Making spirits bright all year round

Tim Welch, whisky-maker|

With the rapid, recent proliferation of craft breweries and wineries around Petaluma, it comes as no surprise that discerning local drinkers also now have a “small-scale craft distillery” to provide them with stronger spirits, when the occasion calls for it. Stillwater Spirits is a subsidiary of Novato’s Moylan Brewery, under the aegis of Marin Brewing Company, for which Petaluma distiller Tim Welch has been cranking out an array of fine spirits - whiskies, vodkas, schnapps, and more - for the last six years. Welch says he likes using local ingredients.

“Local sourcing is important,” he says. “We get as much of our supplies locally as we can, paying careful attention to ingredients and process, favoring locally sourced and handcrafted products, and we spare no expense for our barrels, for example, in order to create these products.”

Welch’s finely honed distillery skills actuallybegan long before he joined Stillwater Spirits.

“I’ve been making spirits for 25 years,” he says, noting that he can partially thank his parents, who were both NASA scientists, and also part-time distillery hobbyists. Explains Welch, “I grew up with a still on the back porch in Mississippi - but it’s legal to sell it here. So I moved here.”

Welch was running a landscaping business, while also working as a ship boat captain, when he endured the one-two punch of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and then the Gulf Coast oil spill in 2010.

“I grew up on the water and was running boats my whole life, but I lost a lot of my equipment to Katrina,” he says. “And then when the oil spill happened, that ended my boat living.”

Welch says he came out to California to visit friends in 2011, and liked it so much that he stayed on. He began making award-winning whiskies and bourbons for Moylan’s not long after. According to Welch, Stillwater Spirits’ process is what he calls “a New World approach.”

“We make small batches of Irish whisky in the Scottish tradition,” he says, “in an American hybrid still, and we finish it in French oak barrels.”

He tends to make small batches at a time.

“We’re in a high-end, low volume business,” he says.

Calling himself conscientious and quality-driven, Welch names his father, along with Moylan’s founder Brendan Moylan, for mentoring him in the ways of making spirits. He also counts his brother Matt as an inspiration.

“He’s eight years older than me, and I wanted to do everything he did,” Welch admits.

Asked to describe the most significant turning points in his life, Welch names his post-Katrina, cross-country move as the most challenging thing he’s ever done, and cites meeting his girlfriend, Chennon O’Donnell, as one of the best things he’s experienced since then. Since Welch travels quite a bit for his job, he mentions that he always brings tennis rackets with him, since tennis is his favorite way to unwind.

Tennis and spirits, it turns out, are part of an interesting fantasy he admits to having.

“I’d love to meet the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, in a two-on-one, drinking tennis match,” he says. “And one of my other goals is to have Ringo Starr, Tom Waits and Sturgill Simpson break their sobriety for one day and come hang out with me. It would be so worth it!”

For Welch, making and sharing quality spirits has become a major part of his identity.

“Spirits are infused in my spirit,” Welch says, adding, “Our mantra is making the best whisky obtainable to everyone at an affordable price.”

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