Oskar Blues Partners with Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey

Starting this month, Oskar Blues Brewery will begin supplying the custom-made distiller’s wash for Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, the pioneering micro distiller located in Denver, Colorado.

Oskar Blues will craft about 3000 gallons of Stranahan’s wash each week in its Longmont facility. Stranahan’s will purchase the wash and truck it by food-grade tanker to its Denver distillery.

"This is a very big deal for us," says Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis. "Jess and his team are whiskey mavericks, they’re doing for whiskey what craft brewers have done for beer. They’ve proven that with guts, talent and a blind eye to the status quo, one can make whiskey as good as any out there."

Since its opening in 2003, Stranahan’s had been making its Straight Rocky Mountain Whiskey from distiller’s wash provided by Flying Dog Brewery in Denver. In January, Flying Dog shifted its Denver brewing efforts to its brewery in Frederick, Maryland.

Oskar Blues contacted Graber immediately upon hearing of Flying Dog’s decision to move and offered its services.

The brewery-made wash plays a key role in the premium quality of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey. It is made for Stranahan’s from a recipe created by Jess Graber. After mashing in and fermentation, the wash is filtered prior to distillation. This filtering frees the wash of many of the harshness-producing characteristics found in traditionally produced whiskey mash.

"This cleaner, purer wash," says Graber, "gives us a really superior product to start with, and it reaches maturity much faster."

The wash gets another unique treatment in the hybrid pot/column still that Graber designed. It blends the benefits of the pot-type still used for scotch with the bourbon-style column still. Stranahan’s temperature and humidity-controlled barrel-aging room further enhances the quality of the whiskey and speeds its development.

"By using all of these unique methods and extra efforts," Graber says, "we get an ultra-smooth and extra-flavorful whiskey that tastes way beyond its years."

"These guys are bold innovators." Katechis says. "And they’re bringing whiskey back to a small-batch, grassroots level that’s unpretentious and people can identify with. They’re the kind of entrepreneurs we want to partner with."

Oskar Blues and Stranahan’s intend to develop various cross-promotional programs to highlight their collaboration.