12 Point Distillery opened its new digs in downtown Lafayette on Friday, becoming the first craft spirit provider to set up shop in the city.
Its opening, and other surrounding locales like it, heralds the latest trend to hit the Front Range’s post-microbrewery explosion, according to industry experts who say the rise of the “micro” or craft distillery is the result of several converging factors playing out over the marketplace.
The shop, located along the city’s fledgling commercial corridor at 802 S. Public Road, made its grand opening over the weekend with the staples of a Boulder County kickoff: food trucks, drink specials and games, according to Stephanie Snyder, a local entrepreneur who owns the shop with her husband, Mark.
Snyder launched the site with her family — her father- and brother-in-law, a mechanical engineer and organic chemist, respectively — officially earlier this year, she says, while the groundwork has stretched over the past few years.
“My in-laws retired a few years ago and it really just started by us all sitting down and starting to talk about what kind of project we could do as a family,” Snyder said. “And this is where we ended up; it was sort of just a natural progression.”
A decade ago, there were roughly 50 craft distilleries in the United States. Today, the American Craft Spirits Association says there likely are more than 800.
.
