He doesn’t have time to talk.
As we walk through the door of StilL 630, a small-batch distillery in downtown St. Louis, owner/operator/distiller Dave Weglarz ’03 is preoccupied by something more important than us. Whatever it is, it’s not working and needs attention. Now.
Dave scurries from tank to tank, searching for tools, grinding here, scrubbing there, and grunting—there were many grunts and perhaps a profanity or two.
Disaster averted, he tells us later that he was fortunate to find an industry that practically perfectly matches his persona.
“I get to be creative,” he explains. “I get to actually physically make stuff. This is hard work. I’m in charge of my own destiny.”
Then it hits you. He’s responsible for everything you see inside this old Hardee’s restaurant. Barrels age at one end. The mash tank, fermenters, pot still, and bottling equipment are tucked into available spaces. A long tasting bar leads to the Library, a collection of experimental flavors and ideas in progress. It’s all him. Bottles are hand-numbered and signed. He’ll even don a bathing suit and climb into the tanks when it’s time to clean.
Yes, StilL 630 is the distilled essence of Dave Weglarz.
Making it to the five-year anniversary was a milestone in itself, but in the cutthroat, crash-and-burn world of craft beers and spirits, Dave now produces a line of award-winning spirits, including the 2016 and 2018 American Craft Spirits Association “Best in Class” whiskey. The English major and one-time Chicago futures trader does this by being indomitable. As in, “impossible to subdue.” It’s a word that suits him so well, in fact, that the word has become the motto for the business.
“To do anything in this life worth doing, especially anything entrepreneurial, you have to have that spirit,” he quips. “It’s a cool word. It’s powerful. It serves the human spirit as well as the liquid spirit here.”
Unique to StilL 630 is the Library—hundreds of small bottles of experiments on rows of shelves behind the tasting counter. A large wooden “library card” hangs from a hook on one shelf. Servers are called “librarians.”
In many other places, customers don’t see the stuff that wasn’t quite perfect. Dave has no problem sharing. It’s part of the charm.
The idea grew out of trial and error, of taking samples from different barrels. Dave has dozens of tasting notebooks piled around the place with meticulous notes. But those scribblings, he says, pale in comparison to being able to pull a liquid sample and get a glass and taste it, smell it, and experience it.
“It’s so much more than just the flavor notes,” he says. “It’s the way they dance and develop, and the way it rolls through your palate. That’s what’s amazing. The nose that you get. For me, this is love. This is passion.”
Mention that the Library looks like an apothecary full of elixirs crafted by a mad scientist and Dave embraces the description. Yes, it’s marketing and branding. Certainly, he’s attempting to monetize some of these experiments—the series of First Friday experimental releases is a good example. But he’s also looking for a connection.
“We have very few secrets,” Dave explains. “Today more than ever people crave authenticity. You like it when someone is being real. We’re trying to infuse this place with authenticity.”
The Library also serves as a tool for organizing. Take StilL 630’s Volstead’s Folly American Gin. Dave set about crafting something piney and completely different from anything produced in Missouri. Every time a botanical was added, Dave changed the number. Changed the ratio and he changed the letter. The final version was 20A, meaning there were more than 120 variations, and many of those are displayed in the Library.
Trial and error has served Dave well, helping to transform this former fast-food joint into what he calls an incubator. Driving him forward with new questions to answer.
“Can I make whiskey?” he asks. “Can I make good whiskey? Can I sell enough of it to actually run a business? So far, the answers appear to be yes.
“We can’t be Baskin-Robbins. We can’t have 31 flavors of spirits because you aren’t going to do any of them well. I’m trying to tie this distillery into the fabric of St. Louis—so it’s the Cardinals, the Arch, and this distillery. And not necessarily in that order.