Every month, Stranahan’s American Single Malt Whiskey invites its fans to join in the labor-intensive but one-of-a-kind and, honestly, pretty fun process of bottling this award-winning whiskey by hand. You’ll work side-by-side with its professional distillers in the final step to bring the beloved whiskey to life. And, as a reward, you even get your own bottle of Stranahan’s Original, a couple of taster glasses, and a well-earned lunch to enjoy after a day of hard work.
But it’s no easy feat to become one of the “chosen few.” To ensure fairness, names are randomly selected from the list, and emails are sent to the lucky few who have been chosen to bottle. In fact, you’ll be up against 26,000 other people on this list that’s always growing in a lottery to get the chance to join this coveted experience. To some, it truly feels like winning the lottery if they’re picked (or even better).
I had the chance to go behind-the-scenes on a recent bottling day and get the scoop on this process and the ins and outs of this coveted experience and its home business.
This is what a kid in a candy store must feel like
As soon as we arrived at the warehouse headquarters where Stranahan’s distills and bottles their liquor, and all the magic happens, my husband (and bottling line partner for the day) exclaimed, “This feels like I’m in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!” Admittedly, it was not nearly as child-friendly as Charlie’s golden ticket winnings, boasting bottles of whiskey and barrels lining the walls around us, but perhaps even better for a spirits fan. We meet up as a group in the room where tastings and events such as their “cheese and whiskey pairings” are typically hosted and we sign our waivers of liability. There is just as much of an air of excitement in the space since everyone in the space is grateful to be here.
We chat with the other whiskey lovers and lucky lottery winners around us, and it feels like an organized sort of casual and enthusiastic chaos. It’s as if we’re on the precipice of competing as a team on a reality TV show. And, while we’re here, they are filming for the TV show American Made, which adds more of an electric atmosphere among the workers and us volunteers.
The list of bottling lottery volunteers has existed and has been growing for 13 years. Rachel, one of the employees who checks us into the facility, says she’s been on the list for six years herself and has never been picked. Some people raise their hands and say they’ve been on the list for more than 10 and this is their first opportunity to join the experience. Some people (to others, chuckles or glaring stares, say this is not their first time on the line).
The list of bottling lottery volunteers has existed and has been growing for 13 years.
I ask the team how often this volunteer bottling process happens, and I am told it’s typically two days a month for two shifts a day. But it’s also on an “as needed” basis, depending on when the whiskey is ready to bottle—so it’s not even a consistent thing folks can count on to try to win every certain amount of time.&
The Stranahan’s team, who call itself a Strana “fam,” is made up of less than 50 people, total. And from the volunteer side, I've learned that we’re typically made up of mostly locals, but some folks have flown in from as far as New York and Kansas to join the team for the day. Our bottling happens from noon to 4pm on a Thursday, so it makes sense that not everyone can make it if they don’t have time off work, or can’t make the trip on a month to a few weeks' notice. But I’m told that people do drive hours to join the team for just those four hours—and I feel lucky I live less than 20 minutes from the Stranahan’s warehouse and headquarters.
Whiskey business
We start the experience with a tour by team members Johnny and Wally, where we learn the history of Stranahan’s. It's one of the first two distilleries to start making single malt whiskey and one of the most decorated single malt makers in the world—and its accolades. I learn that all the water used to make the whiskey is from Colorado, which is actually rated No. 1 nationally, but “water sommeliers” (I guess that’s a thing?), so even before it becomes whiskey, it's a high-quality liquid, apparently. And speaking of quality, I asked how many bottles volunteers typically make in a shift, and it’s measured by pallets—two of which we filled throughout the course of our shift. That means we're making roughly 1,200 bottles per four-hour shift. But we’re told quality over quantity is always valued first, because these bottles really do go to market.
Then, we’re taken into the bottling facility, where I’m told whatever we’ll be bottling that day is between 5 to 9 years old. This detail strikes me because the liquor we’re bottling is potentially equal in age to an American fourth grader. We’re told that a “good chunk” of the bottles on the market you’ll find in a liquor store are made by volunteers, just like us. We’re given insight into each element of the bottling and labeling process which includes everything from taking the naked bottles out of their boxes, cleaning them off, filling them with whiskey (no doubt the most “Instagrammable” part of the line), corking, labeling, decorating, double checking, and packaging them back into the boxes they came in as empty glass—this time ready to be shipped off to somewhere potentially nationwide.
And it’s then that our four-hour shift begins. Upbeat music plays from the boombox in this big warehouse room and rotates positions every 20 minutes or so. Wally comes in, donning half shots of “OG whiskey” every once in a while for those who want to imbibe and keep the “spirits” up, so to speak.
Some of the folks on the line with us are taking their jobs very seriously. These volunteers pay meticulous attention to detail, and no speck of dust or drop of liquid is spared on their watch in their position. Some of us—or rather, the majority of us—are just here for fun and enthralled with the concept of this rare experience that we beat out literally 26,000 other folks for the opportunity to have.
It takes about 45 minutes and perhaps a shot of whiskey (or two) to get into a solid rhythm, but soon there's an air of camaraderie and a sort of smoothness to our line. We get into a good flow, putting out, I figure out I’m very good at some of the jobs (emptying boxes and filling bottles) and not so great at others (labeling and taping). It’s an interesting test of patience, fortitude and teamwork. And seemingly as soon as the experience begins, it ends, with all the bottles we need to make for the day filled and the boxes on the pallets getting ready to be shipped off to their final destination.
We end the day with a cheer and exit the bottling room into the adjacent distillery area, where giant boxes of pizza greet us as a thank you for our service. We’re each given a bottle of label-less “OG” and told that, since we’re labeling experts now, we can label it ourselves with anything we want on the bottle to commemorate our time with the team. It’s better than any sort of monetary compensation, from my perspective.
The experience brings together lovers of spirits and expert whiskey makers in a jovial environment that rings as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Some of us even exchange phone numbers to keep in touch. And as I’m leaving the facility, I can’t help but wonder if I’ll see a bottle we helped make ourselves, at some point, somewhere, on a shelf. It’s a cool closing thought.
So, may the odds be ever in your favor if you favor whiskey and desire a chance to join this distinguished distillery’s inside team, just for the day. You’ll need the luck of the lottery. But just like winning the jackpot on a scratcher, it’s not impossible.