Longmont’s Dry Land Distillers creates spirits that are truly the taste of Colorado

By Katie Coakley

Colorado’s growing season is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it type of thing, but that hasn’t stopped restaurants, breweries and distilleries from trying to use as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. It’s a worthy endeavor: Not only does it highlight produce and grains that are grown here, but it also cuts down on the environmental impact of transporting ingredients from far-flung locales. However, Dry Land Distillers in Longmont is taking the idea of “locally sourced” one step further.

The founders of Dry Land Distillers — Aaron Main, Nels Wroe and Marc Staats — started distilling in January 2018 and opened the tasting room in June 2018. But the crew wasn’t content with producing the standard gin, vodka or whiskey. Instead, they wanted to showcase truly native ingredients.

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“When we looked at a lot of the distilleries that were cropping up in Colorado, there’s a lot of them that, you know, showcase, ‘Hey, we’re Colorado distillers … we’re using local grains,’” Wroe said. “But when you really start to peel back the layers, while there’s some great work being done out there, a lot of the Colorado spirits really did not have their roots in grains or ingredients that are actually appropriate for Colorado.”

Though grains like corn and barley are grown in Colorado, they’re often modified to survive the arid climate. In searching for ancient grains, Wroe said they stumbled upon a 2,500-year-old wheat variety that thrives in a desert climate. It seemed like the perfect fit.

Making whiskey from this ancient grain wasn’t an easy task. After all, no one had malted this type of wheat before. After trial and error, including finding an ancient yeast that would work with the grain, Dry Land Distillers became the first distillery in the world to craft a single-malt, single-barrel 100-percent American wheat whiskey from this ancient grain.

But they didn’t stop there. Using Antero wheat, a staff-of-life heirloom variety developed by Colorado State University, Dry Land Distillers 100% Colorado Antero Wheat Whiskey is a 30-mile whiskey. That means everything about this whiskey occurs within 30 miles: growing, harvesting, malting, distilling and consumption. Even the spent grain goes to Black Cat Farm in Boulder. It’s the only known whiskey distilled exclusively from Colorado Antero wheat.

“Then we started to look around and said, well, what else grows in Colorado that is native?,” Wroe said.

The idea of a mezcal-style spirit was discussed. Since there’s a type of high-altitude agave that grows in the southern part of the state, it seemed like it could work. However, there was no commercial agave crop available. But inspiration struck when Wroe was out hiking with his dog. After pulling cactus spikes out of her paw, he thought, aren’t cacti like agave?

The result is Dry Land Cactus Spirit, an award-winning mezcal-style spirit made from native Prickly Pear Cactus — both the cactus pads and fruit, when it’s in season.

“As far as we know, and according to both the American Distilling Institute and TTD, which is the federal government that approves all the recipes, we are the only ones that have ever used the cactus in this way,” Wroe said. “It’s a smoky, sweet, rich spirit, which is fun to have a true original spirit that nobody else has done.”

Dry Land also makes a limited production Cactus Reposado, barrel-rested version of the Cactus spirit; the next release will be fall 2020.

The latest spirit offering is Dry Land Gin. A year in the making, it’s the first gin made entirely with botanicals that are indigenous to Colorado, including rose hips, pineapple weed (a wild version of chamomile) and
bee balm.

“I am proud of (our gin) because I think it is truly Colorado,” Wroe said. “It’s a very different style of gin. It’s a very gentle, light, sipping gin because it just doesn’t have all the punch that a classic, old world-style gin would have, but it is a genuine Colorado gin. After 27 different batches, we finally got that one right.”

To meet demand, Dry Land Distillers is building out a larger production facility that’s projected to be up and running in 2021. But even as the distillery grows, Wroe is committed to the roots they planted.

“We’re pretty passionate about really authentically bringing Colorado into these spirits,” Wroe said. “Not just putting a picture of a mountain on a label.”

IF YOU GO: Dry Land Distillers’ spirits are available in select liquor stores and restaurants in Colorado, but we recommend visiting the tasting room at 471 Main St.,
Unit B, Longmont. Drylanddistlillers.com

Katie Coakley is a Denver-based freelance writer who focuses on craft beer and spirits, travel and outdoor adventures — the best stories combine all three. You can see more of her work at katiecoakley.com.