Close-up of a tray featuring Locke + Co Big Catch Bourbon bottle and a Hot Buttered Bourbon cocktail, as a hand with red nails adds a cinnamon stick to the drink.

Hot Buttered Bourbon Cocktail

Ingredients

Garnish

  • Cinnamon Stick (Optional)

Glassware

  • Irish Coffee Mug

Method

  1. Combine butter, sugar and spices in a mug.
  2. Pour in hot water until the butter is melted.
  3. Add Locke + Co. Big Catch Bourbon.
  4. Stir to combine.
  5. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.
  6. Serve and enjoy!

Explore More Recipes on Our Instagram!
Bottle of Locke + Co Big Catch Bourbon on a wooden table, accompanied by a glass mug of Hot Buttered Bourbon cocktail, a small jar of brown sugar, and cinnamon sticks, with sunlight streaming in and a blurred outdoor backdrop.

Locke + Co Distilling Maple Manhattan cocktail served with a pecan-embedded ice cube, surrounded by scattered pecans on a metallic surface.

Maple Manhattan

Ingredients

Garnish

  • Pecan or Cherry

Glassware

Method

  1. Combine ingredients in a mixing glass.
  2. Add ice.
  3. Stir to combine.
  4. Strain into chilled coupe or old fashioned glass.
  5. Garnish with a pecan or cherry.
  6. Serve and enjoy!

Explore More Recipes on Our Instagram!

A-Fram Cocktail with an orange twist in a Nick & Nora Glass

A-Frame

A batch-worthy riff on the classic Old Pal.

Ingredients

Garnish

  • Orange Twist

Glassware

Method

  1. Combine ingredients in a mixing glass.
  2. Add ice.
  3. Stir to combine.
  4. Strain into a Nick & Nora glass.
  5. Garnish with an expressed orange twist.
  6. Serve and enjoy!


Bottle of Locke + Co Aspen Aged Rye whiskey placed next to a can of Spindrift sparkling water, a blue Orvis cup, a metal shot glass, and a cutting board with lemon wedges.

Riser Refresher Cocktail

Riser Refresher Cocktail Recipe

Ingredients

Glassware

  • Highball Glass

Method

  1. Add 2 ½ oz of Locke + Co Aspen Aged Rye Whiskey to your glass with ice.
  2.  Fill the rest of the glass with lemon sparkling water
  3. Squeeze in a lemon slice
  4. Enjoy

Source


Locke + Co Distilling Big-Catch-Bourbon Turnstyle Cocktail

Turnstyle Cocktail

Turnstyle Cocktail Recipe

Ingredients

Garnish

  • Maraschino Cherry

Glassware

  • Rocks Glass

Method

  1. Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker three-quarters filled with ice
  2. Shake vigorously for 15 – 20 seconds
  3. Strain into rock glass container several medium sized ice cubes
  4. Garnish with a cherry
  5. Enjoy

Source


Locke + Co Distilling Big Catch Bourbon Revolver Cocktail

Revolver Cocktail

Revolver Cocktail Recipe

Ingredients

Garnish

  • Orange Twist

Glassware

  • Rocks Glass

Method

  1. Add several medium-sized ice cubes to a rocks glass
  2. Combine ingredients in glass
  3. Stir for 10 – 15 seconds
  4. Express orange peel over glass
  5. Twist orange peel and garnish on glass rim

Source


Big Catch Bourbon Wins Gold at 2024 Denver Spirits Competition

Big Catch Bourbon Brings Home Gold

Our Big Catch Bourbon brought home Gold in the 2024 Denver International Spirits Competition!! Make sure to ask for it at your favorite Colorado bar, restaurant, and liquor outlet so you can pick up a bottle and try it yourself. For all of you outside of Colorado, hold tight as it will be available to order through our website very soon! Remember, whiskey is an Every Season Spirit so check out our Recipe page for some wonderful Spring + Summer cocktails to enjoy at your patio parties and garden get-togethers.

Locke + Co Distilling Big Catch Bourbon Wins Gold at 2024 Denver Spirits Competition

Locke + Co Distilling Co Founder Owen Locke cutting Aspen Discs for Whiskey

Harvesting Aspen for our Locke + Co Distilling Whiskey

Reliable and Sustainable Aspen Supply

We hand cut the majority of the aspen wood we use in our whiskies from family property off of Weston Pass in the Mosquito Mountain Range in Central Colorado. Utilizing the family property in Park County, Colorado ensures we will have a reliable supply for decades to come of whiskey production. That being said, we are working with other ranches and private property owners around Colorado to help work on reducing our reliance on trees from a single property. Wildfires, fungi, and changing climate conditions present potential threats to the aspen tree so having multiple harvesting locations will help us manage any of these or other potential issues. Not to mention, we are exploring aspen from different areas and see if there are any notable differences in flavors imparted into our whiskey. Maybe we will find Denver aspen trees have slight differences than ones harvested at higher altitudes!

