Share this story!

It has been said that age is only a number.

But in the world of beer and wine, the exact number of days, weeks and months a beverage is aged could not be more important. It is an exact science— an equation that yields countless satisfied sips.

An Art and a Science

No one understands the significance of time like former science teachers, wine connoisseurs and Huskie alumni Terrie, ’69, M.S. ’72, and Lex Tuntland, ’68, M.S. ’70, who founded Waterman Winery in Waterman, Illinois.

As with so many quality indulgences, good things come to those who wait at their 12-acre vineyard.

“Our fermentation process occurs naturally and does not require any electricity. We harvest our grapes during the fall and begin fermenting the same day they are picked. During the cool autumn weather, temperatures are just right for natural fermentation.

(L-R): Lex, Terrie and Tricia Tuntland

As the winter becomes colder, the wine naturally chills without electricity,” said Terrie, who manages the daily vineyard operations.

“Slowly chilling the wine allows some of the acids to precipitate out, naturally reducing the acidity of the wine, and giving it balanced flavor. We bottle everything by hand, helping us conserve water and energy along the way. We hand-wash and hand-cork each bottle,” he added.

The vineyard requires a lot of physical activity with pruning, netting, spraying, picking and daily checking of the grapes. Patience is a virtue at Waterman Winery.

“It takes a year from when we get fresh grapes to a finished wine. The harvest, crush and fermentation occur in the fall, the cold stabilization and aging happen during the winter, and the bottling takes place in late winter or spring,” said Lex. “When we open in April, we usually have at least five new wines for our guests to taste. The wines we produce are fresh and fruity.”

While they prefer to sell out of a vintage while it is still lively in flavor, they are aware that some customers prefer dry, red wine. To create that flavor, they barrel-age the wine in a unique process.

“A very small percentage of wine is meant to be aged for a long time,” Terrie noted. “Aged wine is usually kept in oak barrels, but in a barrel, only a small percentage of the oak comes in contact with the wine. For example, we have a dry red wine called PRIME, and to help age it, we place spiral pieces of oak in a stainless steel tank that will come into contact with more of the wine and ensure a more consistent taste.”

Lex often marvels at what the team is able to accomplish with a simple scientific method.

“Some people say wine is mysterious. That aging wine also is mysterious,” she said. “The wine definitely mellows. It tends to change color and perhaps becomes less fruity and less acidic over time. It absorbs flavors from the oak barrel.”

Ryan Weidner

A Tale of Ale

For Pollyanna Brewing Company Co-Founder and CEO Ryan Weidner, ’98, M.B.A. ’12, learning to cultivate signature beer flavors has been years in the making.

“Aging beer in a barrel takes time—at least several months to a couple years— to develop the desired flavor,” Weidner said. “The beer moves in and out of the wood as temperatures and humidity change, and it can’t be rushed. Only time can do the trick.”

Founded in 2012 in Lemont, Illinois, Pollyanna Brewing provides its customers with an intimate experience that goes beyond what’s in their glass. By sharing their knowledge and advancing the culture of craft beer and craft spirits, Pollyanna focuses on creating a relationship between customers and the brewery, brewer, distiller and local community.

Weidner added that barrel-aging imparts the flavor of the spirit that was previously aged in the barrel. It also adds the wood’s character to the beer. So, typically, the wood’s char level determines how much vanilla, coconut, or caramel is passed into the beer. Weidner has fun tweaking recipes and processes to introduce unique characteristics to beer.

“The fact that the process can’t be rushed is appealing because it tells a great story about all the work and patience that goes into making a barrel-aged beer,” he said. “My personal favorite barrel-aged beers are our Orenda line of beers. These are big Belgian beers aged in fruited brandy barrels— grape, cherry, and apple, to name a few. They’re pretty unique to Pollyanna and are unlike anything around.”

An NIU Vintage

“I grew up in a small town, Waterman, in the shadows of NIU on a family farm!” Terrie said. “Agriculture was my early education. I had no idea what I wanted to do, except have fun and continue the family farm. I enrolled at NIU so I could study biology and still work on the farm.”

NIU provided the foundation for Terrie and Lex’s future. They met as lab partners in class.

“Terrie and I met at NIU in organic chemistry lab, as we both were working on achieving minors in chemistry,” Lex said. “He says the fumes got to him, I say it was good chemistry. We dated all through college and became engaged during grad school at NIU. We were married in April of 1970, and we both had to be back in the classroom on Monday for our graduate teaching positions.”

