A whiskey sour, a Manhatten cocktail, an Old-Fashioned, a Cuba Libra ó all made from hand-crafted spirits ó mashed, fermented and distilled ó all done at the Cockpit Craft Distillery in Falcon.Calder Curtis opened his first Cockpit Craft Distillery in Colorado Springs on Galley Road. It made sense to open a new one in Falcon because he and his family live on 80 acres in Calhan, so he opened a distillery closer to home.According to the website, Cockpit Craft Distillery makes affordable cocktails from raw ingredients: ì100% Grain/Cane to glass Spirits.î They also offer informative tours. There is a ìseparated column stillî that was built by Curtis, who had over a decade of Air Force metallurgy experience. Curtis cut, welded, grinded and polished the still from raw materials. Curtis came up with the original idea for Cockpit Distillery in 2013 while he was in Afghanistan with the U.S. Air Force. It has grown in recent years as a family business that he operates along with his wife, Asia.COVID-19 presented a challenge, of course.ìWe had to get through it, but we only had the original location at that time, so we only had a couple of employees and they were used to part-time work,î he said. ìSo, we kept our main employee on through the whole thing.î Then, he said outside sales actually saw a boost. Curtis said the owners of the Falcon building were awesome and didnít charge rent ìuntil all the COVID stuff was gone, which enabled us to build the place out a bit slower and more the way we wanted it.îCurtis talked about what sets his business apart from his competitors. ìI think, what our biggest advantage is our price point,î he said. He said he has seen distilleries charge $12 to $15 for drinks. ìI wanted to fill that stepping stone between beer and whiskey because almost everybody is a beer person, but only recently have people started to get back into whiskey, spirits and stuff,î he said. He said he wants to give them something other than beer that is affordable, tastes good and is made in-house. When Curtis isnít at the main location and his wife isnít managing the Falcon location, they are spending time with their two kids, Callie and Connor ó camping, fishing, tending to their farm animals, and enjoying their land.