Locke + Co Distilling founders, Owen Locke and Rick Talley harvesting Aspen Trees for their Whiskeys

Criteria for Selecting Aspen Trees

When assessing which trees to harvest from any aspen stand, we focus on older and freshly fallen trees for several reasons. First off, removing the older trees growing in the groves, contributes to the aspen stand regenerating. As long as the aspen stand is healthy, when trees are removed it causes “vegetative regeneration by shoots and suckers arising along its long lateral roots.” We are helping stimulate new growth and strengthen the overall health of aspen trees in the areas we are harvesting.

Benefits of Harvesting Older and Fallen Trees

Secondly, by removing the freshly fallen trees, we are helping clear space for the new growth to expand into. Without the added room we help create by removing trees (both standing or fallen), the new growth has the potential of being “choked” out when competing in limited space. It should be noted that since we only use 10 – 20 trees from the family property (depending on height and diameter) per year, we are able to leave ample fallen tree trunks to decompose, contributing to the required addition of new nutrients to sustain healthy soil for all the forest’s vegetation.

Locke + Co Distilling Co-founder Owen Lock cutting fallen Aspen wood for whiskey production

In addition, focusing on the older and freshly fallen aspen trees, we help remove potential fuel for forest fires. Despite aspen trees growing very well in fire-burn areas, we want to help ensure when fires do break out that they do not have excessive fuel causing undue destruction far over-shadowing the natural benefits of wildfires.

Lastly, by helping cull the aspen stands of olders and dead trees, it helps stimulate cross pollination of other aspen groves in the areas we harvest.

“Very few aspen seedlings survive in nature due to a variety of reasons including the short time a seed is viable, lack of moisture during seed dispersal, fungi, adverse day/night temperature changes, and unfavorable soil conditions.”

If we can help the aspen trees pollinate, creating as many seedlings as possible, the chances of new aspen stands growing and surviving increases. Anything we can do to help the aspen tree the better!

Source: US Forest Service

Using Sustainable Resources in Whiskey Production

We use vegetable-based bar-chain oil on our chainsaws to ensure only the flavors from the aspen wood are imparted into our whiskies. The bar-chain oil is essential to running chainsaws but as the movement of the chain distributes the oil along the guide bar and thus the chain, some of that oil gets spun off the chain onto the ground and the wood that is being cut. Using a vegetable-based oil ensures the wood does not get any petrol or other contaminants that have the potential of getting into our whiskey or into the soil that nourishes the aspen (and other growth on the property).

Rick-Talley watching Owen Locke chainsaw Aspen Trees for Locke + Co Distilling Whiskey

Locke + Co Big Catch Bourbon & Paper Plane Cocktail with Fly Fish Hooks

Paper Plane

Paper Plane Recipe

Ingredients

Glassware

Method

  1. Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker three-quarters filled with ice
  2. Shake vigorously for 15 seconds
  3. Strain into a RepYourWater Rocks glass

Source

A Locke + Co Distilling / Rep Your Water Collaboration Cocktail

Locke + Co Big Catch Bourbon & Paper Plane Cocktail

Campers drinking Locke + Co Distilling Whiskey in the mountains

The Best Colorado Whiskeys for 2025

Need help finding your next favorite Colorado whiskey? Whether you're after something big and bold or smooth and sippable, we’ve got you covered.

bonus: a must try colorado gin

Maybe it’s our crystal-clear mountain waters, high altitude, or just a little bit of rugged frontier magic—whatever the case, Colorado continues to make waves in the whiskey world.

For 2025, we’re raising a glass to the best of the best in Colorado whiskey. Whether you’re sipping neat from your Glencairn, mixing up a killer cocktail, or just going full Colorado and drinking it straight from the bottle, these are the whiskeys you’ll want to hunt down this year.


Locke + Co Big Catch Bourbon

We know putting ourselves at the top of the list is a bold move, but so is this bourbon. Big Catch Bourbon is everything we love about Colorado whiskey: complex, character-driven, and a little wild.

We took a high-rye, high-wheat mash bill, aged it for two years in 53-gallon oak barrels, and then added our signature touch of hand-cut, charred aspen wood discs—the same technique that makes our rye whiskey legendary. The result is a big, bold bourbon with a finish as long as a Colorado summer sunset.

Caramel, honey, and vanilla flavors lead the way, followed by maple, dried berries, and just the right amount of rye spice and black pepper to keep things interesting. Whether you’re sipping it neat, mixing up a killer Old Fashioned, or raising a glass by the campfire, Big Catch is the bourbon you’ll want in your rotation.

