Laws Whiskey House Will Expand Its Tasting Room in 2023

Laws Whiskey House is undergoing a major expansion that includes a bigger tasting room with a full bar and high-end cocktail program, as well as an addition to its current whiskey education space.

The distillery partnered with BOSS.architecture and FLUX Partner Group on the project, which is slated to debut in the fall of 2023. Once complete, it will bring the tasting room, which is located at 1420 South Acoma Street and is currently 1,000 square feet, up to 4,000 square feet. In addition to the bar and whiskey education room, there will also be space for merchandise and bottle sales.

“We’d like our new tasting room to become a Denver destination,” says founder Al Laws. “We are also aiming to create an experience that matches the quality of our whiskey. We make premium American whiskeys, and we want our guest experience to be as impactful as our bold and flavorful spirits.”

The current tasting room has what Laws calls its "whiskey church" room, complete with pews, which is used to educate guests about the distillery's process. “The new tasting room will have an elevated whiskey church room that will make the educational experience more immersive and more memorable,” Laws notes, adding that the goal of the new cocktail program is to showcase the company's range of spirits.
Laws distilled its first barrel of whiskey on July 4, 2011, but didn’t start selling bottles until October 2014, after that first batch had been allowed to age for three years so that it met the level of quality and flavor the team was aiming for. Today the distillery's whiskeys are produced with heirloom grains from two family-owned farms — one in the San Luis Valley and the other on the eastern plains — and then aged for a minimum of two years.

The mainstays are three types of bourbon whiskey and three types of rye whiskey: straight, bottled in bond and cask. There are also a variety of limited-release whiskeys produced, such as a cognac cask-finished bourbon, straight bourbon finished in honey casks, and a straight bourbon finished in Armagnac casks.
The distillery itself will not change as a result of the new tasting room, other than the addition of a walkway between the two buildings that guests will be able to access when accompanied by brand ambassadors and tour guides. The existing tasting room will be repurposed for another use, likely something production-related.

The Laws team chose a Brutalist architectural style for the new tasting room. “This style is known to put focus on materials, structure and construction in expressive ways which aligns with our whiskey's focus on ingredients, process and patience,” Laws explains. He also notes that the Brutalist style works well with the industrial architectural style of the existing distillery building next door.

Laws Whiskey House is located at 1420 South Acoma Street, and its tasting room is currently open from 1 to 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, noon to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tours are also available. For more information, visit lawswhiskeyhouse.com.