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Raising the Bar
The journey of Bill Welter is one where historic preservation, golf, a medieval Scottish town, a family bank in Valparaiso and the Nant Distillery in Tasmania—a ruggedly beautiful island some 10 hours or so from Australia by car ferry—intersect. Each is a puzzle part that together resulted in the creation of the Journeyman in Three Oaks, Michigan, and The American Factory–Journeyman Distillery in Valparaiso, Indiana: two sprawling distilleries and the restaurants, bars and event spaces within.
How it began
Welter was born and raised in Valparaiso; his grandfather founded the First National Bank of Valparaiso. He grew up with the expectation of entering the family business, but when he was young, golf came first. After graduating as a four-year letterman on full scholarship at Missouri State, a Division 1 golf program, Welter headed to St. Andrews, Scotland. Bordered by the North Sea, the town is considered “the home of golf.”
“I thought it was important to learn the history of the game where it had been played since the 1500s,” says Welter. “I like to say I went there to get my PhD in golf but returned home with another passion—the distillation of whiskey.”
Golfing during the day and washing dishes at The Old Course Hotel, located on the 495-yard 17th hole of The Old Course—a Par 4 considered one of the most difficult holes anywhere—Welter made friends with barman Greg Ramsay. Ramsay was an avid golfer as well as an avid whiskey aficionado with plans to open a craft distillery in his native Tasmania.
Fast forward to 2006: The family bank in Valpo where Welter was working was sold. He needed a new career.
He was never going to be a golf pro, but he sure loved whiskey.
By then, Ramsay had restored an abandoned flour mill on an 1821 farm in Bothwell, Tasmania, turning it into a distillery destination. To learn the trade, Welter spent eight weeks in Tasmania at Nant Distillery & Estate and upon returning did an unpaid internship at Koval Distillery in Chicago.
Welter wanted to open a distillery in Northwest Indiana but, at the time, distillers in his home state had to sell their products through a distributor and couldn’t have a bar on the premises. Michigan, on the other hand, allowed craft distillers. So Welter crossed the state line to Three Oaks, where he discovered an empty rambling brick building built by E.K. Warren in 1883.
Few of us are familiar with the name E.K. Warren and even fewer know about featherbone, but in the 1880s when women still wore corsets, Warren’s invention of flexible featherbone made from turkey wing feathers was revolutionary, replacing the rigid whalebones used in corset construction. Warren became fantastically successful, with offices around the world, and at one time was the third largest landowner in the U.S. He developed and donated the lands that now are Warren Woods State Park on the Galien River and the 1,500-acre Warren Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan.
Ironically, Warren was a Prohibitionist and through his influence, Three Oaks went dry. Warren used his personal funds to replace the income that would have been generated by the village’s saloons. “His ghost,” muses Welter, “must surely rattle around a place that makes and sells booze.” But ghostly displeasure or not, Welter was on the right track. When he opened Journeyman in 2010 there were approximately 250 distilleries in the U.S. Now there are somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000. If that sounds like a lot, consider this: In 1810, the country had 14,191 registered distilleries.
A return to Indiana
When Indiana passed the Artisan Distiller's Permit in 2013, allowing distillers to sell directly to consumers, Welter knew just the place. The 140,000-square-foot ANCO wiper blade factory building in his hometown which had stood empty for three decades.
“It’s played a big part in people’s lives through generations,” says Welter, who embarked on the project in 2017 at an estimated cost of $12 million–26 million. Six years and $40 million later, it opened as The American Factory–Journeyman Distillery, employing 175 people.
“Though it would be cheaper, more convenient and cause a lot less headaches to build new, I love the excitement of uncovering history,” says Welter, adding that he keeps two permanent keepsakes on his desk, news articles recommending the demolition of both buildings.
“It’s like creating a bit of time-traveling—a step back into the past,” he says.
Not just any old craft distiller
When you think of whiskey and bourbon, does a village in southwest Michigan—population 1,397—come to mind ahead of, say, Kentucky and Tennessee?
Most likely not. But in 2023, the American Spirits Council of Tasters (ASCOT), composed of 43 industry professionals who blind-tested 1,100 entries over several days, selected Journeyman’s Corsets, Whips & Whiskey as the Best of Show for the second year in a row.
“This is like a minor-league team beating the Yankees at the World Series. … This is Rich Strike winning the Kentucky Derby,” says Fred Minnick, founder of the ASCOT Awards and author of several books, including Bourbon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American Whiskey. “For the first time in any major spirits competition, a wheat whiskey was judged to be best.”
A single-grain, barrel-to-glass whiskey distilled entirely from 100% organic wheat sourced from small family farms in Michigan, Corsets, Buggies, & Whips (named for all the products manufactured in the Warren building in its long history) was also selected by Minnick as the #1 wheat whiskey in the country.
There would also seem to be little connection between a distillery in Three Oaks and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, which brought more than 27 million people to Chicago to see such new inventions as the Ferris Wheel, automatic dishwasher, zipper, Cracker Jack Popcorn, diet carbonated soda, Aunt Jemima syrup and pancake mix, and Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum.
Almost a footnote to the big-time events at the Exposition, 1,500 botanicals were sent from across the globe to the Field Columbian Museum, the only building remaining from the Exposition and now known as the Field Museum. The majority of these seeds, berries, fruits, herbs and spices remain in the museum’s collection. Several years ago, in celebration of their 125th anniversary, the museum approached Journeyman about creating distilled spirits using some of these botanicals.
The result was Field Rye, Vodka and Gin.
Now Welter is taking his expertise in historic preservation and distilling botanicals to the Indiana Dunes. He is restoring and reopening what was originally The Trophy Room Cocktail Lounge in Beverly Shores, which opened in 1952 and later became Bartlett’s Gourmet Grill & Tavern until closing in 2019. He would like to use plants growing in the Indiana Dunes National Park where Beverly Shores is to create spirits.
Since opening, Journeyman has produced 100% organic and kosher alcohol spirits, buying all their grains from Midwestern organic, small family farms. The number of kosher distilleries in the U.S. is small, but Welter goes for the unique.
Take Welter’s Folly, the 18-hole, 30,000 square-foot putting green at Journeyman, modeled after the Himalayas putting course at St. Andrews and most likely the largest public-access putting green in the country not associated with a course.
Will he have something similar at the Valpo location?
“I was thinking of an indoor concept similar to Top Golf.”
Does he ever just kick back and relax?
“I don’t sleep much,” he says.
Journeyman Distillery
109 Generations Dr.
Three Oaks, MI
258 S. Campbell St.
Valparaiso, IN
Jane Simon Ammeson lives in Southwest Michigan. She writes about food, travel and personalities. Follow Jane at janeammeson.com.
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