Root Shoot Spirits Drops Its Most Ambitious Whiskey Yet: A Six-Year Bottled-in-Bond Colorado Single Malt
There are craft distilleries, and then there are operations like Root Shoot Spirits — the kind of place where the grain in your glass grew in a field you could drive past on a county road just a few years ago. The Loveland, Colorado-based producer has spent the better part of a decade building a reputation for rigorous, farm-rooted American Single Malt Whiskey, and now it has released what may be its most significant bottle to date: a six-year, small batch, bottled-in-bond American single malt whiskey that doubles as a deeply personal milestone for the family behind it.
Available exclusively in the Colorado market ahead of a national online release, this limited whiskey celebrates a major milestone for the Loveland-based family farm and distillery: 100 years of Olander Farms and 10 years of Root Shoot Malting. In a whiskey landscape increasingly crowded with sourced and contract-distilled products, the significance of a bottle this honest and this traceable cannot be overstated.
A Century of Farming, a Decade of Malting, and Six Years of Patience
The story of this release is inseparable from the story of the Olander family. Located on the Olander family farm in Loveland, Colorado, Root Shoot produces malts made from barley, wheat, rye, and corn and is working to protect farmland through its conservation easement with Colorado Open Lands. That conservation ethic — the understanding that the land itself is worth defending — runs through everything the operation does, from seed selection to what ends up in the bottle.
Sown, grown, and malted in Colorado, all ingredients for Root Shoot Spirits are sourced from the fifth-generation family run Olander Farms and malted by the sustainability-minded craft maltsters at Root Shoot Malting. That five-generation lineage is not marketing copy. It reflects a family that has been working Northern Colorado soil since the 1920s, long before craft distilling was a concept anyone in America was taking seriously.
Todd Olander, Root Shoot's founder and farmer, framed the release in terms that go well beyond a standard product launch. "This whiskey represents more than six years in a barrel," he says. "It represents 100 years of our family farming this land and 10 years of Root Shoot Malting. Every bottle starts with barley we grow and malt ourselves, so being able to release this whiskey during such a milestone year is incredibly special."
That quote deserves to be taken at face value. When the barley in this whiskey was planted, the Olander family was already approaching its centennial on the same patch of Colorado ground. The whiskey is, in every meaningful sense, a time capsule.
What's in the Bottle: Production Details That Matter
Five Barrels, Six Years, One Proof Point
Distilled in a traditional pot still and fermented off grain, Root Shoot's bottled-in-bond whiskey was blended from five select barrels of six-year American single malt for a layered, balanced expression at 100 proof, packaged in a 750mL bottle with an SRP of $75. Each of those production choices carries weight.
Pot still distillation is the old way — slower, less efficient, and more expressive than the column stills that dominate most large-scale American whiskey production. It preserves congeners and grain character that would otherwise be stripped away in the pursuit of neutral, consistent spirit. For a whiskey built on barley with as much agricultural specificity as Root Shoot's, the pot still is the only logical vessel.
Fermenting off grain — meaning the entire fermented mash, husks included, goes into the still — is another hallmark of traditional single malt production. It contributes texture and a kind of chewy grain depth that clean, clarified wort fermentation simply cannot replicate. These are not accidental choices. They are deliberate commitments to a style of whiskey that prioritizes character over convenience.
The Bottled-in-Bond Standard and Why It Still Means Something
The Bottled-in-Bond designation is one of the oldest consumer protections in American spirits history. Bottled in bond is a label for an American-produced distilled beverage that has been aged and bottled according to a set of legal regulations contained in the United States government's Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, as originally specified in the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897.
As a reaction to widespread adulteration of American whiskey, the act made the federal government the guarantor of a spirit's authenticity, gave producers a tax incentive for participating, and helped ensure proper accounting and the collection of tax that was due. In the late nineteenth century, it was common for unscrupulous rectifiers to stretch and adulterate spirits with everything from tobacco juice to iodine. The Bottled-in-Bond Act was Congress's answer to that problem.
To qualify today, the rules remain strict. To be labeled as bottled-in-bond or bonded, the liquor must be the product of one distillation season — January through June, or July through December — by one distiller at one distillery. It must have been aged in a federally bonded warehouse under U.S. government supervision for at least four years and bottled at 100 proof. Root Shoot's six-year expression blows past the four-year minimum by a substantial margin, aging twice as long as required and then some.
In an era when marketing departments have found creative ways to obscure a whiskey's origins, the BIB stamp still carries accountability. There is no flexibility in the standard. Either you meet it or you don't.
