Review: Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Diamond Peak Local Brewer’s Cask (2025) and Mountain Angel 10 Years Old
Ready for a pair of more limited Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey reviews? Allow me to explain…
We missed Diamond Peak 2024 but we’re back to it with 2025, which is a doozy, paying homage to Stranahan’s brewing heritage. For this release, Stranahan’s partnered with four local breweries, giving them each ex-Stranahan’s casks that were first seasoned with their craft beer, then sent back to the distillery. Oddly the breweries are not stated, but Stranahan’s says the beers are “beers like Coffee Stouts, Barley Wines, and Belgian Quads.” Each cask was refilled with a marriage of 4- to 6-year-old American single malt and aged an additional 18 months in the seasoned beer casks.
Next up: Stranahan’s Mountain Angel 10 Years Old actually dates back to 2020, but we never reviewed it at the time; David covered the later 12 year old release in 2024. There’s no big story with this one: It’s aged 10 years in new American oak, with no unusual finishes. The 12 year old version is completely different, with a layer of ruby Port barrel aging that is not used at all with the 10 year old version. While it’s released annually, Stranahan’s says, curiously: “Stranahan’s Mountain Angel 10 Year is a limited product with a new batch crafted and released annually. The flavor and quality of the whiskey remain consistent across batches, as there are no variations in the product from batch to batch. You may receive any batch number when making a purchase.” So there.
Let’s dig in to the duo.
Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Diamond Peak Local Brewer’s Cask (2025) Review
Batch #4 of Diamond Peak is 5 to 7 1/2 years old, and while 18 months of that time is spent in beer casks, you wouldn’t know it from the nose at first. Aromas of sweet cereal, sunny sesame, and a light grassiness (hops, perhaps) provide a pleasant, malty attack. Time in glass brings up some sweet, plummy fruit and sugared coffee notes, evoking some of the more exotic beers in the mix.
On the palate, Local Brewer’s Cask is a more aggressive and surprising entity, initial flavors running straight to chocolate, then mocha-driven coffee. Dried figs are a distinct element that evolves in time. The combination of all of the above with the underlying malt is more than pleasant, actually quite beautiful, with notes of vanilla and toasted almonds developing, before a hard right turn hits you, driving into a more bitter realm that again evokes notes of hops and fresh green herbs, clinging to the finish.
The mix of sweet dessert and more brooding bittering agents makes for a curious yin-yang experience, but it works quite well on the whole, offering an encounter that invites repeated visits. 90 proof. B+ / $80
Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Mountain Angel 10 Years Old Review
This is a clean whiskey, nosing with ample fruit both fresh and baked, heavy on the apples. Woody and then bready notes emerge from there, coming across like lightly torched pizza dough, though not overly smoky. The tropicality is gentle here, leaning into dried fruits, heavy on pineapple, though the barrel tends to overpower things, layering on an earthy, wood-forward quality.
The palate is richly bready, showcasing lightly sweetened cinnamon rolls, milk chocolate, and cinnamon before a hasty return to the barrel: Punchy lumberyard, graphite, ashy creosote, and cloves all come into focus before a dense dark chocolate element takes hold. The finish is dry but engaging, with an herbal quality that feels both pastoral and approachable. Bright notes of sweet lemon drops cling to the fade-out. 90 proof. B+ / $119 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]
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