Laws Whiskey House a new Denver bourbon distillery
At Laws Whiskey House in Denver, owner Al Laws (left) works with head distiller Jake Norris to create a four-grain bourbon. (Courtesy Al Laws)
Colorado’s burgeoning distillery scene has a new addition: Laws Whiskey House is open at 1420 S. Acoma St., making and selling a premium bourbon.
A.D. Laws Four Grain Straight Bourbon is the brainchild of its namesake, Al Laws, a native of Alberta, Canada who moved here at the turn of the century — that would be the 21st — to work in the financial end of the oil and gas industry. The 45-year-old has teamed with master distiller Jake Norris for the signature bourbon. The stuff is sold at the distillery ($65 a bottle) and also dispensed in a growing number of Denver restaurants and liquor stores.
“Bourbon is real important to me,” Laws says with a laugh. “I’m a whiskey collector. I have more than 600 in my house and they’re open, too.”
Laws wanted the challenge of a four-grain bourbon. By law, bourbon must contain at least 51 percent corn. Laws and Norris augment theirs with rye, barley and wheat. The flavor profile: When you take a sip, it opens with rye notes, then shifts to mellow wheat, and finishes with the barley flavor.
“It’s very nicely balanced but there’s complexity to it,” says Laws, who plans to open a tasting room at the distillery in November. “The challenge is to keep the rye from overpowering the other grains.”
Laws’ interest in whiskey took him to Kentucky to explore the “Bourbon Trail.” There he met Bill Friel, a 40-year industry veteran and member of the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame, who became his friend and mentor. It took three years of trial-and-error to develop Laws’ whiskey.
Production is done in-house at the distillery, with the grain coming from the family-owned Colorado Malting Co. in Alamosa and corn from Briess Malting in Wisconsin. The whiskey is double-distilled in a 550-gallon copper pot/column still made in Missouri and aged for at least two years in new oak barrels. The distillery has 1,000 of the 53-gallon barrels in their aging racks.
“There are no shortcuts to truly great whiskey,” Laws says. “It’s a passion-influenced spirit.”
The Laws label joins a growing number of Colorado distilleries, such as Stranahan’s and Leopold Bros.