Trio of Twin Cities enthusiasts opening a distillery that specializes in whiskey

Combine a doctor, a lawyer and an engineer and what do you get?

No, not another lame joke.

In the Twin Cities, you get another craft distillery, this one specializing in whiskey.

Copperwing Distillery, scheduled to open in St. Louis Park next month, is the product of a unique trio of professionals. Three years ago, the friends — longtime avid whiskey consumers — watched as the local microdistillery movement began to build momentum.

In the past couple of years, the Twin Cities has welcomed at least a half-dozen distilleries.

If others can do it, they thought, why not us?

Thus the self-taught mission was born.

"We started experimenting."

Last year, Copperwing received its distilling license and began bourbon production.

But being a distillery that specializes in whiskey comes with its challenges, particularly because whiskey has to age much longer than other spirits.

"There is a lot of time involved," Palmisano said. "You don't know what the final flavor profile is going to be. You just take what you've learned from others and you use quality products going in and hope that's enough to create some really good whiskeys."

For the opening of the distillery and 50-seat taproom, planned for February, Palmisano and Co. aim to offer a very young brown spirit, technically a whiskey distilled from bourbon mash. (True bourbons need to age for at least two years to carry the name.) They have a rye and a 100 percent corn whiskey in the works, too. The corn is grown locally on a farm in St. Michael and the wood for the barrels is all Minnesota oak, created by Atlas Barrel in Watertown, Minn., Palmisano said.

"There's certainly a pressure to do something really interesting and unique, but we're going to really focus on making good, quality whiskeys. We're not going to get too fancy, too whimsical," Palmisano said. "Classic whiskeys, that's really our bread and butter."

Copperwing will, however, get a little more creative in the cocktail room, where the company has enlisted the help of Jason Westplate of Big Watt Beverage Co. and Five Watt Coffee.

Palmisano, Idelkope and Kettering are also currently completing the formulas for a handful of vermouths and other specialty liqueurs to use for the mixology.

As for the name?

"We wanted to come up with something that combined the industrial aspects of distilling with the more natural, organic side of things," Palmisano said.

"We're taking something natural — it's really just grain and water," Palmisano said, "and doing something very unnatural to it."