Today we’d like to introduce you to David Weglarz.
Hi David, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was an English Major in college because I love to read and I’ve always looked at my own life as my own personal story, thus I’ve tried to live it in a way that is both fulfilling and exciting. After college, I moved to North Carolina to fulfill my dream of being a white water river rafting guide. I lived in a tent for months and then the ‘guide house’ which was not as glamorous as it sounds, but an amazing and wonderful experience. The entire endeavour cemented in me the belief that this is my one life and it’s up to me to make it great.
So I took the next logical step and moved to Chicago, where I became a Futures Trader. I did that for about 8 years, made and lost a ton of money and really enjoyed my 20s living there. I had a great time in the city living with or near some of my best friends and making new ones. But by the end, I was completely miserable. I knew this wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life.
I met my wife and we got married here in St. Louis (her hometown). Half a year later, i quit my job and we moved to St. Louis to start the distillery with a dream of making the best whiskey and rum in the country!
I started ‘practicing’ in my garage and on June 30th, 2011, we filed the papers to create our company and StilL 630 was born! At least on paper. Six months later we found our building, a classy old Hardee’s (we like to joke that it was an old french restaurant since the fries were ‘french’…). We moved in Feb 1st, 2012 and started gutting the place and moving in our equipment. Then it was trial and error scaling up the recipes I’d worked out and laying down barrels. We sold our first bottles in April of 2013 (to a brewery of all places! I’ve always loved the idea that my first bottle sale was to a place that makes their own alcohol wanted to buy mine!) Over the years we slowly rolled back the age on our whiskeys, including releasing the first ever 5 year old whiskey from Missouri that we could find any record of. Then we released the first ever Bottled-in-Bond whiskey from Missouri, and later the first 10yr old whiskey from Missouri.
We also launched our Experimental Spirits Program in July of 2017, promising to release one experimental spirit per month for FIVE years! I didn’t know how the hell we were going to do it, but I did know that if we wanted to grow, we needed input from the people. What did they want us to make? What did they want it to taste like? How better to get their honest feedback than by giving them free samples each month of the newest experimental and having them fill out a survey?! Turns out people love free booze and giving their opinions. So #60 came and went and we kept rolling. In January of 2026 we released #100!! And, as far as we can tell, it remains the largest and most ambitious experimental spirits program in history! Everything but vodka basically.
We won our first medals, including a Gold Medal for our RallyPoint Maple Sunset, in 2015 and that was incredibly gratifying that I was on the right path on this wild journey. And that I could actually become good at this. Since then, we’ve gone on to win the Best-in-Class Whiskey (Best Craft Whiskey in the Country) Award THREE times (2016, 2018, 2025 – no other craft distillery has done it twice)! We also won the Best-in-Class Award for our Rum in 2024! I’m very proud to say that we are now the most awarded craft distillery in the Midwest and one of the top four in the entire country! All out of an old Hardee’s in downtown St. Louis!
In 2016, I fell in love with gin while sitting at The Gin Room here in town and talking with The Gin Girl herself, Natasha Bahrami. She won a great convert that day as we’ve gone on to build the largest Botanical Spirits Library in the world (containing over 500 different individual herbs, seeds, leaves, roots, flowers, etc, etc – we’ve had experts from Europe and England come over to see it!). We’ve launched some incredible gins starting with our first, Volstead’s Folly American Gin in 2017 and have even won the Best-in-Class Award (Best Craft Gin in the Country)… TWICE (2020 & 2023). Again, no other craft distillery has done that.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
But the road has not been smooth. We’ve struggled with being underfunded the entire way, everything has been done on a shoestring budget… Selling one bottle to make another. The limitations of our unique space continue to handicap us, but we make the best of it. We’ve had plenty of issues over the years with fermenters overflowing, leaks, not being able to get barrels, or bottles, etc. But our motto is “Indomitable Spirits” and that’s what we are and that’s what we produce. So no matter what obstacle looms, we will find a way! For example, the Pandemic threw a monkey wrench in everything. Yes, people consumed more alcohol during it, but not at bars and restaurants, so our wholesale distribution really died. And most consumers traded down the value chain, opting for cheaper options and since we produce high quality premium spirits, that hit us very hard. We were able to pivot though and produced hand sanitizer for a while when that was desperately needed. It felt great to find a way to help instead of just sitting at home feeling helpless. And plenty of people were literally lining up to buy it for themselves or their companies. To the extent that not only were we able to survive and not lay off any of our employees (I’m very proud of that!) but we were also able to donate over $50,000 dollars worth of sanitizer to the first responders, nurses, doctors, police, fire departments. I remain proud that we were able to help our community and make it through those turbulent years.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m most proud of the small part we get to play in other peoples’ lives. We say that we produce the best spirits for the best days of your life (and/or a random Tuesday). But even though we’ve won tons of awards, the best accolades come from regular people when they say “I want to buy gifts for my bridesmaids or groomsmen” or “This is a retirement gift” or just “I want to get this person something really special”. For the wedding parties, that means that on the most important day of their life, to the most important people in their life, they want to give them something I made. That’s absolutely incredible!!
I also love that I get to represent St. Louis to the country and the world. We get lots of tourists who visit St. Louis and some of them visit us. So to be an ambassador for this great city is really special. I’ve even traveled out of town multiple times with Explore St. Louis – the city’s official marketing organization – to represent the best of our city.
In 2018, I helped co-found the Missouri Craft Distillers Guild, trying to unite and support all the craft distillers in the state. In 2019, I was the second President and we passed a bill into law, Bill 266, officially codifying and establishing Missouri Bourbon as a specific type of Bourbon and it is nationally recognized as such! Perhaps even more meaningful was the creation of the Missouri Spirits Expedition – our statewide distillery trail – also during my presidency in 2019. Through it we continue to draw tourism from all over the country and the world to Missouri to explore the incredible spirits (and towns/restaurants/etc) that Missouri has to offer!
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
For the serious whiskey lovers, we offer a unique program where we will create your own custom whiskey. You come in and we help you build the mash bill, then we make it from scratch and age it as long as you like and bottle it when you say it’s ready. We label it up with your label and it’s yours!
For everyone who appreciates fine spirits and great cocktails, we are open Friday evenings from 5-9pm for cocktails, pours, and flights! No reservations required, just come on in. We also offer tours (which include tastings) on most Saturdays, those have to be booked through our website.
All our available spirits are available for purchase on our website and we have pick up hours for those orders. We can ship around Missouri. And our core spirits (and sometimes special releases!) are available for shipping to most states through a third party purveyor and you can order those right off our website!
If anyone has any wild ideas or cool collaborations, we hope they’d reach out to us at info@still630.com and we’ll discuss it from there to see if it’s a fit!
Pricing:
- Gins ~$25-~30
- Rum & Apple Brandies $38
- Whiskeys $26-$60+
- Experimental Quarterly Collections: $30
- Cask Strength/Special Releases $65+
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.still630.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/still630
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/still630
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/still630
- Twitter: @still630
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@still630distilleryofficial9
