OUR PROCESS
Deerhammer is a craft distillery. That is to say that we are small and with full attention towards creating whiskey that is unmistakably our own. We make up to 1 barrel a day, and we make every damn drop of whiskey that has ever gone into our bottles. We utilize Colorado grown grains, unconventional grain bills, and traditional whiskey making equipment that was built for big flavor vs. industrial efficiency. When we say our whiskey is made from grain to glass, we mean that from the time our silo is filled with grain, EVERY SINGLE STEP in the whiskey production process is carried out by hand at Deerhammer Distillery.
Here’s how a standard batch of our flagship American Single Malt Whiskey comes to be:
Here’s how a standard batch of our flagship American Single Malt Whiskey comes to be:
MILLING
1,200lbs of malted barley (4 different varieties), that was grown and malted in Colorado's San Luis Valley, is weighed out and crushed through a roller mill.
MASH
The crushed malt is blended with 150º fahrenheit water in our mashtun, where the starch from the malt will convert to a fermentable sugar. The liquid is then strained off of the grain bed, cooled down and transferred to a fermenter.
FERMENTATION
The "wash" is inoculated with the m1 yeast strain which will convert the sugar to alcohol. This fermentation takes place in large open top fermenters, and over the course of 4-5 days we are left with a 8% alcohol distillers beer.
DISTILLATION
We double distill though two different squat-head pot stills (600 and 250 gallons) that are designed specifically for making whiskey. Only the most flavorful “cut” of the whiskey is taken which culimnates i a final distilate proof of aproximatly 128. this lower proof cut is the range where fantastic flavor lives.
MATURATION
Our whiskey is reduced to 105 proof before being transferred to 53 gallon barrels. These barrels are build for us out of 18 month air dried staves that are assembled, heavly toasted, and scorched to a char #2. All of this has a tremendous effect on the distillate which is left to age for no less than 4 years and often upwards of 7 years in our barrel rack house at 8,000ft of elevation.
BLENDING & BOTTLING
Barrels are tasted frequently over the years and notes are kept on those demonstrating exceptional character. A single small batch will consist of between 4-6 choice barrels. They are harvested, married together, and allowed to sit in open air tanks for 48 hours before being cut to bottling proof with RO filtered water.
We then move to bottling. Filling 6 bottles at a time and applying labels by hand takes time. A LOT of time. But true small batch whiskey is handled this way — with unrelenting care and passion for the craft from start to finish. It's just what we do.