North Carolina or Colorado? Which state’s distillery’s are you rooting for to quench your thirst on Sunday?

By Kelly Magyarics, DWS, CSX Editor-in-Chief

A tradition of distilling that dates back generations vs. the freedom to start with a blank slate and craft your own style. A taste for spirited moonshine bottled right off the still vs. whiskey that rests and mellows for several years. A Continental climate prone with wide seasonal differences that lead to complex offerings vs. an alpine climate with an endless supply of snow melt and spirits with purity.

North Carolina and Colorado’s craft spirits producers may be as different as the two teams playing on Sunday night. But the clashes and rivalries on the football field don’t transfer to the distillery floor, and both make some damn good booze. We have the states on four distilleries from each state; where do your loyalties lie?

Team North Carolina
Number of distilleries in the state: 33

Asheville Distilling Company

Determined to create a Moonshine as smooth and complex as the illicit “keeper” ones she tasted, founder Troy Ball uses wheat and/or corn in the mash bills, and distills in a custom pot still from Germany. The spirits are labeled as “Troy and Sons” in honor of Ball’s two children, and include Platinum Whiskey (a true unaged Moonshine), Blond Whiskey, and Oak Reserve. (The latter is mellowed in used Bourbon barrels.)Secret weapon: The corn used for their spirits is grown locally in the mountains of western North Carolina. It was first found on a farm owned by the same family since the late 1700s, and it is a variety previously thought to have been lost.

Blue Ridge Distilling Company

The team behind Defiant American Single Malt Whisky are salvage divers by trade, and among other things they helped clean up the New York subway system after Hurricane Sandy.They say their whisky is made with the same virtues: metal, fire, water and intellect. Their signature spirit is a mash-up of Scottish tradition combined with American ingenuity, made with malted barley, cultured yeast and local aquifer water, and aged using oak.Secret weapon: Rather than using oak barrels, the distillery uses oak spirals that are inserted into the whiskey as it ages. The result? The spirit matures quicker so the bottle can be in your hands all that sooner.

Broadslab Distillery

The Broadslab region of North Carolina has long been known for great homemade hooch; owner and master distiller Jeremy Norris uses a recipe passed down by great-great-grandfathers on both sides of the family. Broadslab Legacy Shine is a classic white corn unaged whiskey, while the Legacy Reserve is mellowed in charred oak barrels. Carolina Coast Silver Rum is sipp-ably sweet and pure, while the spiced version has a secret blend of flavorings.Secret weapon: One of Norris’s grandfather, William “Bill” McLamb,” was active in the dawn of the Moonshine trade and had mad skills to distill smooth sipping whiskey way before Prohibition.

Carolina Distillery

Keith Nordan and Chris Hollified’s brainchild launched in 2008 and produces brandies and liqueurs whose recipes date back generations, when people used whatever fruits or base materials were available to them. Their apple brandy spends a year in charred white oak before being the neck is dipped in wax for its distinctive seal; a white version is more spirited and feisty as it’s bottled directly off the still. Strawberry Infusion is an apple brandy with natural strawberry flavor, and Snake Bite is their traditional Moonshine made from a recipe from Hollifield’s ancestors.Secret weapon: The experience of three generations of Moonshiners go into every spirit, all of which are made from local ingredients and single barrel proofed.

Team Colorado Number of distilleries in the state: 71

Leopold Bros.

Todd Leopold took his brewing background and education and joined forces with brother Scott Leopold, who studied economics and industrial engineering. After opening a brewery in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the pair returned to their home state and began distilling craft spirits. Today, their portfolio includes American Small Batch and Navy Strength gins, a Maryland-style rye spirit that’s fruity, floral and less aggressive, Fernet Leopold, their answer to the classic Italian amaro, and Absinthe Verte, which is inspired by nineteenth century anise liqueurs.Secret weapon: The brew-to-booze producers malt their own barley, mill their own grains, ferment their own mash and distill everything on site.

Breckenridge Distillery

Its location, situated at 9,000 feet above sea level in the middle of a world-class ski area, makes this craft distillery one of the highest one in the world. It is run by Bryan Nolt and his wife Jordan Via, who met when Via was conducting a whiskey class in California attended by radiologist Nolt. The distillery produces a variety of offerings, including bitters, a vodka distilled from corn and made in a copper pot still, and a Bourbon made from a unique high-rye mash bill.Secret weapon: Breckenridge’s spirits are brought to proof with snow melt and spring water, meaning the final result is pure and natural.

Montanya Distillers

Rum from the Rocky Mountains? Indeed. Located in the town of Crested Butte, 9,000 feet high in the mountains, the distillery makes spirits from non-GMO sugar cane from farmers in Louisiana, and spring and snow melt aquifer water, distilled from scratch in alembic copper pot stills from Portugal. Montanya Platino is aged in used American white oak barrels and filtered through coconut husk charcoal filter; Oro is barrel-aged two to five years in used whiskey barrels, and Exclusiva is a limited release spirit aged in whiskey barrels and then transferred to French oak barrels previously used to mature Cabernet Sauvignon and Port.Secret weapon: As of January, 2016, the entire distillery converted to wind power for their energy source, reducing their carbon footprint and minimizing their impact, meaning you can feel even better about sipping that rum.

Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey

Stranahan’s whiskey is made with local ingredients and hand-crafted distilling techniques, and was founded by chance. After firefighter Jess Graber extinguished neighbor George Stranahan’s barn, the two discovered they had a shared passion for whiskey, and set out to create a distinctive spirit. It’s distilled in small batches with Rocky Mountain barley and water, aged two to five years in small oak barrels and blended for the smoothest, most approachable whiskey.Secret weapon: Stranahan’s is the first Colorado-born whiskey, and its production methods make use of the pure mountain surroundings.

Kelly Magyarics, DWS, is CSX’s editor-in-chief. She can be reached by email at kelly@drinkCSX.com, or on Twitter and Instagram @kmagyarics.