Scotch Malt Whiskey Society: Issue 89 January 2024
It has a proud, rich history. Tradition, skills and culture dating back hundreds of years that are now celebrated across the globe. It’s hardly surprising that people flock to Scotland to experience and learn at the very home of one of its most popular exports.
No, we’re not talking about whisky here. But in Bill Welter’s case, it was one of Scotland’s other great traditions that proved to be an unlikely gateway to becoming a distiller.
The story begins back in 2001, when Bill had completed a ‘Division 1 Golf Program’ in the United States and his love of the game led him to its spiritual home of St Andrews in Scotland.
“I really wanted to learn more about the history of the game. So, I got on a plane to Edinburgh and took the train and a bus to St Andrews via Leuchars,” Bill recalls fondly. “I remember stepping into this odd red box and popping some coins into a weird looking mechanical device, and calling home to tell my family I’d made it okay.”
ABOVE: A passion for golf led Bill to St Andrews – and onto whisky
ABOVE: Bill Welter at Journeyman distillery in Michigan
A FORK IN THE ROAD
To make ends meet in St Andrews, Bill took a job washing dishes in a restaurant. It was there that he befriended Greg Ramsey, from Tasmania. “Greg was a huge whisky fan, and being in Scotland it was hard to ignore the history and heritage of it. I learned so much in that year,” says Bill.
In 2001, however, having no real interest in continuing any kind of career in whisky, he made the decision to return home to work within his father’s family business. That was until 2009 when he found out that Greg had opened a distillery in Tasmania.
“When I heard about Greg’s distillery, I instantly called him and asked if I could go and work for him. I moved out there. Although Scotch was my gateway whisky, Tasmania is where I learned how to make it.”
BRINGING IT ON HOME
Although he had cut his teeth as a whisky maker, Bill was somewhat apprehensive about taking the plunge and making a business out of it for himself. “Having experienced our family business go to the wall before, I was understandably anxious about starting another,” he says. “Having said that, I knew that I wanted to make something, and I knew I loved whisky. I just had to go for it.”
And so – with the help of his father Chuck – Bill opened Journeyman distillery in Three Oaks, Michigan to the public in 2011. “Looking back, there were some obvious signs from the beer movement that there was interest in smaller, more local, producers putting their own mark on the industry at the time. It felt like a huge step into the unknown.”
ABOVE: Journeyman silos at the Michigan distillery
MAKING IT WORK
When it came to designing the spirit, Bill makes no secret of the fact that his approach has been ‘experimental’ to say the least. “I always tell people, no one with any acumen or experience in the whisky industry would ever do it like we did,” he says. “It was a case of throwing some people in a room and letting them figure it out. Through that process a lot of happy accidents happened.
“If I’d have had any kind of formal training, that would never have happened. I think sometimes that approach can become a little formulaic. In my case a lot of what we created was literally on-the-job training. Experimentation, and really being forced to find our own unique way of doing things.
“We had a lot of success in making 100 per cent wheat whiskey and some weird recipes for our rye that sets us apart. Even the stills we bought were German-built and traditionally used for fruit spirits. The combination of inexperience and just liking the produce we’d tried from them led us to try it out. People really appreciate the authenticity.
“One of our core values is ‘Always a Journeyman, never a master’, and being a young distillery we strive to improve every day.”