While they embarked on their careers as middle school teachers, each returned to NIU for their master’s degrees in biological sciences. Meanwhile, Terrie always had agriculture as a second career. For 30 years, Terrie tended to livestock before and after teaching school.

Then, in 1998, Terrie and two teacher friends who also enjoyed wine decided to retire in 2002 and to form a corporation. They began to attend workshops and prepare to become a licensed winery, producing grapes on their farm. Terrie and his two partners bought equipment to make and bottle wine. They planted several acres of French American hybrid grapes suitable for Northern Illinois. It took four years until Waterman Winery had a grape harvest, and it opened in December 2002 with 600 bottles of wine to sell.

Today, the vineyard is a sustainable business, it relies on recycling materials and other eco-friendly practices. While many of these practices were put into place in 2002, the winery is constantly improving. Terrie and Lex have a new partner in the business, with their daughter and fellow Huskie Trisha Tuntland, M.B.A. ’15, working as a co-owner and ensuring these principles will continue into the future.

Like Terrie, Weidner grew up in Woodstock as a bit of a farm boy, but also had an industrious spark.

“My dad worked in construction, and my mom stayed home and raised the four of us kids,” he said. “I was a numbers geek, loved math, and was entrepreneurial at a young age, always looking to make money. At 15, my friend and I started a sports card promotions company where we rented out venues and ran card and collectibles shows and did pretty well! I knew at that point I would be involved in some business start-up later in life. I caught that entrepreneurial bug.”

Like the Tuntlands, Weidner’s trajectory shifted when he attended NIU. Weidner put himself through college, spending his first two years at a community college before transferring to NIU as a junior in the business program. Through campus recruiting, he interviewed his senior year with Graybar Electric, and started two weeks after graduation, where he has remained throughout the last 25 years as area financial manager. In 2012, Weidner returned to campus to earn his M.B.A.—a decision that only strengthened his drive to start his own company.

“Getting an M.B.A. was a bucket list item for me for personal development. Returning to NIU was a no-brainer, as they have a great program,” he said.

For Weidner, founding the brewery was a combination of several things converging at once, and earning his M.B.A. provided a catalyst to follow his entrepreneurial dreams and ambitions to start a company.

“While I had minimal craft beer knowledge, I had friends who had gotten into homebrewing, and I was able to learn about the craft and the industry through them,” he said. “We were able to assemble a diverse and talented partner team that could launch and operate a brewery—and this all happened when the craft beer industry was exploding. It was truly the proverbial ‘perfect time and place.’”

Today, Pollyanna Brewing has grown to have four locations, and Weidner’s roots at NIU have led to a partnership that has grown to epic successes.

“Our NIU-branded Kölsch-style beer, Dawgma, has provided a partnership between Pollyanna and the NIU Foundation that has grown to something well beyond what I had originally imagined it could,” he said. “We conjured up the idea over a beer, naturally, nearly five years ago as a way for me, as an alumnus, to connect with my alma mater and give back in some small way.”

From there, Dawgma has grown to be a brand sold in nearly 100 points of distribution throughout Chicagoland, including major grocery and liquor store chains, being served in Huskie Stadium, the Convocation Center and the NIU Student Center, having its own merch line, and even being promoted on NBC Chicago Today in March.

The NIU Foundation’s efforts to get behind and market the co-brand to the 100,000+ NIU alumni that live in the Chicagoland area, many within 5-10 miles of a Pollyanna location, have had a significant impact on growing not only the Dawgma brand, but also the Pollyanna brand as a whole.

“With a portion of every sale of Dawgma going back to the NIU Foundation, I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve collectively accomplished and am excited at what the future holds for the partnership.” Weidner said.

NIU has also collaborated with Waterman Winery along the way, with the university serving its wine at several football pregame events.

“Alumni have been to the vineyard and winery,” Terrie said. “We are working together with sustainability projects in the area, and Lex and I travel with the alumni travel program!”

For Weidner and the Tuntlands, their businesses are about more than just aging tasty beverages.

“We work to create a sense of community, bringing people together through unique experiences, with our offerings—beer, spirits, cocktails, music—as the backdrop,” Weidner said. “Continuing to provide our customers a reliable and consistent offering through different experiences, is the goal, and frankly, it’s what I obsess over.”

After all this time, the Tuntlands have similar sentiment, always investing in their core principles.

“It is all about staying true to our philosophy of responsibly growing and harvesting grapes and handcrafting delicious unique regional wines,” Lex said. “Our passion is at the core of everything we do.”