Q&A: Stranahan’s Head Blender Justin Aden Talks New Snowflake Single Malt Whiskey

On the first Saturday of December each year, Denver, Colorado distillery Stranahan’s releases its most prize whiskey of the year: Snowflake.

This year’s Snowflake is the 26th batch, and it sold out in under three hours at the distillery’s annual Snowflake Whiskey Festival.

This year’s Snowflake was the first release helmed by Justin Aden, whom Stranahan’s hired in May to be its first head blender.

2023 Stranahan’s Snowflake Batch #26: Pyramid Peak Stats and Info

Mashbill: 100% malted barley

Age: Pyramid Peak was initially aged for six to eight years in new white American oak barrels with a #3 char before being moved to a mix of Islay quarter, rum, sherry, ruby Port and mezcal casks to age an additional one to two-plus more years.

Proof: 94

Q&A With Stranahan’s Head Blender Justin Aden

We sat down with Aden and talked Snowflake, his new gig at Stranahan’s, his whiskey origins and more.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity

So, you’re pretty new to Stranahan’s. How’s it going so far?

It’s terrific. It’s been a great company. Anytime you get to blend whiskey for a living, it’s a pretty good deal. And I’m excited about winter out here. So far, so good compared to the Midwest and looking forward to getting out skiing and everything like that. So, it’s been terrific so far.

You started in the industry at Michigan State University.

Yeah, I was lucky. That’s my hometown university. I studied fermentation science and then was hired into the Michigan State artisan distilling program. So, I went to school there and then it was basically my first job out of college. That was a pretty cool experience. To give you a little background on it, at the time, 15 years ago, it was really the only academic institution in the country teaching distilling sciences. They were looking for microbiologist background. That was me.

And it also was kind of right place right time, and it coincided with the economic downturn, in ’07 and ’08. A whole bunch of people were looking to make a career switch, and I think that you can draw a straight line from the explosion in American craft distilling and micro-distilleries to that period.

We found ourselves the only operation, the only game in town that was teaching people how to start distilleries, how to prototype and make batches, how to do equipment layout, business marketing — we were a one stop shop with all the different departments within the university.

We also had a full scale pilot production plant. So, we had an operational distillery, we had an enormous still, a couple of them, and obviously all of the resources of a research institution at our disposal. And best of anything, we had no directive to be a for-profit operation, so I really found myself at kind of this amazing crossroads of the craft distilling explosion, and I was right there to foster and meet all these people and their entrepreneurial endeavors. And it was really just a once-in-a-generation situation, and I feel very blessed and fortunate and lucky that that’s my origin story. And I’ve been nothing but a craft distiller my entire career.

At Michigan State, did you lean toward whiskey or single malt?

I chose fermentation science — I got degrees in molecular genetics, microbiology — because when I was a teenager, I realized I always wanted to be a scientist, but I realized that making alcohol was a form of science. And that was it for me, and that all started because I loved whisky. I just always have. Not to wax too poetic too early on you, but it’s kind of the confluence of Mother Nature, Father Time and science and art. Those are, to me, the most elemental and important things that we do on Earth. So, I’ve always just had a draw to whiskey. Whiskey has always been my private passion, my personal hobby.

In that era and for the last 13 or 14 years, I’ve made a ton of gin. I’ve made a ton of vodka, and I think I’m pretty accomplished at it. My most recent stop in Detroit [at Valentine Distilling Company], two-time world champ, national champ in Germany, Britain and the U.S. in gin. However, when the opportunity came up to just be a whiskey maker, and moreover, to just do the blending side, which I’ve always loved the most, I threw my hat in the ring, and I’m super fortunate that Stranahan’s said yes.

So, onto Snowflake: This was a pretty ambitious project for your first release, I’d say.

Yeah, it was neat. I’ve done limited releases and annual releases quite a bit in my career, but this was unique in that I joined on in May, and we had to have this out by basically Thanksgiving. And I did not come in with any background in our repertoire, in our arsenal, in our inventory. So, not only did I have to put this blend together, but I had to do that while simultaneously or concurrently familiarizing myself with our entire inventory, and that was really fun. At this point in my career, that was a challenge that I really enjoyed to do. And came about the blend of Pyramid Peak Batch 26 Snowflake pretty organically because of that. I came in with a blank slate and chose the barrels that that really screamed at me that I had to use them. And that was a lot of fun.

How did you land on such an eclectic blend?

As I was beginning, the process was pretty daunting of getting through tens of thousands of barrels. You have to pick a place to start, and one of the earliest barrels that just leapt out at me and really sang to me was this Mezcal cask that we have. It’s no secret that our parent company, Proximo, probably has the greatest single portfolio of agave spirits on the planet*, and with that, we’re very blessed that we can procure and get our hands on some really elite agave barrels.

* (editor’s note: Proximo Spirits owns the following agave brands: Jose Cuervo, 1800, Gran Coramino, Maestro Dobel,  Gran Centenario, 400 Conejos and Creyente)

So, we have some terrific ones aging here. To be frank, you don’t see too many agave-finished whiskies in the States or even abroad — it’s a it’s a burgeoning category. I think more people are trying it. I think it’s very, very challenging to work with in bourbon and rye — hose are very bold notes — I think in single malt has a ton of promise.

