Ear to the ground

“They got rid of the bowling alley for this.”

-Local woman’s reaction to her first Dunlap’s experience

The boys at Ska Brewing have done it again. After nearly three years of intensive research, licensing dilemmas and late-night tasting sessions, a couple of the boys have gone into the booze business. Two founders of the local microbrewery have opened the Peach Street Distillers and released their first product, Goat Premium Vodka. Peach Street is located in Palisade, near Grand Junction, in order to be closer to supply lines.

“We’re on a mission,” said Bill Graham, president and co-founder of Peach Street. “A mission to debunk the myth that all vodka must be made from potatoes, and without any distinctive flavor or aroma.”

Goat is made with a special blend of barley, wheat and the famed sweet corn of Olathe. In fact it is the sweet corn that gives the Goat its unique character, said Graham. “Anyone who has ever been on an Olathe sweet corn binge can attest to the corn’s quality and crazy, intense flavor,” he said. “The distiller is a craftsman, an artist. Our spirits are not an industrial commodity. The vodka doesn’t have to taste like gasoline.”

Craft distilling is beginning to enjoy somewhat of a renaissance in the United States, much as microbrewing did in the 1990s, to which Graham is no stranger. He also co-founded the now decade-old Ska Brewing Co. He co-owns Peach Street with David Thibodeau, also a founding member of Ska, and a third partner, Rory Donovan.

All three hail from Durango, but when the distillery plan began to take root, they could not pass up the generous bounty that Palisade had to offer. The town’s cool nights, warm days and low humidity create the perfect growing conditions for many types of fruits, which Graham sees as fodder for Peach Street’s next generation—craft brandy.

“We’re a craft distillery,” he said. “Although there may be something to be said for scope, we’re certainly not bent on producing only vodka—there is far too much fun to be had.”

The distillery currently has three different fruit brandies aging in oak casks, as well as whiskey also aging in oak. Distribution of Peach Street’s spirits is limited due to the small batch size of the distillery. However, the Goat Vodka is currently available in most Durango liquor stores.