Eagle River Whisky Looks to Expand Facilities

The owners of the Eagle River Whisky distillery discovered that their tasting room and distillery may just be too small. The company invited whisky enthusiasts to a tasting session at the distillery hall, however, the turnout was overwhelming.  The demand for the spirit led the couple to initiate expansion plans immediately.

“We quickly realized that it would be too costly to retrofit it to become the state-of-the-art, sustainable distillery we have always dreamed of. So, we thought it would be wiser to pivot before we put a lot of money into the current location,” Stefanie Neubauer said.

Relocating the Eagle River Whisky Distillery

Having no desire to leave their hometown where they raise their children, they decided to keep the business in Minturn proper.  It didn’t take the Neubauers long to decide that they had to buy the former site of Mountain Pedaler Bike Shop on Main Street, which was now empty. The site is ideal for expanding Eagle River Whisky.

“In Scottish tradition, we have named our whiskies after the area they come from, so our whiskies are named for the geography of this very special area. Dowds is the blend of two rivers and two whiskies, Gilman is named for the old ghost town perched along the route to Leadville, and of course, we have a whisky named Minturn,” she said.

“We can build our new distillery from the ground up with sustainability in mind at every turn – from the drains to the plumbing and electrical layouts. But we also plan to honor the memory of the older building. We don’t have any formal plans yet, just our daydream of what we want the new building to look like,” she added.

There’s a lot of inspiration in this design from the old Mountain Pedaler building. The windows flank the centered door, the top tower juts out, the lines around the logo are above the door, and even the flower boxes are being brought back.