wine):

Oscar is our 36” diameter Beer Stripping Still. He’s able to take a 12,000L batch (two fermentation tanks combined) from 8-10% abv to 75% abv in just one run.

FIRST DILUTION:
To create a more refined spirit we dilute our now 75% abv distillate down to resulting low wine (35% abv) with reverse osmosis (RO) water in preparation for the second distillation.

Distillation Part 2, Maisy (From low wine to spirit):

For the final distillation the 35% abv low wine is pumped into Maisy, our pot/column hybrid still, and one of the short 4 plate columns is utilized. It’s here that we capture the spirit bound for barrel aging, the heart of the distillate, at 75% abv. From our initial volume of 12,000L, only 786L will see the inside of a barrel.

SECOND DILUTION:
Before our Straight Rye Whiskey goes into barrels for aging, we dilute the whiskey with RO water. The RO water is used to not alter the exact flavor after distillation. Our whiskey enters the barrel at 60% abv.

Aging

Barrels are transferred to our 10,000 sq ft rickhouse in Cattle Creek, about 10 minutes down the road, where they’ll rest until pulled for blending and bottling.

Blending & Bottling

THIRD DILUTION:
Woody Creek High Rye 70/30 Bourbon Whiskey is a blend of barrels between 4 and 6 years old. We blend for flavor consistency across batches, then bring the bourbon down to 45% abv for bottling.

Cocktails at home

Virtuous Mule

1.5 oz WOODY CREEK RYE
.5 oz LEMON JUICE
3 MUDDLED BLACKBERRIES
4 DASHES STRONGWATER VIRTUE BITTERS
3 oz FEVER-TREE GINGER BEER
BLACKBERRIES FOR GARNISH

Earl Grey Old Fashioned

2 oz WOODY CREEK RYE
.5 oz EARL GREY SYRUP (1.1 TEA TO SUGAR)
2 DASHES STRONGWATER WALNUT BITTERS

see all recipes

woody creek spirits

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