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Distiller’s Perspective: Laws Whiskey and the Farm-to-Bottle Connection
Founded in 2011, Laws Whiskey House in Denver has built its award-winning bourbons and ryes on Colorado-grown heirloom grains. Here, in the first of two articles—the next from the farmer’s perspective—founder Al Laws discusses how these crops shape the character of their “dirt-to-glass” spirits. As told to Ryan Pachmayer.
Founded in 2011, Laws Whiskey House in Denver has built its award-winning bourbons and ryes on Colorado-grown heirloom grains. Here, in the first of two articles—the next from the farmer’s perspective—founder Al Laws discusses how these crops shape the character of their “dirt-to-glass” spirits. As told to Ryan Pachmayer. <a href="https://spiritsanddistilling.com/distiller-s-perspective-the-value-of-laws-whiskey-s-farm-to-bottle-relationships/">Continue reading.</a>
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I’d been trying to use locally grown grain from the beginning, but almost no one would sell to us. There weren’t a bunch of places set up to supply small distilleries, and big corn producers didn’t want to drive their trucks into Denver.
We ran out of a particular grain one day, and I went down to the homebrew store to buy a couple of bags of it. They had this stuff from Colorado Malting in Alamosa, Colorado. They told me it was a local producer, and I said, “I gotta try this.” It took only 25 pounds in a 900-pound recipe, but it changed everything.
We’re able to get rye, wheat, and barley—all heirloom varieties, and all directly from the farm. Anything that needs to be malted, they are able to malt there because they started a malting company a few years before. So, it just worked out great because there’s nothing like the flavors from these grains. These varieties aren’t grown for yield; they’re grown for flavor.
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