October 25-- Here’s a new Chet story…

Chet G. is a friend from Colorado. He’s the guy I’ve been trying to get old girl friends interested in for years. Lucky for them, they all back away. He’s just a wild man. He’s attractive and absolutely untamable.

I won’t even begin to discuss the mess that is Chet’s house, brought about when an RTD bus slid out of control one icy morning three years ago. His house interior and exterior resembles a crazy cat lady place, only he’s a guy and only owns one cat.

While in Denver last week, I noted a new local beverage, Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey. Chet raved about it and I went out to Applejack’s to pick a bottle up, thinking of dropping it at Chet’s and not bringing it home.

This is a three-year-old whiskey with a bit of fire in it. It’s a blue collar or working man’s whiskey. But it comes at the price of single malts in the 12 – 16 year range. I’ll keep it around for the crazy story of how Chet and I ended up inside the distillery at midnight, not for the taste.

I’ve told many of my friends how Chet and I would sometimes just head out into the mountains, camping just off of public roads, or opening a fence and throwing our sleeping bags down on someone’s private land without permission. Chet’s continued to do this stuff, heading down to Mexico and Central America to sleep on the beach, taking breakfast in the open market. It’s a Bohemian lifestyle that is romantic and possibly nuts.

Tuesday, after meeting up with the war game geeks I knew when I lived in Colorado, and feeling run-down by the cold that had hit me in the West, I met Chet at McCormick’s. He was looking for late night fun and I was interested in going to bed. About 11:30 PM we decided that my last adventure in Denver would be a tour of the Stranahan’s distillery. We didn’t know the hours of the tours, and decided that since it was just a few blocks away, we’d just drive over and look at the door.

McCormick’s is on one side of Coors Field, and Stranahan’s is about the same easy walking distance on the other side. Still, with all the new streets and work in Denver since I left, 22 years ago, I was glad to be driving. Too, it was starting to snow!

Stranahan’s is located in an area of small warehouses, just off of Broadway, about ½ mile from Coors Field and about 1 ½ mile from downtown. As we drove up we could see several people inside the warehouse. The door said we needed an appointment to take a tour, and tomorrow, being my last day the hopes, if they were strict, seemed long.

So, Chet says, let’s ask if we can get in now. Okay. But in my experience the answer is usually no. But, what the hell, nothing ventured…

The still master, Rob, said sure, we could have a tour right then and there. Rob signed my bottle of Stranahan’s and then gave us a personal tour of the facility. I’m really delighted. Not only was this a real behind the scenes tour, it happened at midnight. I cannot imagine this happening in many places.


Chet, as usual, took great pride in his ability to talk his way into a memorable situation, and he chided me for not doing it myself. (Excuse me!).

The next morning we received an official tour. There were just three of us on the official tour, which covered pretty much the same ground as the midnight tour. The pictures below are of Boyd L., a native of Belfast currently living in Southern California. He purchased a bottle of the single cask whiskey sold by the distillery. I promised to make these available to him.

Cheers Boyd.