Wood’s High Mountain Distillery was founded by brothers PT and Lee Wood, with the goal to bottle their passion for the outdoor adventures into spirits that shine with the essence of the mountains of Colorado. Enjoy a cocktail or dram of our spirits and celebrate a little high mountain living.
PT can you briefly tell us about yourself?
PT: I’m a self taught distiller that move to Salida in the late 90’s to be a river guide. I have also been a kayak sale rep, owned a pizza place and built custom homes.
What was your vision for Woods Distillery? Can you tell us about the name.
PT: The Idea started on a 21 day Grand Canyon trip in 1996 while drinking whiskey one night, I decided I wanted to make whiskey someday. It took until 2012 to realize that dream but with the help of my brother and partner Lee we where able to pull it off. We really wanted to do two things one make a distinctive Colorado malt whiskey and a great gin for cocktails on a hot afternoon by the river. The Name wound up being a bit of the default position, we had pages of names and I think we both decided it was to over whelming and just went with our last name, Wood and added High Mountain to acknowledge the 15 14,000 foot peaks in our valley that provide our amazing water.
Who is involved in this distillery?
PT: My brother Lee and I own it, Lee is the business end and I do the production, Rocky manages the tasting room and helps with production and Beck helps in production and keeps the equipment clean.
What have been the main challenges involved in setting up a new distillery?
PT: Cash! It is incredibly expensive and putting back inventory just locks up a ton of money. Beyond that probably the hardest thing is consistency, you are dealing with a ton of variables everyday from weather, grain, yeast, water temps, barrels, etc all of the variable are constantly conspiring to make consistency hard.
And what has been the part you’ve enjoyed most?
PT: Making the spirits, it really is amazing to watch it go from grain to spirit the transformation is wild. Probably the funnest thing I get to do now is pick barrels to harvest, you definitely get spoiled drinking your whiskey right from the barrel!
How has the landscape changed for the American whiskey sector in recent years?
PT: The growth and the creativity. Every time you turn around there is a new distillery opening, when I became president of the Colorado Distillers Guild two years age we had 18 members now it is over 40. Lots of people are getting into distilling from the beer world and are not only not afraid to use specialty malts but some really wild yeasts as well, It is making for some really interesting new whiskeys especially in the American Malt category.
What whiskey expressions do you currently produce and how do you stand out in this craft whiskey market?
PT: We have two whiskeys out right now our Tenderfoot American Malt whiskey and our Alpine Rye whiskey. Our Tenderfoot features five different malts and three different grains, 2row malt barley, chocolate malt barley, cherry wood smoked malt barley, malted wheat and malted rye, which makes for a very big bold distinctive whiskey that is a lot of fun to get to know over along period of time. Our Alpine Rye is made with a grain bill 100% unique to us it is 73% malted rye and 13.5% each of our chocolate malt and cherry wood malt, making it another big really interesting and distinctive whiskey with more of a rounder rye quality than most rye’s and with a pinch of chocolate and smoke that tie it to our tenderfoot and also set it apart from all other rye’s.
“This is by far the best time ever to be into whiskey, there has never been as much variety or interesting juice out there as there is now and with the internet you can find great whiskeys from all kinds of distillers fro all over the world.” – PT Wood
What’s the region you’re distilling in like? Does it have a food and drink heritage?
PT: We are in the best part of Colorado and probably the world, we have 15 peaks over 14,000 feet in our valley and our town sits at 7000 feet so the vertical relief is pretty stunning. A block out the back door of the distillery is the Arkansas river, a gold medal trout fishery and world class whitewater destination, Monarch pass just a few miles up the road has some of the deepest lightest snow in the country and we have miles of amazing trails all over the place. Salida and the valley attracts a lot of very creative people so we have wonderful art and great food. We also have 5 breweries and 2 wineries in addition to Wood’s and Deerhammer making spirits.
What are the maturation conditions like?
PT: This a great, although a bit tricky, place to age whiskey. We have very dry air with cool winters and warm summers, our barrel area will be 30-40 in the winter and 80-90 in the summer.
Are you using any special casks – quarter casks etc?
PT: We use bother 25 and 53 gallon casks from Kelvin Cooperage with 24 month seasoned staves. We feel they really are the best barrels you can use.
Do you believe now is the most exciting time for a whiskey lover?
PT: This is by far the best time ever to be into whiskey, there has never been as much variety or interesting juice out there as there is now and with the internet you can find great whiskeys from all kinds of distillers fro all over the world.
Walk us through the distillation process of your whiskey, from grain to glass. How do you determine when the whiskey is ready to be bottled.
PT: We start with floured malts that we hand mix with water in our mash tank and heat to our enzyme rest points with direct steam injection, we then cool, transfer to a open fermenter and pitch our yeast ( a pretty traditional scotch variety) and let ferment for ~9 days. When we reach our target gravity and ph we transfer into Frankenstill, our home made stripping still, and run low wines. We finish the low wines in Ashley our antique German hybrid still. Once we have collected and proofed the hearts we barrel. Then about 2 months or so before I think the whiskey is done I will start barrel sampling and keep my eye on it until it smells and tastes right.
Is there a certain flavor profile that you are looking for?
PT: For sure with the Tenderfoot I want it have a bit of chocolate, smoke, leather and nice spicy finish. For the Alpine rye it needs to have nicely rounded rye character with a hint of dark chocolate, smoke and oak with a punchy rye spice finish.
How do you think the next year will go and what are your hopes?
PT: Amazing I hope! I am really excited we will see our first 53 gallon barrels we filled turn 3 and perhaps get to bottle some of that!
Is there anything in the pipeline for 2017 we should be on the lookout for?
PT: Potentially the 3 year old Tenderfoot, If it does come out it will have a different name acknowledging that while the grain bill is the same as the Tenderfoot the cuts and barrel are different. Oh and it will be delicious!
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
PT: Yes our distillery and tasting room are right in downtown Salida and we would love to make you a cocktail and show you around!
