UCM alumni Jesse, Kenny and Beth Dale share the fruits of their labor at Dale Hollow Winery.
In the summer months, the Lake of the Ozarks is swarming with recreational tourists and vacationers. Those seeking the Missouri wine country experience can follow the Lake of the Ozarks Wine Trail, one of 11 such trails across the state, to the city of Stover. With a population of just over 1,000, it’s a short 30- to 40-minute day trip from either side of the lake.
Down in the Hollow
Tucked away at the far side of town is Dale Hollow Winery, built on the site of the farm where UCM alumnus Kenny Dale, ’80, grew up. Instead of hay, there are now 3,000 vines of eight grape varieties lining 15 acres.
The label of Storybook Red, one of Dale Hollow’s semi-sweet wines, best tells the story of this UCM legacy family. A drawing of a tractor hauling bales of golden hay is framed by grape vines bursting with ripe purple fruit, depicting the family’s past and future. This and all of the wines’ labels were created by Kenny’s wife, Beth, who earned her master’s from then-CMSU’s College of Education in 1997.
Beth also inspired the winery’s name with something she told her sons, Asher and Jesse, when they were children playing in the wooded hollow near their home.
“Instead of moving away when we grew up, my mom thought we could just both put little houses up next door in Dale Hollow,” Jesse recalls, noting that Beth is very happy now to have her sons back in Stover.
After earning his bachelor’s from UCM in Business Administration–Finance in 2009, followed by an MBA in 2010, Jesse met his wife, Katy, when they were both working as bank examiners at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). While honeymooning in Italy, they fell in love with wine, and the seed was planted for a new business venture. In 2012 the couple persuaded Asher and his wife, Ana, to partner with them on starting a winery in the “hollow.”
At UCM, Asher had majored in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. After graduating in 2008, he worked in marine fisheries for the Department of Natural Resources in South Carolina. That science foundation was a perfect complement to Jesse and Katy’s business skills and entrepreneurial spirit. They started by planting around 1,000 vines in 2012 and opened a tasting room in 2016. Three years later, their Concord wine won the gold medal for the sweet red category in the Missouri Wine Competition.
Brothers Jesse and Asher work together in the vineyards and the mixing room.
Dale Hollow is a family affair, but in certain seasons it takes a village. Beth is grateful for neighbors and friends who turn out in the dozens on designated pruning, harvesting and bottling days.
“You build these friendships with people who want you to succeed,” Beth says of her community, which has no shortage of wineries or UCM alumni. Jerrilyn Monroe, ’84, opened Timber Ridge Winery in Stover in early 2021.
In addition to local meat and cheese, the tasting rooms at both Dale Hollow and Timber Ridge feature beer on tap from Welpman Springs Brewing Company, located just outside of Stover and owned by another UCM legacy family.
Across the Ponds
Around the same time Jesse and Katy were setting out on their winemaking venture, another young UCM alumni couple was starting Welpman Springs Brewing Company.
Leslie, ’07, ’09, and Bryan, ’09, Welpman live on land that has been in the family for nearly a century. It was purchased by Bryan’s great-grandfather, Henry Kasper “H.K.” Welpman, at a dollar an acre back in 1929. H.K. was a first-generation German immigrant, born in Wassenberg in 1876, who attended UCM when it was known as Normal School No. 2. His first business enterprise was a fishing camp he established at Gravois Mills in 1927, with the expectation it would become a destination once the Lake of the Ozarks was created. He was a few years early, however, and ran out of money waiting for Bagnell Dam to be built.
Undeterred, H.K. found another site with a natural spring, which was along the Rock Island railroad line. After opening a dry goods store, he saved enough money to purchase the spring and the surrounding 120 acres to build the Missouri Goldfish Hatchery. The hatchery has since evolved from ornamental goldfish to golden shiners sold as fishing bait, but the work has stayed in the family.
Leslie, who earned her bachelor’s in Management from UCM, followed by an MBA, draws inspiration for the brewery from the Welpman family history. During the Great Depression, men with mule teams were hired to help build a levee on the property. This inspired Pete & Jack Double Pull, a double IPA featuring two mules on the label pulling a slip scoot, a tool used in excavating many of the property’s original ponds. Lore has it, the men who had mules were paid 25 cents more than those with horses.
Randy Welpman, ’75, was a sophomore majoring in Criminal Justice Administration at UCM when his father, Carol Welpman, and business partner, Albert Fajen, offered to sell him the controlling share of the company. He credits his sons, Bryan and Daniel, ’07, both UCM Agriculture Business graduates, for continuing their relationship with the business and the land.
“Agriculture ties into the brewing industry,” Bryan says. “There’s a whole lot of crossover in barley and hops and how growing conditions can affect the product.”
Daniel can often be found digging out the ponds — this time with a CAT — to provide more surface area for growth and easier fish management. The pure spring water is sourced at a depth of 1,500 feet below uncontaminated land that has never been used to grow crops or raise livestock. The family previously sold this water to be bottled, and it is now used in every brew the Welpmans develop.
Welpman Gold Ration American Wheat Ale consists of nearly 75% wheat, comparable to the feed ration used to raise golden shiner at the hatchery. “If fish could drink beer,” the label boasts, “we like to think this would be their beer of choice.”
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