Old Elk Distilleries, LLC

Old Elk Distillery is the Fort Collins, Colorado operation founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneur Curt Richardson — the founder of OtterBox, the Fort Collins-based phone case company that grew from a Richardson garage project into a multibillion-dollar global accessories brand — as his second-act venture into American whiskey. The Old Elk facility sits in Fort Collins, the northern Colorado college town and craft-beverage capital, and represents one of the more substantial financial investments in modern craft American distilling: Richardson's OtterBox-funded capital base let Old Elk build production capacity from day one at a scale most craft startups can't approach. The operational coup that put Old Elk on the American whiskey map was the 2016 hire of Greg Metze as Master Distiller. Metze had spent 40 years at MGP Ingredients (Indiana's massive contract distilling operation that produces sourced whiskey for most of America's well-known craft brands), where he developed the mash bills and production protocols that anchor a substantial portion of the modern American rye and bourbon market. Bringing Metze to Old Elk gave the brand instant credibility with whiskey writers and competition judges, and his "Slow Cut Proofing" process — gradual proof reduction over months rather than the standard rapid water-down before bottling — became one of the brand's most-discussed technical signatures. The product range covers Old Elk Straight Bourbon (the flagship, a wheated-style high-ma…