Tasting Notes: Rich, Layered, and Unmistakably Colorado
Six years of Colorado aging does specific things to a whiskey. The state's altitude, dry climate, and dramatic temperature swings between seasons accelerate barrel interaction compared to humid, sea-level environments. What takes a Kentucky distillery a decade might develop in less time at elevation — but Root Shoot let this one sit anyway, and the result reflects that patience.
Made from barley grown in Loveland, this small-batch, Bottled-in-Bond single malt whiskey has notes of vanilla, chewy caramel candy, dried cherry, and baking spice, with the familiar cocoa-dust taste that has become a hallmark of Root Shoot's distinctive style. That cocoa-dust note is interesting — it is a thread that runs through the distillery's lineup, a kind of signature that appears to come from the specific barley varieties grown on Olander Farms and the way the pot still handles them.
The flagship four-year expression, for reference, starts with aromas of cobbler and honey granola, and upon first sip, clean flavors of alpine florals breeze across the palate, finishing with an alpenglow of rich pastry, faint cocoa dust and long, lingering bright-yet-spicy flavors. The six-year builds on that foundation, adding the dried cherry, deeper caramel, and more pronounced vanilla that come from two additional years of wood contact. This is not a different whiskey so much as an evolved one — the same DNA expressed with greater confidence and complexity.
The Brand's Trajectory: From Farm Supplier to Award-Winning Distillery
From Malting House to Spirits Shelf
Root Shoot Malting is a fifth-generation family farm located in Loveland and has been providing barley, wheat, rye, and non-GMO corn to breweries and distilleries along the Front Range of Colorado since 2016. For years, the Olander farm was largely invisible to consumers — its grain showing up in local craft beers and spirits without the Root Shoot name on the label. The malts and grains from Root Shoot Malting can be found in many other breweries and distilleries in Colorado as well as other locations nationwide. Providing ingredients to craft brewers and distillers for years, it was only a matter of time before Root Shoot Malting made a spirit of its own.
Root Shoot Whiskey launched in August 2023 and is available throughout Colorado. The transition from malt supplier to distillery label was a natural one — the farm already had the grain, the expertise, and the philosophy. What it needed was time. And, as it turned out, time was something the whiskey was going to reward handsomely.
A Supply Chain Measured in Miles, Not States
The hyper-local nature of Root Shoot's operation is genuinely unusual even by craft distillery standards. Root Shoot Whiskey is made from 100% Colorado-grown grain, representing a uniquely hyper-local supply chain journey of only about 30 miles from field to bottle. Most craft distilleries source at least some ingredients from outside their state. Grain brokers, regional maltsters, contract fermenters — there are a dozen places in a typical supply chain where geographic specificity dissolves. Root Shoot has none of those compromises.
Root Shoot Spirits Bottled-in-Bond American Single Malt Whiskey is crafted entirely from estate-grown grain, malted, distilled, and aged with meticulous care, embodying a true grain-to-glass philosophy grounded in regenerative farming and long-term stewardship. That phrase — regenerative farming — is doing real work here. Root Shoot isn't simply avoiding bad practices; it is actively working to improve the land it depends on.
The London Spirits Competition Sweep
Before the six-year release, Root Shoot Spirits had already made the kind of competitive statement that demands attention from the wider whiskey world. Root Shoot Spirits' American Single Malt Whiskey (50% ABV) was named Spirit of the Year, Whisky of the Year, and American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year at the international London Spirits Competition. Sweeping three top categories at one of the industry's most respected international competitions is not a fluke. It is a verdict.
The same Colorado-crafted spirit also took home Double Gold at the American Craft Spirits Awards. Several thousand entries were submitted from 30 countries in 2025, and Root Shoot Spirits' American Single Malt Whiskey was named American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year by a panel of over 70 esteemed industry professionals. Beating out single malts from Scotland, Ireland, Japan, and the rest of the American craft scene puts Root Shoot in a very short list of distilleries that can genuinely claim global relevance.
This six-year release comes on the heels of Olander Farms' Centennial Farm designation and Root Shoot Spirits' sweep at the London Spirits Competition, where the brand took home Spirit of the Year (U.S.A.), Whisky of the Year and American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year, further cementing Root Shoot's place as one of the country's leading craft whiskey producers. The timing of the six-year launch — arriving just as the brand's international profile is at its peak — is either deliberate or extremely fortunate. Probably both.
The Homestead Series: Evidence of a Maturing Program
The six-year release doesn't exist in isolation. Root Shoot has been systematically expanding its portfolio with releases that demonstrate growing barrel stock and creative range. Earlier in 2026, the distillery launched the Homestead High Proof Series — a high-proof blend of 4 and 5-year American Single Malt Whiskey, bottled at 120 proof, available across Colorado in limited quantities.
