“Onyx & Amber is the kind of whiskey project that makes me stop, smile, and think, “OK, this guy is playing a different game.” As I sat talking with Benjamin Rosen, the head of Onyx & Amber in Denver, Colorado, I kept coming back to one idea: he breaks a lot of quiet rules in American whiskey, but he does it with humility, patience, and respect for the people who love whiskey.
Inside Onyx & Amber’s Quiet Rule‑Breaking
Ben is a native Denver guy who left Colorado, sampled life in other cities, then felt pulled back home by the mountains and the lifestyle. For him, Colorado is a great place to live and a terrific place for shaping whiskey in ways you cannot get at sea level.
When I think of rule-breakers, I do not picture someone shouting about it. I picture someone like Ben. He talks softly, he is mellow and he has layers to him, just like the whiskeys he loves.
Ben’s approach is different. For instances Onyx & Amber is not a distiller. His small team do not run stills. They do not pretend to. Instead, they source high-quality barrels from places like MGP Distillery and other well-known distilleries, then let Colorado work on those barrels over time.
He has full warehouses of barrels in Boulder that are five to eight years old, aging amid the wild swings of Colorado’s climate. He also has older barrels, like an 18‑year American whiskey that has spent six or seven years in Colorado air before it hits the bottle.
That is where the rule-breaking comes in: he is not chasing a “craft for the sake of craft” story. He is taking proven whiskey and letting his environment push it into a new lane.
High-Altitude Aging, Done the Onyx & Amber Way
Ask most people about Colorado whiskey, and they may jump to the idea that “altitude speeds up aging.” Ben hates that phrase. He is clear that age is age. A nine‑year whiskey is nine years old no matter where it sits. What changes in Colorado is not the clock; it is how often and how intensely the whiskey and the wood talk to each other.
Colorado gets big and frequent barometric pressure swings. Every swing forces whiskey in and out of the oak. In the summer, you can get many rapid cycles of whiskey going into the woods and then back out again.
Over the years, that interaction can pull out more and different flavors, which is what he saw with the nine‑and‑a‑half‑year rye he finished in Steamboat Springs.
That rye started as a three‑and‑a‑half‑year MGP barrel in Indiana. He brought it to Denver for three years, then moved it up to Steamboat for another three. It turned into a rye that drinks like a caramel‑vanilla forward bourbon, with just the right rye spice, and the barrels were bottled at 130 and 138 proof, with about 80 bottles each. That is not typical production. That is a patient, high‑altitude experiment.
No Middle Flavors
Before Onyx & Amber, Ben ran the Colorado Bourbon and Rye Collectors club and helped raise over half a million dollars for charity through 150‑plus barrel picks. They did not chase the safe middle flavor profile that big retailers often need to choose.
He carried that mindset into Onyx & Amber. When he sources barrels, he looks for things most people might pass on because they do not fit a standard brand profile.
One recent run was an 18‑year American light whiskey, which started as an old Seagram’s light whiskey. Ben blended eight low‑yield barrels, then finished that blend in empty barrels from a previous “Buff Turkey” 16‑year project, chasing more of that black cherry note he loves in Wild Turkey.
After about a month, visiting barrel‑pick groups went wild for it, so he let it ride for around four months before pulling it. The result is a thick, high‑proof, flavor‑packed whiskey that became a flagship almost by accident.
The whiskey community has become Ben’s extended network. To Ben, his bourbon club is where people from different careers and backgrounds come together over a shared love of whiskey and are quick to help each other out when someone needs it.
No High Prices
Another rule-of-thumb that Ben ignores is the traditional pricing ladder saying an 18‑year whiskey must start at a painful price. Ben set the price at $74.99 on that release. He did it because he wanted whiskey that would typically sit on the “unobtainable” shelf to land in regular carts and cabinets.
Ben wants to return power to the consumer. He wants people to look at an older bottle and feel they can actually buy it, open it, and share it, rather than treating it as a museum piece. Being a small operation gives him the freedom to run tiny two‑barrel experiments that big distilleries wouldn’t likely do.
That spirit carries into his barrel‑pick experiences. When you go to a big house now, you often get three or four barrels rolled out, and those are your choices. At Onyx & Amber, if Ben believes a barrel is ready, it is on the menu.
No Big Teams
Unlike large Whiskey producers, Onyx & Amber is a five‑person passion project—Ben plus four investors who all came from the Colorado Bourbon and Rye Collectors group. They bottle, label, and wax every release themselves, sometimes with the help of contract brand ambassadors.
Ben’s nine‑year‑old son loves to run the four‑bottle automatic filler. He loves pressing the button and watching whiskey flow into a glass for hours.
The small team relishes the details that shows how serious they are about the craft without losing the fun. Their early bottles, for example had rough, bubbly wax. Recent releases look polished and clean, the kind that sold out in minutes with a partner like Seelbach’s.
Commonly Asked Questions of Benjamin Rosen of Onyx & Amber
Is Onyx & Amber a “real” distillery if they do not run stills?
Onyx & Amber is a non‑distilling producer that focuses on sourcing high‑quality barrels from established distilleries and then aging and finishing them in Colorado’s unique climate. The team controls selection, maturation environment, blending, and finishing, so the flavor profile and the philosophy are very much their own.
What makes Colorado aging so special for their whiskey?
Colorado brings big barometric pressure swings that push whiskey in and out of the wood more often and with more intensity than in many regions. Over many years, those cycles can develop deeper and more distinct flavors without “aging faster” in a literal sense. You still have a nine‑year whiskey, but it can taste like nothing from a calmer climate.
Why are some of their older releases priced so low?
Ben wants serious whiskey drinkers to actually drink the good stuff, not stare at it. Pricing an 18‑year release at $74.99 is his way of shifting power back to consumers, lowering the barrier so more people can buy, open, and share bottles that would otherwise be priced out of reach.
What kind of flavor profile does Onyx & Amber aim for?
Ben is drawn to atypical profiles that still feel balanced and enjoyable. He likes caramel‑vanilla forward ryes, unique older MGP Distillery bourbons with depth at moderate proofs, and light whiskeys rounded with notes like black cherry from creative finishes. His goal is to offer flavors that enthusiasts and new customers cannot easily find elsewhere.
Last Call: The Big Flavor and High-Altitude of Onyx & Amber
Benjamin Rosen of Onyx & Amber prove that exceptional whiskey doesn’t require the Kentucky landscape or running stills. The firm sources quality barrels from established distilleries and transforms them through Colorado’s high-altitude climate and strategic finishing, barrel selection, and patient maturation.
See our full podcast with Ben at whiskeyshenanigans.com. And for more conversations with fascinating people in the whiskey world, check us out on Instagram @whiskeyshaniganspodcast