Locke + Co Distilling Big Catch Bourbon Bottle and The Revolver Cocktail

Stranahan’s Mountain Angel 12 Year

If you thought Stranahan’s Mountain Angel 10 Year was good, the 12-year version takes things to another level. Aged in charred oak barrels at Denver’s high altitude, this whiskey loses over 80% of its volume to evaporation—leaving behind a rich, ultra-concentrated spirit. With flavors of blueberry compote, raspberry cheesecake, ginger lemon tart, and a silky port wine finish, this one’s made for special occasions—or just a really good Tuesday night.


Deerhammer Progeny Series No. 4 – Vino Verso

The fourth edition of Deerhammer’s Progeny Series takes a wine-inspired turn with help from Carboy Winery. This American single malt whiskey ages three years in oak barrels, then another two years in a mix of Albariño, Gewürztraminer Brandy, and Bourbon Barrel Cider casks. The taste buds-to-brain-to-flavor palate pipeline will have you thinking blackberry jam, grilled peaches, sourdough, and lavender, with a finish of dried apples, toasted oak, and honeysuckle. This is Colorado craft whiskey at its most experimental—and it works.


Breckenridge Bourbon Madeira Finish

Take Breckenridge Bourbon, let it rest in Madeira wine casks, and you get a whiskey that’s big on flavor without being overly sweet. Maraschino cherry, plum, and smoked cherrywood lead the way, followed by hints of leather and dark chocolate—a must-have for fans of complex, layered bourbons.


Leopold Bros Foeder Series 25th Anniversary

For their 25th anniversary, Leopold Bros is doing something special. They blended an 8-year-old Three Chamber rye with a 5-year-old Maryland-style rye, then let it marry in a massive French oak foeder—courtesy of their friends at New Belgium Brewing. The result? A viscous, spice-forward whiskey with notes of baking spices, stone fruit, and a deep, layered complexity. If you can find it, grab it—this is a limited release you don’t want to miss.


Laws Headwaters Series

Laws Whiskey House isn’t just making exceptional whiskey—they’re also raising awareness about Colorado’s vital rivers. This three-year-old bourbon balances sweet tobacco, black tea, and vanilla custard with a dry, rich, and endlessly sippable finish. And every bottle helps support water conservation efforts, so you can drink good and do good at the same time.


Old Elk Wheat Whiskey

You don’t see a wheated whiskey every day, but Old Elk isn’t afraid to push boundaries. With a 95% soft red winter wheat mash bill, this six-year-old whiskey is bright, smooth, and refreshingly different. Notes of honey, peach, dried fig, and vanilla make it an easy drinker with a surprising depth.


Mythology Best Friend Bourbon

A blend of three bourbons, including a 15-year-old Kentucky bourbon, Mythology’s Best Friend Bourbon combines the best of sweet cornbread, cinnamon, honeycomb, and toasted almonds. Pipe tobacco, black currant, and a lasting vanilla warmth on the finish complete the profile. A best friend, indeed.


Molly Brown Single Barrel

A cask-strength, single-barrel whiskey that proves Molly Brown Spirits is one to watch. Each bottle is hand-selected and aged to perfection, developing rich oak, caramel, and spice layers. This is a true sipping whiskey—bold, smooth, and built for those who appreciate the art of barrel aging.


Ironton Single Malt

A Gold Medal winner, this 100% malted barley whiskey from Ironton Distillery is a love letter to Colorado’s brewing roots. Deeply roasted, slightly smoky, and layered with caramel, roasted pecan, and white chocolate, this one’s for single malt lovers looking for something different.


10th Mountain Hero to Hero Bourbon

This high-proof, mission-driven bourbon does more than taste good—it supports military veterans transitioning into first responder careers. At 116 proof, it packs a punch, but the balance of brown sugar, caramel, toffee, and oak makes it surprisingly smooth—a whiskey with heart and a finish that keeps on giving.


Bonus: A Must-Try Colorado Gin

Ballmer Peak Outback Aspen Gin

It’s not whiskey, but Ballmer Peak’s Outback Aspen Gin deserves a shoutout. They took an Australian-inspired base gin, aged it with charred aspen cuttings from Locke + Co rye barrels, and ended up with something floral, peppery, and ridiculously smooth. Think juniper, eucalyptus, and a touch of whiskey warmth—a Colorado-meets-Australia masterpiece.


So there you have it—our picks for the top Colorado whiskeys in 2025. Whether you’re a bourbon lover, single malt explorer, or rye whiskey aficionado, there’s something in the Centennial State to level up your whiskey game this year.

It’s time to get sipping.