Homestead is a blend of five American Single Malt barrels — three 5-year and two 4-year — built from three distinct mash bills and incorporating eight Root Shoot malts in total. All barrels were distilled in 2020 and 2021 in a traditional pot still and fermented off grain, then aged in first-use, medium-char American oak barrels. The complexity of the Homestead blend — multiple mash bills, multiple vintages, eight different malts — signals a distillery that has accumulated enough barrel inventory to start making genuinely interesting blending decisions.
From field to bottle, all Root Shoot Spirits whiskey travels only about 30 miles, representing a uniquely hyper-local and sustainable supply chain journey of Colorado agriculture. That consistency of sourcing across every release in the lineup is what gives the portfolio coherence. You are always tasting the same land, the same farm, the same family's decisions — just at different points in the maturation arc.
American Single Malt as a Category: Root Shoot's Broader Significance
The American Single Malt category has spent the past decade fighting for legitimacy and legal definition. For most of that time, it existed in a regulatory gray area — distilleries making the spirit without an official Standards of Identity to protect the category name. That changed in 2024, when the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau finalized rules formally defining American Single Malt Whiskey as a distinct category, requiring 100% malted barley, production at a single U.S. distillery, and aging in American oak barrels.
Root Shoot was making compliant single malt before the rules existed to require it. Sustainably sown, grown, and malted on a fifth-generation family farm in Loveland, Colorado, this American Single Malt Whiskey expresses the craft, workmanship, and spirit of Colorado agriculture in every sip. When a distillery is already doing things the right way before the regulations catch up, that speaks to the underlying philosophy rather than regulatory compliance.
The broader American Single Malt movement has produced some extraordinary whiskeys — from Westland in Seattle to Stranahan's in Denver to Balcones in Waco. Root Shoot's London Spirits Competition victories put it squarely in that first tier. And the six-year release raises a genuine question: if the four-year won Whisky of the Year internationally, what does the six-year represent? The answer, based on the tasting notes alone, is a more confident, more complex, and ultimately more complete expression of everything the farm and the family have been building toward.
Availability, Pricing, and What Collectors Need to Know
Priced at approximately $75 for a 750 mL six-year Bottled-in-Bond single malt whiskey, this is going to be one of those bottles you don't want to miss out on. At that price point, the value proposition is difficult to argue with. Six-year single malts with this kind of competitive pedigree typically command significantly more on both primary and secondary markets.
Colorado consumers can find Root Shoot's 6-Year American Single Malt Whiskey at select Colorado retailers and later through Root Shoot Spirits' online shop. Root Shoot Spirits will expand availability through national online ordering beginning in September. For anyone outside Colorado who has been following the brand's competition wins and wants to get their hands on the six-year before it disappears, that national online window is the opportunity to watch.
The release is small by design. This single malt whiskey spent more than six years in five select barrels — which means total production volume is modest. Five barrels of whiskey, blended and bottled at 100 proof, will not supply the entire country for long. Collectors and enthusiasts who treat limited craft releases seriously should plan accordingly.
For context on Root Shoot's broader accessibility, a limited single-barrel release of Root Shoot 5-Year American Single Malt is also currently available online through Whiskey Slickers for nationwide delivery — so the brand has established channels for getting its whiskey to drinkers beyond Colorado's borders. The infrastructure is there. The six-year just needs to fill it.
The Larger Picture: A Family Farm That Makes World-Class Whiskey
Root Shoot Spirits occupies a position in American craft distilling that very few operations can claim. It is not a distillery that happens to source locally. It is a farm — a fifth-generation, century-old family farming operation — that built a distillery to do justice to the grain it grows. That inversion of the typical craft spirits origin story changes everything about how the whiskey should be understood and evaluated.
Every step of the process, from seed selection to malting and distillation, occurs under their direct care. With a commitment to soil health, environmental responsibility, and community investment, the distillery represents a modern approach to whiskey rooted in tradition and long-term vision. That long-term vision is evident in a six-year release that took years of barrel storage, crop planning, and disciplined restraint to bring to market. Nobody releases a six-year whiskey without having made decisions six years earlier to set the inventory aside rather than sell it younger.
The Olander family made that decision when Root Shoot Spirits was just getting started — before the London Spirits Competition wins, before the national press, before the category exploded. They grew the barley, malted it, distilled it in a pot still, filled five barrels, and waited. One hundred years of farming teaches you that patience is not a virtue. It is a practice.
The result is a whiskey that carries the weight of that history in every pour — vanilla and caramel from the oak, dried cherry from time, baking spice from the grain, and that characteristic cocoa-dust signature that tells you, before you even look at the label, exactly where this came from and who made it. For American whiskey drinkers who want something with genuine roots in American soil, Root Shoot's six-year is about as real as it gets.
