Switchgrass Spirits will begin distribution in 2020

St. Louis spirit lovers will soon have a new way to imbibe. Switchgrass Spirits plans to start producing and distributing spirits in 2020.

Sales and marketing manager Jerry Seelbach said Switchgrass operated on the Wellston-based distillery under the moniker Arcana Distilling since 2016, using that time to update the property, learn to distill and develop recipes.

“We’re finally ready to put those recipes into bottles,” Seelbach said. The distillery officially underwent its name change in September.

“The name Arcana was much more esoteric; a lot less people knew what it was. Plus, there was another distillery called Arcane Distilling in New York,” Seelbach said. “We wanted something the people of Missouri would identify with. Switchgrass is a reference to the environment that you could once see all over Missouri – the prairie switchgrass.”

Switchgrass Spirits will root its craft primarily in darker spirits, specifically whiskey and brandy.

“For us, whiskey is the most American spirit,” Seelbach said. “The darker spirits are what everyone in this company really identifies with, and we’re just whiskey lovers across the board.

“Then brandy, that’s where we’ve really gotten to do some fun experimentation. Brandy products are what we originally took out to investors just to kind of get them on board and get them excited with the more craft-intensive products that we will be coming out with, as well as the rye whiskeys and the bourbon whiskeys that people are more familiar with.”

Distribution for the distillery’s first product, which Seelbach said will remain a secret until January, is set to begin in early February in the greater St. Louis area. Whiskey should be out by mid-2020 and brandy by fall 2020.

Brenna Sullivan is an editorial intern at Sauce Magazine.