The whiskey making still in the mezzanine at The Family Jones Spirit House is named Ma Jones.

Her exterior resembles a Steampunk steam-stack mixed with a Jules Verne submarine. Inside her copper walls she bubbles and cooks, blends and boils, and pours out spirit-purity one bottle at a time.

Ma Jones is the matriarch of the family and every spirit made comes from her (the still).

“You put something into Ma Jones and something births out of Ma Jones,” Head Distiller Rob Masters said. “It is the womb of where our spirits come from.”

Along with the still in the attic-like space is the laboratory, two pine-tree looking hot tub fermenters, and shelves filled with over 100 botanicals and other ingredients where Masters and the The Family Jones team make whiskey and other spirits.

A distiller for more than 16 years, Masters said the Spirit House is “the coolest place in the neighborhood.”

“There are families you’re born into and the ones you create,” Masters said during a tour of the neighborhood distillery. “We really like the idea of the all-inclusive family. You come here and you have an experience.”

Dominic Toretto would approve.

The distillery at 3245 Osage Street is surrounded by condominiums, Victorian-era houses, and a park — making it as unique a space as you’ll find. Inside, the interior is an airy space with the bar set back from the dining area.

Masters wrote the business plan for the The Family Jones while working on a project in Nevada in 2016. Open since November 2017, The Family Jones Spirit House now occupies the space where Mancinelli’s Italian Market used to be.

“All of our visions were that we could have a distillery with a really nice cocktail-bar experience in a neighborhood, and so we wanted to put a distillery in, not just something that was a show-piece (something that ran water through it), we wanted something that was working,” Masters said.

The distillery makes all of their own modifiers, he said, liqueurs and spirits the bar tenders use in-house to make the cocktails they serve.

“Our bartenders can’t just order Campari or sweet vermouth or dry vermouth, we have to make that upstairs,” Masters said. “Our system is tuned to making the one-off, nerdy, private selection distillers-cut whiskeys.”

The spirits made at the LoHi distillery are fermented in oak floaters — stainless steel is used at the Loveland, Colorado facility — which adds another level of complexity to the spirits. The still and fermenters are sized to make one 53-gallon barrel of whiskey at a time, too.

Recipe for success

Whiskeys in Colorado are different than in traditional locations, Masters said. The grains, climate and water in Colorado all have different effects on the whole process.

“Colorado whiskey, particularly bourdon, rye, single-malt, is going to be different than something that is made in the Midwest, Tennessee and Kentucky,” Masters said. “I could give all of our ingredients and my recipes to somebody in Kentucky, and they can make it the exact same way we make it, but it is going to be different.”

From soil chemistry to growing season, grains grown in Colorado are different and some are not used in the Midwest either, changing the whiskeys taste compared to wetter climates.

The aging process for making whiskey if affected, too. Masters said the evaporation process in Colorado (colder and drier) vs. the Midwest (warm and humid) results in more evaporation.

For example, Masters said he loses about 20% on a proof gallon basis — a proof gallon is one liquid gallon of spirits that is 50% alcohol at 60 degrees F — meaning he loses 20% of the alcohol that he puts into a barrel in about two years.

Compared to places like Kentucky or Tennessee, Masters said he thinks it would take five to six years to lose the same 20% of alcohol.

“Colorado has first-use water, meaning it snows on the Continental Divide, it melts, it comes down, we take it and that is just beautiful, clean water,” Masters said. “The joke in the water world is that water, by the time it gets to the center of the US, has gone through a few toilets.”

Even Colorado’s weather can affect the tastes in the whiskeys being aged in the oak barrels. Masters told a story about how storms change the flavors, either adding or leaving out, by it simply raining more or less often.

“One interesting thing is when we are at our rack house in Loveland on a hot summer day, storms will build up in the mountains and move through and you’ll watch the barometric pressure drop,” Masters said.

“When the barometric pressure drops there’s not as much pressure on the wood of those barrels and the pores will open up a little bit and you’ll start seeing things leaking, so the whiskey is going into the pores of the wood. When the pressure goes back up, the pores close and the whiskey gets sent back into the middle of the barrel, creating an opportunity for more flavor.”

Fun Fact: The distillery works only with Colorado family farms committed to regenerative agriculture.

Offerings from The Family Jones

Three recommended whiskeys or spirits The Family Jones serves include:

• Earl Grey Juniper Jones Gin tastes sweeter and richer than traditional gin and has hints left over from the barrels used that had Earl Grey tea leaves in them.
• Atticus Jones Colorado Straight Rye Whiskey tastes a bit chocolatey, like cacao beans, and then spiced toward the end of the sip.
• Ella Jones Colorado Straight Bourbon Whiskey tastes a bit smoky,  but has a vanilla sweetness pull with noticeable cheery flavor too.

Automatic Jones line:

Rock & Rye (70 proof), Earl Grey Negroni (70 proof), Smoked Old Fashion (70 proof) and Cosmopolitan (60 proof)

Original Jones line:

Annika Jones – Vodka (80 proof), Juniper Jones – Gin (97 proof), Earl Grey Juniper Jones – Gin (97 proof), Mo Jones – Rum (80 proof), Atticus Jones – Colorado Straight Rye Whiskey (94 proof), and Ella Jones – Colorado Straight Bourbon Whiskey (94 proof)

A great way to try the The Family Jones offerings is to order a flight of either: four ($6), six ($9) or eight ($12) spirits.