{"id":642,"date":"2013-06-13T16:38:30","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T20:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/littlegiants-bigresults\/?p=642"},"modified":"2025-07-08T19:32:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:32:53","slug":"peters-14-gaining-experience-with-kindred-spirits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/2013\/06\/13\/peters-14-gaining-experience-with-kindred-spirits\/","title":{"rendered":"Peters ’14: Gaining Experience with (Kindred) Spirits"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple months ago, while reading over the various descriptions of available internships through Wabash, I read the words, \u201cOur intern will have to wear a lot of hats.\u201d\u00a0 The description belonged to my current summer employer StilL 630 in St. Louis, MO and could not have been a more accurate description of the position.\u00a0 After a resum\u00e9 submission, a phone interview conducted while my car was breaking down on the Pennsylvania turnpike, and a mad dash to secure summer housing, I made the move to St. Louis to begin working with David Weglarz \u201903 at his start-up craft distillery.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been at the distillery for three and a half weeks and I feel as I\u2019ve done every job in the distillation business.\u00a0 David uses the tagline, \u201cFrom Grain to Glass,\u201d to describe the process of making our whiskey products, and again he is spot-on with his description.\u00a0 We start by combining water with our chosen grains for the spirit (malt rye, barley, winter wheat, etc.) in a mash tun.\u00a0 The mash tun is about six feet tall and holds 500 gallons.\u00a0 It also requires regular cleaning, a perfect job for a summer intern no doubt!<\/p>\n

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Here I am cleaning out the mash tun, where the whole process starts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The process continues with the mixing of these ingredients during various heating and cooling steps.\u00a0 The \u201cmash\u201d is then brought to one of our four fermenters where yeast is pitched in to begin breaking down the usable sugars provided by the grain into alcohol (getting interesting right?).\u00a0 While it is in the fermenter for a 2-5 day period, the mixture is now called distiller\u2019s beer; think Sam Adams without all the hops being added.\u00a0 The distiller\u2019s beer is then brought to our still, which was handmade right here in St. Louis.\u00a0 At StilL 630, our current spirits our double distilled, which means we run the liquid through the distillation process twice.\u00a0 The first run, called the \u201cstripping run,\u201d boils off usable alcohol, leaving water behind.\u00a0 This alcohol is about 45% alcohol by volume (ABV) and will be run through the freshly cleaned still (also the job of an intern) again in a \u201cspirits run.\u201d\u00a0 This is the good alcohol that will end up in a bottle or a barrel.\u00a0 We make cuts of this alcohol first however, as the spirits come off in three categories: heads, hearts, and tails.\u00a0 Hearts are the good alcohol that is drinkable (once proofed down, even for college kids) while heads remind me of moonshine.\u00a0 Tails are used when a whiskey is barreled for aging.\u00a0 The esters of the tails react well with the charred barrels and give it the amber color that we are used to in whiskey.<\/p>\n

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While running, the “mash” has to be broken up to produce sugar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But like I said earlier, lots of hats are worn.\u00a0 I\u2019ve bottled our whiskey, labeled it, and then sold it by walking to bars and giving tastings.\u00a0 Right now we survive on word of mouth advertising and social media buzz (follow us @STILL630 or on Facebook).\u00a0 So instead of hats, I wear a suit as often as a dirty work shirt.<\/p>\n

With all this work being done, that doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t have fun however.\u00a0 I personally love going out to different venues to run tastings and talk with patrons, bartenders, and restaurant owners.\u00a0 We get to drink the whiskey that I helped make and get to spread our proud product around the city.\u00a0 I\u2019ve even taught David to play some lacrosse in our down time.\u00a0 Also, David and I were lucky enough to score free ultimate BLT\u2019s from Crown Candy Kitchen, a historic STL kitchen that has been featured on Food Network multiple times, for just talking to them!<\/p>\n

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It’s bigger than my head!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

David, his wife Sydney, his newborn son Mason, his big dog Jake, and I actually just returned from Louisville, KY.\u00a0 David and I went on a bourbon trail distillery tour, visiting the likes of Maker\u2019s Mark and Heaven Hill, to do some research but also have a great summer experience.\u00a0 And so far that\u2019s exactly what this summer has been.\u00a0 I\u2019m extremely happy to have been chosen for this position and I would like to thank the Small Business Internship Fund and Wabash College Career Services in helping me earn this position!<\/p>\n

One last thing however, you over 21 year-olds need to keep your eyes open for Rally Point Rye Whiskey and Big Dog Jake White Whiskey on a shelf near you to help some Wabash brothers out!\u00a0 David is on his way to taking over the industry, I\u2019m just glad I can be here for the first few steps.<\/p>\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple months ago, while reading over the various descriptions of available internships through Wabash, I read the words, \u201cOur intern will have to wear a lot of hats.\u201d\u00a0 The description belonged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21,26,29,31],"class_list":["post-642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internships","tag-internship","tag-sbif","tag-st-louis","tag-wabashintern"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2013\/06\/Stirrer.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/plastics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}