Peak Spirit: The High Altitude Whiskey of Breckenridge Distillery

Breckenridge Distillery is the highest altitude distillery in the United States, if not the world. It was founded in 2008 by Dr. Bryan Nolt and has become a destination for whiskey enthusiasts and tourists alike. The distillery boasts many awards and collaborates with local artists and breweries, cementing its place as a local fixture of Breckenridge, Colorado.

Background

“I was a doctor, and had no plan on ever changing that,” recalls Breckenridge Distillery Founder Bryan Nolt. “The sacrifice was pretty epic, and once you put that in, there’s no way in hell you’re getting out unless you die you know or retire. That’s what led me to spirits. In the ten years prior to that, I’d been working about 115 to 120 hours a week, 364 to 365 days a year. And that’s the way medical training used to be. It’s not that brutal anymore. But when you’re living that, you get weird hobbies because you do not have any time to yourself. You don’t have time to do anything but you need outlets. The only thing that I loved that I really had time for on a regular basis was whiskey. I became the ultimate connoisseur and collector of whiskey. If I had free time, I would read about whisky or the history of whisky or whisky stories.”

Breckenridge Distillery founder Dr. Bryan Nolt photo credit Liam Doran

Bourbon was just starting to gain popularity at the time, but Nolt was a fan of Scotch. He’d traveled to Scotland to learn more about his favorite beverage, touring distilleries and meeting with independent bottlers to try some of the best Scotches that were around back then, the tail-end of the global whiskey glut. He went fishing with a colleague who was going through a rough time and later realized he’d been gleefully talking about whiskey all day. That was when he realized that opening a distillery could be just the creative outlet he needed.

“I said, you know what, f*** it, I am going to see if I can talk to my wife and letting me just start a little distillery,” Nolt recalls. “I’m just going to make the stuff I want to drink and this is going to be possibly my salvation.”

Nolt jumped headlong into learning everything he would need to know about running a distillery, from the technical side to the business side and everything in between. Until recently he was still practicing medicine nearly full time, but these days he only practices about seven weeks a year and instead devotes most of his time to the brand. “It’s a privilege to take care of people, especially when they need you, and so that’s what’s kept me in it,” Nolt says. “What I’m really enjoying right now is actually the spirits business itself, and it becomes really hard to jump out of that for seven weeks a year.”

The Craft Distillery Movement in Colorado

In the early days of the Breckenridge Distillery, Nolt held classes for prospective distillery owners, educating them on the ins and outs of the spirits business. These classes helped get several distilleries off the ground, including Colorado’s Talnua Distillery. Unfortunately, Nolt is stretched too thin these days to keep that up.

Breckenridge Distillery Portfolio

Breckenridge Distillery bottles — Breckenridge Distillery products photo credit Jessie Unruh

The Breckenridge Distillery makes a variety of spirits, including bourbon blended whiskey, American Single Malt Whiskey, rum, gin, and flavored products like aquavit and a bitter aperitif. Their bourbon was a 2023 Double Gold winner in the NY International Spirits competition, while the Breckenridge Dark Arts and Breckenridge Collectors Art Series were Gold winners.

They’ve also partnered with the Denver Broncos as both the official Bourbon sponsor and the official vodka sponsor of the Mile-High NFL team. The brand has experienced major growth over the last 15 years, but that growth often comes with hiccups.

Plans for Growth

“Honestly, right now, the biggest hold up is just our capacity issues,” says Nolt. “We’ve got a 100,000 ft² warehouse in Denver coming online, and then we have a new fully automated bottling line that’s actually being installed right now.”

The warehouse is being built in Denver both because of the price of real estate in Breckenridge, Colorado, and because of the regulatory landscape of the tourist town. When Nolt first built the distillery in Breckenridge, he didn’t have enough product to distribute that he really had to worry about explaining Bourbon from Colorado. By the time he reached that critical mass, he found that whiskey consumers were a little more accepting of products that strayed from the standards.

Becoming a Destination

Breckenridge Distillery tour photo credit Liam Doran

“People looked at whisky with a lot more curiosity,” says Notl. “People seem to be very open-minded and they didn’t really care where it came from, but they were looking for things that were interesting and had a great story and a great experience. So I just felt like we had this cool little distillery up in the mountains and people loved it and then they would try the whiskey and they were like, wow, I really like this. I didn’t really feel like I ever had to explain much. Once we started branching out, people were looking for different things and the story’s a little different. But I always felt like people still wanted to try new things in new markets, and they were really curious.”

These days, Breckenridge Distillery is a destination for whiskey enthusiasts as well as being a local attraction for skiers and mountain bikers visiting the Breckenridge, Colorado area.

“That’s why we do a lot of what we do, including things that we don’t necessarily want to do like trying to run a kick-ass restaurant, because that’s the hardest business on the planet,” says Nolt. “We only do it because we’re a destination distillery and we feel like it’s integral to what we’re doing. It’s really changed over time. At first, it was all about discovery. People would be like, oh s***, there’s a distillery there! Well, we’re not skiing today or mountain biking or whatever. Let’s go check it out. We have a tasting room downtown, and a lot of that business is what I would call found business, where people are strolling along and they’re like, oh, are you going to try some whisky? Let’s go. You can kind of see how your sales are split. Whereas at the distillery, people are typically coming here for one of two reasons, either first, they came specifically for it and know about it, or second, the restaurant is just so incredible. It’s evolved over time. And now the vast majority of people are here specifically to check out the distillery. Quite a few people come to town just for the distillery first, and then everything else is secondary. It’s definitely changed over time, and it truly is a destination now.”

Breckenridge Distillery Cocktail Program

Breckenridge Distillery bar photo credit Brent Taylor

Among the attractions is Liquid Chef Billie Keithley, who runs the cocktail program for the distillery and restaurant. She has earned major recognition within the industry, including being named an Icons of Whisky winner in 2021 as Bar Manager of the Year.

“Billy’s life is cocktails,” Nolt says. “When she is not doing an event or writing a bar menu or doing staff training, she is researching cocktails and ingredients and trying to put them together and do crazy things. She’s like a mad genius, and that’s a trait that I guess we have in common. It takes passion to be in this industry for a sustained period of time, if you’re going to do it right and enjoy it.”

May the Orchard Be With You Cocktail

1-1/2 oz Breckenridge Rum Cask Finish

2 oz apple and pear allspice mix*

1 oz lemon juice

Shake and serve over ice

Garnish: apple chip

*To make the apple and pear allspice mix: Over medium heat, combine 8 oz sugar, 16 oz apple cider, 16 oz pear juice, 2 oz muddled allspice berries, 4 oz vanilla bean paste, 4 oz calvados. Stir to combine and let simmer until sugar is dissolved. Do not boil. Strain and let cool.

Above all else, Nolt wants whiskey enthusiasts to understand that Breckenridge is a real, working distillery, not a brand without a homeplace or a homeplace meant to be a showpiece. The struggle to get here has been unique, and Nolt feels that shows through in all their products.

The Breckenridge Distillery is open for tours on Sunday only, the restaurant at the distillery is open Tuesday thru Sunday from 2p-9p.