New speakeasy now open in Beaver Creek

Although prohibition was repealed over 90 years ago, the spirit of finding and entering a speakeasy is alive and well in Beaver Creek. Minturn Whisky Company has once again come up with a fun theme and way to get into the speakeasy. This is the third time the distillers from Minturn have been able to convert a space into a bar that makes you feel like you’ve stepped back in time.

Spence and Stefanie Neubauer opened Minturn Whisky Company in Minturn during the summer of 2023. Since then, they’ve had opportunities to do seasonal pop-up speak easy locations in Beaver Creek Village. The first was next to Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea Company in the Epic Mountain Gear space during the summer of 2024. Here, you stepped through an old large armoire that you walked through to go to a secret room. The second space was near the Beaver Creek ice rink and its theme was a vintage real estate office called Whisky Creek Realty, specializing in “liquid” assets.

“I needed a name for our agent and John Barleycorn, from the Robert Burns poem about the personification of whisky itself, seemed a natural choice since we make traditional Scottish-style whisky and lean into all things Scottish,” Stefanie Neubauer said of the theme she used during the summer of 2025.  

The facades may be different, but once you’re in the speakeasy the look has remained the same for all three versions of Minturn Whisky Company’s pop-ups. The woodwork is dark and sophisticated, there are old pictures following the themes of fishing, hunting, the Scottish countryside, cozy fabrics and patterns on the chairs and couches.

“We always incorporate a few ‘snugs’ — small private rooms for quiet conversations and rendezvous — which are traditional in pubs in the United Kingdom and really make the space feel more personal and intimate,” Neubauer said. “We also have a little room in the back that’s sort of a game room where we’ve got cards and Uno games, and there’s a little butler spell that you can ring if you would like service.”

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A few of the new drinks Neubauer mentioned are the Minturn Mountain Remedy.

“It’s our mountain take on the classic penicillin, and it is so delicious. Even if you don’t like whisky, you can’t taste the whiskey in it,” Newbauer said. “We have another drink called Holy Water, which is named for, of course, the Holy Cross Mountain. And it is this dark, rich take on a black Manhattan.”

In honor of Beaver Creek’s signature cookie time where the resort gives out free chocolate chip cookies at the base of the slopes, Minturn Whisky Company is doing their adult version.

“Everyone who is in the speakeasy at 3 p.m. gets a free shot of a whisky sour cocktail and a free snickerdoodle cookie, which goes really well with the scotch,” Neubauer said.

They are also serving charcuterie boards from Rimini, another Beaver Creek hot spot just down the street that provides the snack board.

The new Minturn Whisky Company speakeasy just opened in mid-January and Neubauer said the response has been great for those who have found it.

“We had this couple that came in every single day of their vacation at 2 o’clock and they just absolutely loved it,” Neubauer said. “We also had a local come in who has worked in the bar industry a long time, and it was during a football game, and we don’t have any TVs in here and he said, ‘This is so special because here we are and we’re all just talking to each other. Sure, we get our game updates on our phones now and then, but it’s a whole different experience than most of the bars that I’ve been to.'”

Minturn Whisky Company has discounts for Beaver Creek employees and locals.

“The whisky that my husband makes is so good that I want to create an experience where you can taste whisky the way that I think it should be tasted – slow, cozy, by the fire, while having conversations, creating human connection, all of those wonderful things that a slow cocktail magically makes happen.”