Leopold Bros.

Leopold Bros. is the Denver craft distillery founded by brothers Todd and Scott Leopold — both Colorado natives — whose multi-decade commitment to pre-Prohibition American whiskey production techniques has produced one of the most editorially respected craft American whiskey operations of the modern era, and the only distillery in the world to operate a three-chamber rye still in over 50 years. The brothers originally founded Leopold Bros in Michigan in 1999 after Scott completed a brewing degree at the Siebel Institute and Todd trained in fermentation science at the Doemens Institute in Germany. After several years of mid-scale operation in Michigan, the brothers and their families moved the business back to their home state of Colorado in 2008, eventually opening the current Leopold Bros. distillery and 18,000-square-foot facility in Denver's Northfield neighborhood in 2014.

The technical commitment that defines Leopold Bros is the three-chamber rye still — a piece of pre-Prohibition American distilling technology that had not been commercially manufactured anywhere in the world since the 1920s. Todd Leopold spent years researching the historical production technique, then commissioned the only working three-chamber still built in over five decades. The still produces an exceptionally heavy-bodied, low-distillation-proof rye whiskey (entering the barrel at much lower proof than column-still rye, which preserves more grain character) that's structurally closer to the pre-Prohibition rye whiskey style that defined the East Coast American whiskey trade through the 1800s than to any modern post-Repeal rye produced anywhere in Kentucky or Tennessee.

The product range covers Leopold Bros Three Chamber Rye (the flagship — the three-chamber-distilled rye whiskey, released in both standard small-batch and single-barrel cask-strength formats), Leopold Bros Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon, Leopold Bros Maryland Style Rye (a sourced-and-finished rye reviving the pre-Prohibition Maryland style), Leopold Bros American Small Batch Whiskey, Leopold Bros American Orange Liqueur (an unaged spirit that's become a cocktail-program standard), Leopold Bros Navy Strength Gin, Leopold Bros Absinthe, and a substantial range of fruit and herbal liqueurs that anchor the broader brand portfolio across cocktail-program distribution.

The Northfield Denver location is one of the most architecturally significant working distilleries in American craft spirits — a purpose-built facility designed around the production-process needs of historical-revival distillation rather than retrofit into existing commercial space. Tours move through the maltings room (Leopold Bros is one of the only American distilleries to malt its own grain on-site), the three-chamber still installation, the floor-grown malt floor, and the rickhouses. The on-site tasting room and cocktail bar feature the full Leopold Bros range and serve as the working test kitchen for the cocktail-program-focused Leopold Bros liqueur line. For visitors building a Denver craft-spirits day, Leopold Bros is the must-visit technical-historical anchor — the stop that explains why much of the modern craft American whiskey conversation about pre-Prohibition production methods exists in the first place.