Wyoming Whiskey, Kirby, Wyoming
For a taste of the state'sfirst and only localwhiskey, stop by Big Horn Basin distillery for a tour of their custom 38-foot copper still, used to make the family-owned company’s signature, hand-crafted bourbon. The operationgot its start in 2012 with small-batch bourbon, made entirely from locally sourced corn, wheat, barley, and rye. Distiller Sam Mead, son of the company’s founders, was once a competitive slopestyle and halfpipe skier.
High West Distillery, Park City, Utah
Whiskey aficionado David Perkins ditched a career in biotech in Silicon Valley to move his family to Park City to open Utah’s first legal distillery since prohibition. , which opened with a ski-in, ski-out location at the base of Park City Mountain Resort’s Town Lift in 2007, is known for their small-batch whiskey and a rare breed of high-altitude vodka. Last year, they opened a new distilling facility called Big Sky on a cattle ranch outside of Park City.
Stonecutter Spirits, Middlebury, Vermont
, a 2013 start-up by a 30-something husband-and-wife duo, makes aged single-barrel gin and whiskey, named after the stonecutters and masons who used to occupy the town of Middlebury in the 19th century. Show up at their new tasting room Thursday through Sunday nights for cocktail parties featuring a monthly themed cocktail list, including inventive tipples like celery soda (aged gin, housemade celery syrup, lemon, and soda) and blood orange Negronis made with their house-aged gin. Or take a tour on the to sample other craft beverages made within a five-mile radius.
Montanya Distillers, Crested Butte, Colorado
Producers of three craft distilled rums made at 9,000 feet, brings beachy cocktails to the mountains. Using sugar cane from Louisiana, the rums are aged in white oak barrels that previously held Colorado whiskeys. Pop into the tasting room on downtown Crested Butte’s Elk Avenue for a Teocalli martini, made with cucumber-infused rum, lavender, mint, honey, and lime, and a plate of flank steak street tacos.
Pemberton Distillery, Pemberton, British Columbia
It makes sense that a valley famous for its potatoes would one day become known for its vodka, too. , which opened in 2009 in the heart of BC’s Coast Mountain just north of Whistler, is run by distiller and owner Tyler Schramm, who learned the art of distilling in Scotland and runs the business alongside his family members. The Schramm brothers built their distillery by hand, utilizing geothermal heating and cooling to reduce the distillery’s energy use by 40 to 70 percent. Now, they make and sell a tasty array of organic vodka, gin, single-malt whiskey, aged apple brandy, and a limited batch absinthe.
Tahoe Moonshine Distillery andSpeakeasy, South Lake Tahoe, California
Leave it to to come up with hand-crafted liquors with names like Snowflake Vodka, Stormin’ Whiskey, and Jagged Peaks Gin. Owner and lead distiller Jeffrey VanHee, a longtime beer brewer who used to work as a Tahoe contractor, first distilled rum on a trip to Costa Rica in 2007 and was later trained through the American Distilling Institute. He started making spiritsin 2011 and opened the speakeasy, a 6,000-square-foot bar and event space in South Lake Tahoe, last April.