If you’ve been to a local liquor store in the past 20 years, you’ve almost certainly run into spirits created by Journeyman Distillery. Since 2009, Journeyman, helmed by owner Bill Welter, has been producing award-winning whiskey, gin, vodka, and other boozy delights, first from its facility in Three Oaks, Michigan, and now from its new (and massive) complex in Valparaiso, Indiana. The Valpo location isn’t just a gorgeous spot to sip on some liquor; it also has a full restaurant and, as of a couple of months ago, a new brewery, Sea of Monsters. I sat down with Welter to talk about Journeyman’s, well, journey to its new facility and what’s going on with the acclaimed brand.

After college, Welter went straight to work for his family business (a small bank in Valparaiso), and expected to spend his days there. But after the bank was unexpectedly sold, he connected with an old friend in Tasmania who had just started a distillery. Welter was immediately hooked on the idea and started learning to make whiskey — initially out of Koval Distillery’s facility in Chicago. He established Journeyman Distillery’s first facility in Three Oaks, Michigan, in a corner of a gorgeous old factory. Despite Journeyman’s current success, it wasn’t an easy start.

“In Three Oaks in 2009, hardly anyone knew what distilling was,” laughs Welter. “Most of the people who walked in the door at that time asked us what kind of beer we had. We would get a lot of people who would slowly drive by the door. Eventually my wife started chasing people down saying we were open.”

Fast forward 15 years, and Journeyman now has a much larger portion of that building in Three Oaks, which houses a restaurant, bar, several stills, and multiple event spaces. The distillery was regularly earning awards for the best craft whiskies in America and, at the same time, was hitting the limits of its distilling capacity. That meant it was time to expand.

Welter’s family was from Indiana, and he actually wanted to open the original Journeyman in Valpo; but back in 2009, craft distilling wasn’t legal in Indiana. Craft distilling is now much more commonplace, and when Journeyman was ready to expand, Indiana was a logical destination.

“I felt deep in my heart I needed to go back to Valpo and do this,” Welter says. “Journeyman is an extension of what my dad and my grandpa created in Valpo. It’s a direct part of their ideals in creating a long-term family business.”

Journeyman’s Valpo location is a showpiece of industrial restoration. Welter and his team took over an old industrial site that had been vacant since the 1980s (and was both an eyesore and an environmental disaster) and turned it into one of the most impressive spaces I’ve ever visited. Journeyman’s “American Factory” has a huge retail space, a restaurant (Union Hall), tours, tastings, event spaces, and a brewery, Sea of Monsters, helmed by brewer Greg Winget.

Welter wanted to build a brewery for a long time in Michigan. “There is so much demand and calls for beer, even though we’re a distillery,” he explains. Unfortunately, the infrastructure in Three Oaks is somewhat limited, and after much discussion, the town turned down the request to build a brewery. Luckily, in Valpo, Journeyman built the entire site and infrastructure from the ground up, and designed a brewery into the plans. It didn’t open with the distillery (such a huge project had to move in phases), but now it’s up and running, with a cute small pub space off the main dining room and a full lineup of beers.

Even though the Valpo location has been open since last fall, they just started distilling spirits there for the first time this week. Welter is most excited about making rye (a staple of the Journeyman lineup) in Indiana, since the state just created a special designation for Indiana Rye, which has to be distilled locally and aged in Indiana for at least two years.

Valpo has embraced the new distillery, with locals returning regularly and the restaurant starting to fill up. Chicagoans should consider adding the spot to their road trip list, especially as an autumn destination.

“We hope that people in Chicago will learn that there’s a really cool town and a really cool distillery just slightly southeast of them, not even a 45-minute drive away,” Welter says.