While the distillery has always been a community gathering place, it wasn’t originally branded as a “queer bar.” Concerned about rainbow capitalism-the commercialization and commodification of LGBTQ movements-Gunnels and Tilley shied away from declaring DV8 as a queer space until last year. With sex-positive, kink-themed events sprinkled throughout its calendar-think: glow paint dance parties and circus shows-some nights lean more toward the risqué than others. As the distillery’s product line of rice-based bourbons, gin, and vodkas grows, so does the business’s mission to generate a safe, inclusive atmosphere where “community can flourish without judgement,” according to Tilley. When Rawley Gunnels and Johnathan Tilley founded Boulder’s DV8 Distilling in 2016, they set out to craft crave-worthy gluten-free spirits and carve out a space for the neighborhood.
