The Locke’s family roots in Colorado moonshining go back several generations. Owen Locke kept the craft tradition alive with an early knack for brewing that continued through college to graduate school, where he reconnected with Rick Talley

The high school friends and lacrosse teammates immediately recognized that their collaborative styles complimented each other well, working through MBA degrees together at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business as hand sale experts for Beam Suntory. It didn’t take them long to realize they could create something bolder and wilder than the premier spirits they offered at countless tastings. In 2010, the team bought a 23-gallon still that turned a garage hobby into a lifestyle with their first whiskey batches aged in small barrels.

After years focused on business development, management and client service, as well as giving back (Rick serves on Denver Museum of Nature & Science’s Giving Club Council; Owen on the board of nonprofit Geneva Glen Camp) both established successful careers. However, the alchemy of creating something new through careful selection helped both distill down their busy working lives. They extracted out one common element: celebrating the best of what life in Colorado has afforded.

This guiding principle, of sharing that experience, hit them while hand-cutting the aging discs from mature stands of aspen on family land flanking Central Colorado’s Mosquito Range. All the best days added up. The days spent camping, hiking, biking, fishing, snowboarding and skiing: that sunset toast after an unending day fly-fishing the Yampa, the warm nip from a flask on a cold chairlift, the laughter over a late-summer backyard game of cornhole. The unapologetic last howl at the moon.

"Our MBS experience at DU was critical to our success."