Distillery in Vail and Gypsum takes customized cocktails to a new level

The long, marbled bar at Archetype Distillery in Vail Village glows softly, illuminating the interior of the cocktail lounge with an icy light. Behind it, rows of shelves hold glass bottles and jugs of clear spirits, hand-written labels revealing their contents, from mint and lavender to orange, ginger, habanero and beef jerky.

Yes, beef jerky. Turns out you can create a spirit from almost any flavor, as long as it isn’t too fatty or salty, said Michael Chapyak, Owner and Master Distiller for Archetype. Each one starts with a base product derived from wine grapes, which Chapyak chose over a grain or potato-based spirit for a smoother finish.

“Then we make a high-proof infusion, which is vacuum distilled in a special machine that clarifies and condenses all the flavors of the infusion into its own spirit,” he said. “It eliminates the salinity, acidity — anything that would burn and be too harsh.”

The result is a distinctive spirit, and Chapyak has crafted more than two dozen of them. Expertly weaving one or more of these spirits with a backbone of Archetype’s flagship vodkas or gins, a splash of juice or simple syrup or a dash of bitters, Chapyak and Co-founder Wade Murphy can conjure a cocktail for any palate.

“We ask, ‘What’s usually your favorite cocktail?’ And then we go from there,” Chapyak said. “When people come in and say, ‘I really don’t know,’ we start with the easy stuff: Do you like something a little sweeter, savory, more peppery? How about texture? On the smoother side like a martini or bubbly like a soda-style drink, or creamy and frothy like an egg white?”

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The Sitz Spritz is a Vesper martini inside a wine cocktail, with unfermented wine grape juice, Archangel Vodka, Archrival Gin, house-made club soda and a spray of lemon, or try Archetype’s Archfiend cherrywood-smoked vodka, with Lapsang Souchong tea spirit, coconut palm sugar simple syrup and Pu’erh tea bitters, which come together in an old fashioned-inspired drink.

“The combination creates a nice whisky-style spirit with no burn,” Chapyak said. “If you want more of a Manhattan style, we can add some orange flavor to that, or we can make a variety of sour drinks, so if someone wants like a whisky sour drink, we can do that, too.”

The proprietors’ unorthodox approach to crafting cocktails necessitates a hands-on approach, so any day of the week, you’ll find one or both of them behind the bar, experimenting with flavors and textures like chefs in a fine-dining kitchen. “Science and booze is the best damn job they ever came up with,” Chapyak said.