Bill Welter, the distiller behind Journeyman’s Corsets, Whips, and Whiskey whiskey—the 2022 ASCOT whiskey of the year—was on the way to the dentist when he had a minor epiphany. He was excited about an upcoming epic camping trip with his family. He was also fairly proud of the 30,000 putting green at Journeyman, Weller’s Folly, modeled after the greens at St. Andrews, Scotland. “There are plenty of challenges to running a business. Plenty of challenges in life. Sometimes it’s the little things—We’re going tent camping—that get you excited. It helped me put things in perspective.”
What whiskey first made you say fuck yeah?
I had a chance to live in Scotland for a while as a young guy. I was twenty-three or twenty-four and lived in St Andrews. Didn’t know much about whiskey when I moved there, but one of the first experiences I had was drinking Laphroaig. I’ve heard a lot of people say to start with something from Speyside because it’s more approachable. Laphroaig might put off a whiskey drinker. I fell in love. In fact, to the point where my wife and I actually named our daughter Islay.
If you weren’t making whiskey, you’d probably be . . .
Unemployed. Somehow. I’ve found a rare segment where I am able to be successful. Entrepreneurship has treated me well. Not sure how I got where I am, but I’m damn glad the journey brought me here.
What’s a fucked up way you drink whiskey you probably wouldn’t tell anyone if you weren’t filling out this questionnaire?
I’m about to drink it in some kind of cream concoction one of our distillers made. . . it’s been sitting in my fridge. I don’t want to drink it, but . . .
What’s a fucked up way someone you know drinks whiskey that makes you want to throw them off a cliff and seriously, Jesus Hashtag Christ, why, Darryll? Why?
Most of my friends don’t know anything about whiskey, and they drink it with the lowest grade fridge level ice they can find that’s frosted and old and nasty and been sitting at the bottom of the ice box, and it turns great whiskey into tasting like a dirty old fridge.
What song will get you onto the floor no matter what?
Give a quote from a movie you obsess over:
We’re about to tee off now so call the hospital and move my appointment with Mrs. Bellows back 90 minutes…Just snake a tube down her nose and I’ll be there…in four or five hours.”
Dr. Beeper; Caddyshack
Besides making whiskey, what do you do right?
I have a passion for golf. Some people have said that at times I’m a good golfer. My handicap is a 1.5.
Sum up the essence of great whiskey with a single word.
Romantic.
What moment during your process strikes you as perfect?
I’m reflecting back to some of our early distillations and distilling rye back in 2010, and there’s a point during the distillation where the room fills with an aroma of the beautiful sweetness of the rye coming off the still. I would say that moment in time, how wonderful it smells, knowing that you’re doing something right.
List three whiskies you love that aren’t yours.
- Glenfarclas
- Lark Distillery in Tasmania Bill was making some of the finest Australian single malts.
- St George Spirits, Alameda, CA they have really been an icon in the world of distilling but also making some of the finest products in the world. They may not be a craft distillery, but they represent craft really well.
Name the single most underrated or overlooked distillery in your state.
I’ve always been a big fan of the innovation coming out of Two James Distillery out of Detroit. Those guys are really doing some cool and innovative stuff. You don’t hear about them too often. Definitely check them out.
Name a whiskey you think our readers never heard of.
I have a buddy who has a small distillery in New Zealand called The NX Whiskey Collective I seriously doubt your readers have heard of it. My buddy, Greg Ramsay, is definitely one to watch. Amazing single malt whiskey.
What was your most embarrassing mistake making whiskey?
We got started in 2009. Our first distillation was in 2010, and the world of craft distilling really hadn’t emerged in a way, so there weren’t a lot of resources. A lot of what we created was trial and error, and there were a lot of errors in the beginning. We had some infections in our fermentation that resulted in some really low yields—and the whiskey tasted like bubble gum. I couldn’t bring myself to dump it, so I said let’s throw this whiskey into a couple of barrels. We wrote “The Learning Curve” on the barrels. We’ve learned with whiskey: good in is good out. We still have The Learning Curve . . . and it’s still not good.
What are you reading?
Traction. It’s basically for entrepreneurs on how to build systems within a business org. I highly recommend it.
Who would you like to see answer these questions?
Nick Nagles, Whiskey Acres.
