By David Young

The oldest new distillery in Fort Collins, as it is dubbed by the owner, just opened. The new business is serving up rum along with some whiskey, with a magical twist.

The Gnebriated Gnome Distillery celebrated its grand opening on Sept. 22 at its new home in the former Feisty Spirits Distillery at 1708 E. Lincoln Ave. Jared McMillan, a network engineer at OtterBox, is the distiller and founder of the new and, relatively novel for the area, rum-focused distillery.

The unique gnome name and theme that runs throughout the distillery is based on McMillan’s Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game character, Gnorm the Gnome.

“At the very beginning of the idea of the distillery we were actively playing a game of D&D. I was a Gnome Sorcerer named Gnorm,” McMillan said. “We have enjoyed D&D and board games for many years and it just made sense to carry all of that into the distillery. We already have several groups that are ready to play D&D or board games once the space is finished and ready to go.”

The lighthearted name represents the “fun and kooky personalities,” McMillan describes of himself and his spirits. The new tasting room is decorated with little gnome figurines and images and the distillery’s website is even written in “Gnome” requiring the user to hit a translation button to be able to read it.

Fort Collins own Feisty Spirits, which distilled whiskey and spirits in the same location for more than a decade, closed recently providing a turnkey opportunity for the Gnebriated Gnome to step in and start distilling.

“We completely stumbled into meeting the Feisty Spirits crew,” McMillan said. “We met them at one of the other distilleries in the area right as they were deciding to sell. It was a ‘right place at the right time’ moment. All of the stars aligned and everything just fell into place to make the purchase very smooth and fast.”

The small distillery in north Fort Collins has a tasting room and a small patio where visitors can sample the Gnebriated Gnome’s wares. Some of the rum and whiskey that the Gnome offers include Bonnie Star Malt Whiskey, Gnightmare Dark Rum, Gnomy Rodger Spiced Rum and White Wizard Rum.

The distillery also has an array of mixed drinks available in the tasting room made with Gnebriated Gnome’s spirits, such as Mojitos, Dark and Stormy, Rum Punch, and a Rum Old Fashioned. In the future, McMillan said he will have aged rum and whiskey. He is building out an event space that will be rentable for private parties, and in the future he hopes to build out a small kitchen and offer some prepared light food and snacks.

Gnebriated Gnome’s origins are actually based on wine-making. Before opening the rum-focused distillery, McMillan created mulberry wine each year for friends at his homestead in Texas, where he had several fruit-bearing trees and plants around the farm. Over time he started exploring different flavors including peach, strawberry and cherry. With winemaking as the laboratory, he moved on to the real passion of rum. While McMillan has also made whiskey, bourbon, and vodka, rum is where his heart is.

“My wife loves wine but I am not much of a wine or beer person so I continued to explore options. I do have a taste for rum so I began to look into and get ideas on making rum. Fast forward to now and I am still a network engineer at Otter but enjoy making rum on the side,” he said.

Visitors interested in checking out the oldest new Dungeons and Dragons-inspired distillery can visit Thursday and Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., or Saturday and Sunday from noon to 8 p.m.