Anyway, one of those barrels leapt out at me, and I kind of realized in that moment that that was going to be the cornerstone of Snowflake. I was going to build from this barrel and the attributes that it had, the entire blend outwards. In a cornerstone style of blending, you kind of have your north, south or your east, west, and that’s where you’re going to build out from. And in this case, that barrel leapt at me because it had this immense linger, this finish that goes on and on after you swallow. Never had anything with that much staying power in a whiskey in a long time.

That’s my personal favorite attribute when I’m drinking in my private life. I think anytime you can incorporate that linger that goes on and on, you have now added a fourth dimension to whisky. Everybody can talk about color, smell and flavor, but if you can make it something you feel and experience, you’re on to something. So, that was the start of this wacky blend. And as I began to build out that agave, that miniature blend within the blend, I realized I had to have something to counteract all that herbaceousness and minerality and punch of the agave, and the natural choice was to start looking at these Islay quarter casks that we have that are really beautiful.

And of course, the agave has a little hint of smoke itself, right? But good Mezcals have a little hint of smoke, as well. So, that was a natural pairing. And as I really built out the front with the smoke and Islay and the back with the agave and the linger, I spent the bulk of the blend working on what I call the bridge or the body, I had to fill out the blend in the middle with something complementary, something that could add dimensionality and not detract from either of those beautiful bookend notes. And that really took the majority of my time. And I settled on a blend that was basically three barrels of rum, one barrel of sherry and one barrel of Ruby Port, just absolutely beautiful blend on its own. And it seamlessly fit in between those two Titan big beasts of flavor.

In total, how much of each component is in the blend?

The six quarter casks of Islay, five agave casks on the back, and middle is another five casks. So, roughly when you do the math, it’s pretty simple to say 33, 33, 33 between those three portions of the blend.

You alluded to Proximo’s role in sourcing casks. Stranahan’s finished its last Diamond Peak in Jose Cuervo Añejo casks. Are you able to share information for this blend about the distilleries, wineries and bodegas behind the finishing casks?

In the case of the Diamond Peak, that was Reserve De La Familia entirely. So, their very top end expression. It was beautiful. I can’t divulge exactly, but you might be on to something with the similar casks that were used in Diamond Peak.

Is the whole blend about 8 years old?

There was 8, 9, 10 and 11, so of course the 8-year age statement. I think sometimes the lines blur between being a whiskey enthusiast in my private life and getting into it professionally, but we’re sitting on probably one of the largest, if not the largest inventory of well-aged Americans single malt here. Next year will be our 20th year doing this, and if you think back 20 years ago to the micro-distillery, there were only two dozen in the country, and Stranahan’s was one of them.

And we’ve only ever done American single malt, one recipe and one recipe only for 20 years now. And because of that, I thought, and I still think it’s important to let people know, we can pretty casually drop an 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-year-old blend and have plenty more for our Mountain Angel series — right now with a 10-year age statement — that we’re looking to expand on in the future, as well.

I went in wanting to use well-aged, but anytime you have a label that comes out once a year, and there’s no age statement on the package itself, I could use anything I wanted. And if I wanted to go to a really young route, I wouldn’t have hesitated. In this case, I think all that delicacy and subtlety and nuance of those agave and smoke barrels really required some pretty well-aged and mature base spirit.

You mentioned the reserve you guys have of well-aged whiskey. I know you haven’t been there for too long, but how does the Colorado climate play into that? I know you guys lose a lot to the angel’s share; the elevation is pretty wild. 

Yeah, especially coming from the very humid Midwest, … it is not particularly easy to to make whiskey a mile high, with this low level of humidity, but when you do it right, and you have 20 years of experience, you will make something that no one else in the world is making.

And I think that that’s really the beautiful story of our profile and our DNA in the liquid. It is hard. It is a challenge to make to make whiskey here, and it takes a lot of experience and a lot of know-how. And I think when you layer the uniqueness of the Denver climate on top of a place that has historically been a home base and an epicenter of American brewing and malting know-how, you’re really going to get something unlike any other place in the world.

It’s been awesome to get to work with these casks, and when you have 8-, 9-, 10- and 11-year-old barrels to choose from, you’re also looking at a snapshot back in time, a sort of time capsule of what Stranahan’s was on to in those early days. And I get to juxtapose that with where we’re headed and what we’re laying down today. And it’s really an amazing American whiskey story.

How do you land on the names of the peaks you name these Snowflake whiskeys after?

I have a lot to learn about topography here in Colorado still, but I know that the snowflakes are all named after a Fourteener. Those are a hike that is at least 14,000 feet elevation. I’ve heard different numbers on exactly how many different fourteeners there are in the state. I think it’s what 30 something? We’re not out of them yet, but that’s how they get named, is after a famous 14,000-foot-high hike.

Between you guys and TINCUP, you’re gonna run out of those at some point.

Yeah, they might have to find some new ones that were previously not mapped.

What’s next? What are you excited to work on going forward?

You can be looking forward to another Diamond Peak. The 2024 edition will come out early in the year, so just a couple months, likely, which would be really great. We are probably going to expand our Mountain Angel range. We’re really excited about continuing to grow our age-stated range. And there’ll be another snowflake course, Dec. 2 next year. So, I’ll already get started on that, and it’ll be a great year.

Heard anything on the TTB front lately?

Well, we’re heavily involved in the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission. We kind of get weekly updates. We are hopeful any day now; all we know is “imminent.” So, whatever that means in our current state of things.

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