LYONS, Colo. — For Women's History Month, Spirit Hound Distillers in Lyons is honoring a local lady for her commitment to providing locally sourced and cleaned Rocky Mountain juniper berries.
Spirit Hound Distillers started producing malt whiskey in 2012 and has expanded its products over the years to include gin, rum, vodka, and even sambuca. The business continues to use the same malt whiskey recipe it used on its first batch.
"We are all Colorado. Our grain comes from the southern part of the state, beautiful San Luis Valley, so we're supporting Colorado agriculture," said head distiller Craig Engelhorn. "We bring that grain up here, we grind it up, and we make malt whiskey day after day, using the same recipe we've done for years."
The second recipe Engelhorn developed was the business's gin recipe, which uses Rocky Mountain junipers. The distillery called upon the community to help it source these fresh berries.
"We can pick it right here, so we started about by listing our friends for families to go pick juniper for us," said Engelhorn. "I've never purchased a juniper commercially in my life. So one person who started picking juniper for us was this wonderful woman by the name of Eleanor."
Eleanor Suttle is now 91 years old, but years ago, she discovered a talent for picking junipers. She would clean and deliver the berries to the distillery in exchange for product, specifically their gin.
"We typically do a little barter, you know, maybe give you a drink if you bring us some juniper," said Engelhorn. "Well, these were beautiful big bags, so, you know, I might have traded her a bottle for the bag, and she would go home and enjoy the gin. She was a big fan of our gin. Well, she became kind of our number one supplier."
Spring, summer, and fall, Suttle would bring bag after bag to the business.
"I've always been a very independent person — I still am — and I think that's part of it. I just thought, 'Well, I'm not going to just sit in the house. I'm going to go out and do something,'" said Suttle.
Over the years, a friendship flourished between Suttle and the distillery, and last year, it decided to bottle a gin with her name.
"When I found out about the gin, I was so excited I could hardly stand. And then when I found out it was made from a recipe that the women put together, that made me even higher. I'm still floating, I'm not on the ground. I haven't been on the ground for a year, and I'm so thrilled," Suttle said.
Eleanor Gin was distilled by Whisky Wenches, a women's spirits club. Founder Amanda Engelhorn said the group made the recipe last year for a limited release.
"I used to manage the tasting room here at Spirit Hound years ago, and so I've been doing this for a long time, and in the early years, there weren't a lot of women in the industry. And they weren't blenders, they weren't distillers, and women got dismissed a lot when you're coming from a place of expertise," said Engelhorn. "So the Whiskey Wenches was my way of kind of creating a space where we could we could educate people, but we could also just get together and have fun."
The success of the Lyons chapter led to the creation of the Denver chapter.
Not only is Eleanor Gin symbolic of the relationship between Spirit Hound and their community, but it also embodies a great message of encouragement for Suttle.
"My mother was a woman's libber, and she always taught — I have two sisters — she always taught us that women could do anything and we were equal to men. We could do anything, if not do it better," Suttle said.
Eleanor Gin will be released on March 20. Spirit Hound is holding release events at their Lyons and Denver locations.
As far as how the Eleanor Gin tastes, the women of the hour told Denver7, "It's the best gin ever, the best gin I've ever had, and I'm 91. I’m going to be 92 in May."
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.