One of America’s oldest single malt distilleries, Colorado-based Stranahan’s, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. These days, the Proximo-owned brand seems to have plenty of older juice to play with. In late 2024, they rolled out a 12-year version of the core Mountain Angel whiskey, which is (for now) among the oldest single malts produced entirely in the United States.
Just a couple months later, and Stranahan’s is already upping the ante with another 12 year old bottling. And this time, at 60 percent abv, it’s the highest-proof offering they’ve ever distributed nationally. (In contrast, the “standard” Mountain Angel 12 Years Old is bottled at 94.6 proof, or 47.3 percent abv.)
Dubbed “Founder’s Release,” this is a special, limited edition bottling developed as a collaboration between Stranahan’s Head Blender Justin Aden and Founder Jess Graber. Founder’s Release starts with double copper pot distilled single malt, which is initially aged in new charred American oak.
Most of the whiskey in these bottles spent a full 12 years in new oak. However, part way through its aging cycle, a small portion of whiskey was transferred to casks that previously held bourbon and blonde ale. The finishing time for those casks ranged from one to four years, but all whiskey blended into the release carries a total age statement of at least 12 years. It’s also the first new Stranahan’s product released since the newly defined American Single Malt category went into effect on January 19th, 2025.
Let’s see how it tastes!
The nose starts off with sweet almond paste and amaretto, intensely nutty and boasting — perhaps unsurprisingly — the heftiest ethanol kick I’ve ever smelled on a Stranahan’s product. Some hallmark Stranahan’s fruit and fruit candy linger just below those nutty, boozy vapors: green apple skins, sugary peach rings, and watermelon hard candy, among others. Tiny whiffs of hops add a bitter accent from one sniff to the next. Scents of aspen bark and cedar planks add a woody — but not quite oaky — backbone of age. A little hot grain cereal and bread comes along very late, and combined with the continuous dose of almond, it smells a lot like liqueur-soaked biscotti. This is Stranahan’s unabashedly playing with proof. On the nose, it works, so long as you come prepared for more heat than normal.
The first sip is semi-creamy, with the consistency of full-sugar root beer. Maybe that’s flavor by association, as initial tastes carry the smallest influence of sassafras. But it’s predominantly spiced, sweet, and borderline effervescent, reminiscent of cola with some added kick. (Both Coca-Cola Cinnamon and Coca-Cola Spiced come to mind, for fans of limited edition sodas.) Almond shines in a slightly different form compared to the nose, more akin to natural nut extract than paste. Both dehydrated strawberries and raspberries lend components of concentrated, semi-tart red fruit, along with ripe papaya. Especially on the midpalate, I also picked up quite a bit more wood sugar than on some other Stranahan’s products, but as with the nose, it doesn’t scream oak; instead, the back palate leans more toward maplewood.
There’s a final, pronounced pop of fruit candy on the finish, followed by a lengthy decrescendo of both holiday spices and dried dark cherry.
I’m glad to see American single malt producers exploring new ground on proof and cask finishing. Stranahan’s is tackling both with one of their oldest-ever whiskeys. The result is a single malt with robust aromas and flavor, and there’s no lack of complexity here. That said, on balance, it comes just short of some of the brand’s best-ever releases. Those are often (but not always) exemplified by their hyper-rare Snowflake bottlings, which pair these sorts of bold flavors with incredible, worth-writing-home-about balance. (The 2023 release of Snowflake is one such example.) Just more heights to aim for.
120 proof.
A- / $200 / stranahans.com
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