Spirit Hound & Upslope Release Full-Circle. Big-Kinship Collaboration

(Lyons, CO) — Spirit Hound Distillers and Boulder’s Upslope Brewing

Company are celebrating the tapping of the first kegs of a unique, limited-release

collaborative beer.

This very special barrel-aged beer is now on tap at both Upslope Brewery tasting

rooms in Boulder, at 1501 Lee Hill Drive and 1898 S. Flatiron Court.

Additional kegs of the beer will be tapped on March 9 at Back Country Pizza (in

Boulder), on March 10 at Lyons Fork Restaurant (Lyons, CO) and March 11 at

Falling Rock Taphouse (Denver, CO). Tapping times at these establishments are

all 5:30 PM

Aged in the former barrels of Spirit Hound’s “flood-proof” whisky (released last

August), the beer’s unique backstory covers three years and serves as a

testament to the cooperative nature of these small-batch beer and spirits makers.

The beer’s history starts in August of 2013 when Spirit Hound was awaiting the

arrival of its brewhouse for its Lyons-based distillery.

“I’ve known Upslope founder Matt Cutter for years,” recalls Wayne Anderson, the

distillery’s head of sales. “So I asked him if we could brew on the Upslope system

while we waited on our own. He and his team were eager to help and they let us

come in on a series of Saturdays to brew. It was extremely gracious of them.” 

Spirit hound co-founder and head distiller Craig Engelhorn brewed five batches

of distiller’s wash at Upslope. He trucked the wash to Spirit Hound where it was

fermented, distilled and then placed in five 53-gallon oak barrels to age and

become the company’s first Straight Malt Whisky.

On September 12, 2013, the distillery was shut down for six months by the flood

that severely damaged Lyons, Boulder County and other parts of Colorado.

This past August, Spirit Hound released and quickly sold out of the first bottles of

its long-awaited Straight Malt Whisky, aged for two years in those first “flood-

proof” oak barrels.

In November of last year, Upslope filled those now-empty barrels with a special

Upslope beer. Upslope brewer Charlie Condon collaborated with Engelhorn and

fellow distiller Steve Williams on the beer recipe.

“We brewed the beer on the same Upslope system that we used to make our first

whisky,” Engelhorn notes. “So we’re completing a nice little circle with this beer

and it’s pretty special. We would not have had any pre-flood whisky without

Upslope’s very generous help.”

"When deciding what to put in the Spirit Hound barrels,” Condon says, “I thought

it was only right to design the beer after the original whiskey wash. I worked with

the Spirit Hound team to craft a beer that is deep and complicated and highlights

some of the unique flavors of the whisky."

“It’s a Scottish-style ale of around 9% ABV,” Engelhorn says, “that is made with a

little peated malt. It’s much like our distiller’s wash and was aged in barrels #5

and #6.”

Spirit Hound’s next bottles of its Straight Malt Whisky will be released on April 1

and will be available at a select number of retailers along the Front Range.

Spirit Hound was founded in 2012 by friends, Lyons residents and Boulder

County businessmen Craig Engelhorn, Wayne Anderson, Matt Rooney, Neil

Sullivan and Rick England.

The group set out to put Lyons on the US distilling map with a range of small-

batch spirits topped by a signature gin and a straight malt whisky. The Spirit

Hound tasting room is a popular destination for lovers of distilled spirits and

cocktails.