History In The Making

History In The Making

We are beyond proud of our 100% Female led Distillery Team.

Breaking from industry norms, WhistlePig’s distillery team is the youngest in the industry. Our young and diverse team is focused on sustainability from Farm-to-bottle and inclusion for a new generation of whiskey makers and drinkers.

We’re excited to see history in the making each and every single day as our badass distillers and blenders innovate the future of Whiskey.

Emily Harrison, Head Distiller: Emily grew up in Kentucky where bourbon is a way of life and everyone knows (and loves) their local moonshiner. After graduating University of Louisville with a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Emily knew she wanted to make whiskey for a living. She started out in Kentucky’s large bourbon distilleries but quickly discovered craft whiskey was her true passion. Emily spends her days leading a young, innovative team that operates the distillery at WhistlePig Farm. This includes creating crop plans with WhistlePig’s farmer, checking quality of the mash ingredients and distilled whiskey, and creating schedules for mashing and distillation. Her favorite parts of her day include finding new ways to make our Farm more sustainable, hanging out with Mortimer Jr.r., WhistlePig’s Chief Pig, and distilling the finest and most interesting whiskey in the world.

Meghan Ireland, Chief Blender: After finding her love for chemistry in high school, Meghan went on to earn her Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University. During her Freshman year she read an article in Whisky Advocate about a female Chemical Engineer turned Master Distiller, and knew that she also wanted to get into the spirits industry. Soon after college, Meghan started in craft hard cider, then made the switch to whiskey in 2018, joining WhistlePig. Meghan is in charge of quality at WhistlePig, ensuring with careful testing and tasting that the whiskey maintains its award-winning taste. She also directs the whiskey from barrel to bottle, and manages samples for WhistlePig’s robust Single Barrel program – a treasure trove of cask strength whiskeys and experimental finishes that serve to incubate future WhistlePig innovation.

Liz Rhoades, Head of Whiskey Development: Liz is a technical distiller and self-proclaimed right-brained scientist with over a decade’s experience in the alcoholic beverage industry. Although she has worked across categories, whiskey is her passion, with experience in large established and start-up brands and operations.

Haven grown up in a sea of cereal fields in Central Illinois, one of her favorite things about whiskey is that it’s rooted in agriculture (pun intended), which makes WhistlePig such a natural fit.  Liz spends her days supporting the team on a variety of initiatives – from grain quality, to distillation and blending operations, to developing the next super innovative WhistlePig liquid!

Helping to advance the spirit industry, Liz has presented at several industry conferences, co-hosts a weekly whiskey webinar through Zavvy.co, and on occasion, pens technical articles for various publications.

Liz holds her Diploma Distiller from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and a M.S. in Food and Fermentation Science from North Carolina State University.

Outside of making, thinking, talking, and writing about spirits, she enjoys yoga and Boulevardiers – but typically not at the same time.

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