Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyle Kettering.
Hi Kyle, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We started Copperwing Distillery between a doctor, lawyer and engineer, with aspirations of making whiskey. None of us had ever made distilled spirits before, however, I had about 4 years of homebrewing experience. The engineering background made it simpler to tackle the hard problems as we got started in the industry. By making prototype stills from copper tubing and modifying existing brewing equipment, we even used a chest freezer and a window air-conditioning unit as a makeshift water chiller. Practicing the craft of distilled spirits was enticing yet difficult. Eventually, test batches started to produce tasty liquor and recipes were developed for Vodka, Vodskey, light whiskey, Gin and bourbon whiskey. After two years of planning, getting a commercial facility and becoming fully licensed, we purchased production level distillation equipment and set our sights on becoming a craft spirits manufacturer. During this process the law changed to allow a cocktail room inside of the distillery so we scratched our heads and designed a tasting room for the build out. I decided that I would leave corporate behind to build & run the operation day to day. It took 6-months to build the facility, and we started production of our spirits the beginning of 2017. By March 11th, we had our grand opening to the public for our cocktail lounge and things we really taking off. We started to distribute our products to the market and found out there’s a lot of competition from global conglomerates so we knew we had to stand out with unique expressions. When COVID hit in March of 2020, we pivoted to making cocktail kits to go and hand sanitizer. I lost my business partners in 2022 and I’ve been operating solo since. Post COVID, the market changed and less people were going out , so we decided to make a very large 50+ cocktail menu to have something for everyone. The effort wasn’t enough however, so we started new activities for people to enjoy, such as Cheese n Cocktail pairings, Paint n Sip, and Charcuterie making classes to name a few. We revamped our website, added self sign-up for events & distillery tours and added Still Life – local art displayed on our walls. We’re still working away creating new concoctions every week, planning new events for people to enjoy while sipping on craft cocktails and distributing through new sales channels to remain competitive.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a challenging path for the past 10-years. Distribution will always be a difficult access point to the market for small producers since we can’t support the sales volumes and discounts that large one can easily handle. COVID changed how people spend their leisure time and excess money so much that companies like craft alcohol are closing operations down at an accelerated rate. Luckily, we are small enough to pivot and change how we gain new customers to remain open amidst less and less buyers.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The business consists of distilled spirits manufacturing, a cozy cocktail bar and off-sale liquor. We produce other brands of alcohol as well, including recipe formulation, R&D for enzyme producers, small batch production of RTD’s among other beverage centered services.
Copperwing stands out amongst the rest since we make everything in-house from scratch using high quality ingredients. We make our spirits, liqueurs, infusions, fresh juices, cola’s, ginger beer, and tonics. There are no other brands of items in our cocktail lounge, only house-made items so the cocktails are specially made just for you.
My name is Kyle Kettering and I’m one of the founders of Copperwing distillery, currently CEO and master distiller, specializing in ultra-pure distilled spirits. The spirits we produce ensure you can have fun socializing with alcohol and not worry about a hangover the next day. This is because we only use high quality natural ingredients, not artificial ones. It’s also from the highly engineered distillation process, specific to Copperwing. At least this is what most people feel & tell me after trying it themselves, give it a shot, you’ll thank yourself later.
What matters most to you?
Quality of our products is the most important thing to me. Since there are a lot of beverage companies that exist and not very many of them use natural ingredients, which is unhealthy for consumption. Being honest to our customers about everything that we do, especially our products and processes so they can rest assured they’re safe to consume our beverages whenever they choose.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.copperwingdistillery.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/copperwingdistillery/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/copperwingdistillery/
- Threads: https://www.threads.net/@copperwingdistillery
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/copperwing-distillery-saint-louis-park-2?osq=copperwing+distillery
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@copperwingdistillery
