September 2026 Discovery Club: Talnua Pot Still Whiskey

This month, for the second to last Discovery Club release of 2026, we’re leaving the bourbon world behind and heading into something entirely different. We’re venturing to Talnua Distillery, located just outside of Denver, Colorado, and shining a light on their single pot still whiskey. The latest Discovery Club release is a single cask of Talnua’s triple-distilled Colorado single pot still whiskey, aged in an ex-bourbon cask for 4 years with additional staves inserted in the barrel. 

More to the point: this is the definitive American take on a quintessentially Irish style of whiskey. And that’s what Talnua is all about.

Talnua Distillery

One of the great things about the emergence of new distilleries all across the country is that styles that were once not associated with the United States are now proudly made here. Yes, bourbon is now made all across the country: our United States of Bourbon is proof of that! But rye has also seen a huge resurgence. And single malt, once associated primarily with Scotland, is now made across the U.S. as well. But single pot still whiskey, a style very closely associated with Ireland and primarily made there, is still very rarely made in the United States… even though it’s a style that almost all of us as whiskey drinkers have encountered in its Irish form at some point. 

Talnua Distillery has a unique claim to fame. It is the only distillery in the United States that is entirely focused on making Irish-style single pot still whiskey. That is its purpose. That is the vision behind it: to make this classic style of whiskey, not in its country of origin but in Colorado. 

That singular focus means that Talnua has already won some wide acclaim, even though their whiskies are normally only available in Colorado. In fact, they’re one of our most requested distillery partners. So we’re excited to showcase them now for the first time in the Lost Lantern Discovery Club.

Visiting Talnua

I heard about Talnua long before I visited them, because their name comes up increasingly often in whiskey nerd circles – especially among adventurous single malt drinkers, and especially when you’re in Colorado or nearby. After all, while single pot still whiskey is somewhat different from single malt, there’s also some overlap, and single malt drinkers have been some of the first to fall in love with Talnua. 

In 2022, I met the founders, Meagan and Patrick Miller, at a whiskey festival in Texas. At the time, I had heard a little bit about Talnua but didn’t know their story, how big they were (fairly small), or why they had gotten into this. 

I got to hear the story from them firsthand, and it’s simple: they went to Ireland on their honeymoon. They fell in love with Ireland and Irish whiskey over repeated trips. Living in Colorado, one of the hotbeds of craft beer and distilling, they wondered why no one had ever done something similar in the United States. And ultimately they decided to do it themselves. 

Honestly, in some ways, this is similar to the story of Lost Lantern! Nora and I fell in love with Scotch independent bottlers. We wondered why no one had ever done something similar in the United States. We kept on wondering for a while. And ultimately we decided to do it ourselves. So we felt a natural affinity with Patrick and Meagan.

I visited Talnua for the first time in 2023 as part of a trip to distilleries across Colorado (in addition to re-visiting our friends at Boulder, I hit all the major Denver distilleries and even went to Grand Junction and the Western slope to visit some distilleries out there). And the first thing that struck me was how very polished and dialed-in Talnua is for its size. I had initially assumed they were much bigger than they were. I mean, look at their website and their labels. These folks know what they’re doing. But the truth is, it’s a small distillery and a small team, but one with big ambitions to expand the world of American whiskey. In fact, we’ve wanted to work with them since 2023, but the distillery simply didn’t have enough whiskey to spare yet!

Talnua: The Whiskey and the Discovery Club Cask

So what, exactly, is single pot still whiskey? In my view, it is a cousin of single malt – maybe a second cousin. Like single malt whiskies worldwide, single pot still whiskey is (usually) made with 100% barley. But unlike single malt, not all of that barley has to be malted. In fact, single pot still whiskey must include at least 30% unmalted barley – grain that has not been germinated and that does not help catalyze the fermentation process like malted barley does. The original roots of this style date back to 19th century Irish whiskey tax law… but regardless of the reason, the use of unmalted barley ultimately became a signature of the style and part of what made Irish whiskey distinct from its primary competitor across the Irish Sea. 

Single pot still whiskey is usually a little softer than single malt, although this is as much of a stylistic choice as a production one. It is often, as in Talnua’s case, distilled three times instead of twice, contributing to that softness. If Scotch is often bold, brash, and in your face, filled with big and aggressive flavors, single pot still whiskey is more delicate and nuanced… but just as complex. 

But what about the Colorado version of single pot still whiskey? That’s what Talnua is aiming to find out. Aged at a mile high elevation just outside of Denver, in a climate that is both warmer and drier than Ireland (and significantly less maritime!), Talnua’s whiskies have more baking spice and oak influence than their Irish cousins of similar age. 

As for the Discovery Club cask itself, it is a 4-year-old triple-distilled single pot still whiskey aged in a used cask. It was made from 50% unmalted and 50% malted barley, all of which was grown in Colorado. In a Lost Lantern first, the whiskey was aged with additional oak staves inside the barrel, substantially increasing wood contact and surface area over the course of maturation (this technique has become fairly common across American whiskey, notably pioneered by Maker’s Mark in Kentucky and by fellow Colorado distillery Distillery 291 in Colorado Springs). 

It is creamy on the palate, with warm oak and spice, vanilla buttercream, graham crackers, and a warm softness on the palate. It is quite a departure from the bourbons we’ve featured in the Discovery Club most of this year, and I think it is such a lovely whiskey, perfect for the coming days of cooler weather. I hope it makes you think of Ireland and Colorado all at once. 

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