Distillery boom stirs up new careers
As demand for craft liquor grows, students get spirited away by innovative classes and opportunities.
Ariel Vera Rivera spent years pulling taps that poured out crafty stylings of hops and barley. But now, as operations manager and bartender at Olde Town Arvada’s new Method & Muse Spirits tasting room, and house-crafted gin flow from the taps she pulls.
Vera Rivera, a Hospitality Leadership major in Metropolitan State University of Denver’s School of Hospitality, has company in making the shift from craft beer to craft spirits.
In Colorado and nationwide, the market for spirits — gin, vodka, tequila, whiskey, etc. — is booming. The lists more than 100 distilleries in Colorado, from Salida to Greeley, all of them helping make the state’s distillery industry a $260 million business this year. Nationally, between 2020 and 2025 the spirits industry has grown by roughly 5.6%, according to IBIS World, an industry research database.
It’s a trend MSU Denver’s School of Hospitality is embracing. This fall, along with the popular Beer and Spirits class, the School of Hospitality also is offering Spirits and Mixology, said Michael Wray, Ph.D., professor of Beverage Management. “This will be the third time we’ve offered it,” Wray said. “It’s extremely popular.” So much so that the class is now a permanent fixture, offered in the spring and fall semesters.
In the Beer and Spirits class, students observe how commercial breweries and distilleries operate, then try their hand at the early stages of brewing and distilling their own beverages. The Spirits and Mixology class also introduces students to the process of making their own liquor. Then, they take it a step further, mastering the art of mixing classic cocktails like Manhattans, martinis, old fashioneds and whiskey sours. They also gain an understanding of and appreciation for the quality of the spirits and their ingredients.
Wray points out that students don’t drink entire cocktails. “If we’re comparing five vodkas, they get one-half ounce of each, and often they don’t consume it all. Even if they do, that’s 2.5 ounces over three hours. We’ve planned it distinctly, so we do not go over people’s ability to process the alcohol.” Wray added that snacks are available during tastings.
The classes focus on the mixology of clear spirits — vodka and gin primarily; tequila may be added soon — because those can be produced quickly. Their darker cousins, like whiskey and rye, must age in barrels for years to achieve the rich flavor aficionados expect.
Many Colorado distilleries, like Method & Muse, boast of using locally sourced or foraged ingredients. Method & Muse has its own forager who harvests juniper berries and other botanicals for its many inventive gins. In Durango, Honey House Distillery says it concocted the first Colorado honey whiskey. But only Breckenridge Distillery, at 9,600 feet elevation, can claim to be the world’s highest.
If all that isn’t enough evidence of spirits’ growing popularity, consider this: This year, the Great American Beer Festival will be a beer and spirits festival. For the first time, the legendary Denver event will include A Distilling Experience, offering samples of craft whiskey, vodka and gin.
Wray attributes the new interest in spirits to a shift in priorities. In the past, gin, vodka and the like were prized for their effects. “In the past, mixology did not have as much emphasis as an art form,” he said. Now, he says, “there has been a broad movement across the country to emphasize taste.”
Method & Muse became part of that industry just a few months ago. The distillery was created by several partners with chemistry backgrounds, including Ethan Tsai, Ph.D., a former MSU Denver assistant professor of Chemistry and former professor of Brewing Science and Technology. “We’re trying to craft something very different here,” said Tsai, who also is a former manager of the Tivoli Brewery on the Auraria Campus.
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The distillery sells its boutique clear spirits by the bottle and wholesale to restaurants. In its tasting room, it showcases the spirits in creations such as Sky’s Out, Thighs Out, a lights-out mixture of gin, tropical juices, habanero amaretto and Caribbean-style amaro, an Italian liquor.
“(Sky’s Out, Thighs Out) is hands down the most popular” of Method & Muse’s eclectic cocktail menu, said Vera Rivera. The New York City native started her career in human resources, working at that city’s famed Whitney Museum, where she met her husband. The two of them moved on to tending bar at a Brooklyn brewery before relocating to Denver a little over three years ago.
Despite her sudsy past, Vera Rivera said she has learned a lot about distilling, spirits and cocktail mixing working at Method & Muse. She hopes she has taught her new bosses a few things, too. “They don’t have front-of-the-house experience,” she said, “so maybe it’s a little bit of a two-way street.”
Tsai said that is absolutely true. “We are definitely learning a lot from Ari! It makes for an amazing partnership, and it’s always a great fit when teams can learn from each other and work collaboratively.”
Learn more about the Hospitality Leadership program at MSU Denver.
