Medium & Craft Distillery Founders
Mountain States
(NOTE: FOUNDERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
1
Aaron Chepenik
Smoke Wagon
When his whiskey was ready in 2015, Chepenik named it “Smoke Wagon,” after a 1873 Colt single-action revolver. The name carried a flint of frontier swagger; the bottle, with its raised sagebrush and crossed revolvers over the state outline, completed the statement.
2
Colby & Ashley Frey
Frey Ranch Distillery
In the spring of 2006, long before “grain-to-glass” became a chorus line in American whiskey, the Freys secured their license to distill and formally founded Frey Ranch Distillery on the family farm outside Fallon, Nevada. Their goal was to prove that high-desert grains could sing in a bottle.
3
Alan Laws
Laws Whiskey House
Alan Laws was not a distiller but a financier who spent years working in private equity and telecommunications finance. In 2011, he left his corporate career to found Laws Whiskey House in Denver, Colorado. By the early 2020s, Laws Whiskey House was recognized nationally as one of the most respected grain-to-glass operations in the country.
4
Todd Leopold
Leopold Brothers
In 2020, after years of research and development, Leopold Bros. released Leopold Bros. Three Chamber Rye Whiskey, produced on their newly built still. The whiskey drew significant attention across the industry, with distillers and historians alike praising its bold, viscous character and unique mouthfeel.
5
Owen Martin
Stranahan’s
Born in 1990 and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Owen Martin was not descended from bourbon royalty, nor did he grow up surrounded by stills and rickhouses. But he did inherit a different kind of legacy: one of precision, process, and problem-solving. After graduating from high school, Martin pursued a B.S. in Engineering and began homebrewing.
6
Brad & Kate Mead
Wyoming Whiskey
An attorney who shares a practice with his wife, Brad Mead is the grandson of former U.S. Senator and Wyoming Governor Clifford Hansen, and the older brother of Wyoming’s current governor, Matt Mead. He once ran for Justice of the Peace, but today, Brad’s happier to talk about Wyoming Whiskey, the distillery he founded with his wife, Kate .
7
Steve Nally
Wyoming Whiskey
Steve Nally was born in Loretto, Kentucky in, 1950. His family farm joined the Maker’s Mark property. As a young boy he roamed the Maker’s property hunting local game or just hiking the hills owned by the Samuels. He attended Loretto High School. After graduation from high school he bought a small farm.
8
Brad Nolt
In 2007, Bryan Nolt founded the Breckenridge Distillery in Breckenridge, Colorado, located more than 9,600 feet above sea level, one of the highest-altitude distilleries in the world. It was then that he left medicine and committed himself full-time to whiskey making. Nolt intended to build something far more serious than just a passion project.
9
David Perkins
High West Distillery
In 2002, David, attended a wedding in Kentucky. On a whim, he visited the Maker’s Mark distillery, where the fermentation and aging processes triggered a profound realization. He later recalled the barrel warehouse bathed in vanilla- and caramel-scented air, and it hit him: “I want to make whiskey.”
11
George Stranahan
Stranahan’s
An unexpected barn fire in 1998 sparked a new venture: local volunteer firefighter Jess Graber helped George extinguish a blaze on his property. As they conversed afterward, their shared passion for distilled spirits inspired the creation of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey in 2004, in Denver, marking George’s entry into the American single‑malt whiskey category.
10
Dave Pickerell
Many Distilleries
David Steven Pickerell is credited as the founding father of the craft distilling movement and helped shape the modern American distilling industry as we know it. He once had the nickname “The Johnny Appleseed of American Whiskey” for the multitude of distilleries whose development he played a role in.
12
Ryan Thompson
Ryan Thompson earned a degree in Business Management but later moved to Vail, Colorado, where he worked in real estate development. Back then, whiskey was a personal passion long before it became a business pursuit. In 2014, Thompson officially launched 10th Mountain Whiskey as a way to honor that unit’s WWII warriors.