Spirit Hound Distillers was started in Lyons, Colorado, by a group of local friends led by Craig Engelhorn, a homebrewer whose recipe became Dale's Pale Ale at Oskar Blues, and it began distilling in 2012 in a former motorcycle repair shop. Engelhorn built the distillery's all-copper pot still by hand, a job of more than 500 hours, and remains its master distiller and co-founder. The flagship is an American single malt made from barley grown and malted in Alamosa, Colorado, with a small share of peated malt, aged in new charred American oak and bottled one barrel at a time without blending. In September 2013 a flood put the distillery under three feet of water, and whisky filled into barrels before the flood survived and was later bottled. Alongside its malts the house makes bourbon, rye, gin, vodka, rum and liqueurs, and runs tasting rooms in Lyons and Denver.