Spirits · Fort Collins, Colorado
Old Elk Distillery
A 19th-century Kentucky whiskey name, reborn in Fort Collins, Colorado.
- Founded
- 2013
- Founded by
- Curt Richardson
- Based in
- Fort Collins, Colorado
Making it since
2013
Their story
Old Elk is based in Fort Collins, Colorado, about an hour north of Denver. Curt Richardson, best known as the founder of OtterBox, bought the Old Elk trademark in 2013 and built the modern brand there.
The name goes back much further. Richard Stoll and Henry Clay opened a distillery near Lexington, Kentucky, in 1880, and registered Old Elk bourbon and rye in 1888. During Prohibition the brand went to the Stitzel family, who sold it as medicinal whiskey; Stitzel-Weller made it until 1972, and it sat idle until Richardson revived it.
Master distiller Greg Metze joined after nearly four decades of distilling at MGP in Indiana.
How it's made
Most of Old Elk's whiskey is distilled at MGP in Indiana, with a still in Fort Collins added later. The range spans a wheated bourbon, a standard rye-recipe bourbon, a wheat whiskey and a 95 percent rye, and the company is open about its mash bills.
Why we carry them
We appreciate how open Old Elk is about its mash bills, which makes it easy to taste how the grain changes a whiskey. The wheated bourbon is a soft, friendly place to start.
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