Craft Distillery Whiskey Founders
Mountain States Region
The Mountain States Region includes the States of: Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming
Below are links to Whiskey Founders that have made huge contributions to the growth of the Mountain States Region’s Whiskey Industry. These may have been historical figures that lived long ago before prohibition or may be living leaders that have advanced the cause of the industry as a whole. Craft Whiskey has now been its own whiskey category for years.
(NOTE: FOUNDERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
1
Chad Brown
Pine Bluffs
Chad Brown had been raised with Wyoming connections, but his family had moved west to Nevada, where he had watched his father home-brew beer, until he eventually took up brewing himself. After earning a college degree in business, he went to work for the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
2
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.
3
Craig Engelhorn
Spirit Hound
Craig Engelhorn later recalled how state and federal rules sucked all the fun out of the notion of starting a DSP in Colorado, but somehow, the idea kept simmering. By 2011, his creative attention had shifted further toward spirits, and he started dreaming up higher-proof creations than the 6%ABV that his beer offered.
4
Scott Feuille
Taylor Garrett
After Scott Feuille completed his military service, he transitioned into civilian aviation, becoming a commercial airline pilot. Over the course of that career, he accumulated thousands of flight hours. During these years, he also developed an increasing interest in distilled spirits, namely whiskey.
5
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.
6
Colin Keegan
Santa Fe Spirits
Colin Keegan began to consider whether a whiskey could be made that truly reflected New Mexico. The idea that would define his career emerged from that question. In Scotland, peat smoke had long been used to dry and impart flavor to malted barley. Keegan saw a Southwestern parallel in mesquite.
7
Andy Koenig
Koenig Distillery
In 1999 Andy Koenig and his brother Greg formally launched Koenig Distillery & Winery. The company initially produced European-style fruit spirits, a natural starting point given Andy’s Austrian training, but whiskey was already on the horizon, and ten years later, Koenig filled his first bourbon barrels.
8
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.
9
Justin Lee
Molly Brown
In 2015, Justin Lee left J&L and decided to build something of his own, so with his friend Steven DeGrucccuo, he launched Molly Brown Distillery. At the time, there wasn’t a polished destination distillery waiting for them, only a dim warehouse on Denver’s north side described as a “white shell.”
10
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.
11
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.
12
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 .
13
Ryan Mongomery
Montgomery Distilling
In 2010, Ryan Montgomery traveled to Scotland to learn distilling fundamentals. He studied under Frank McHardy at Springbank Distillery in Campbeltown, an apprenticeship that offered a philosophy of old-world methods, human attention, and a preference for doing the work with your own hands.
14
Michael Myers
Distillery 291
Michael Myers spent formative time on a family farm north of Atlanta, and his family also raised Tennessee Walking Horses on a farm at Flat Creek, Tennessee, a tiny hamlet ironically positioned equidistant between Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel, though no hard spirit was of interest to him at the time.
15
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.
16
Brad Nolt
Breckenridge
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.
17
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.”
18
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.
19
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.
20
Ryan Thompson
10th Mountain
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.