As a professor of history, Karl Loewenstein takes a keen interest in details like post-Prohibition government regulations, or the fact that his lakeside home in Oshkosh was once the domicile of sturgeon poachers. “One of the cool things about distilling is that it’s got this long history embedded in American society,” Loewenstein says.
Loewenstein launched Sturgeon Spirits last year with history in mind, but also adding twists of chemistry and culinary science. Almost no combination of flavors is off limits for the entrepreneur, who serves more than 100 infused spirits at any given time at the company’s Oshkosh tasting room. Select bottles are now also being distributed at retail locations, including Festival Foods and Wagner Market in Oshkosh.
“We’re trying to have something new every week,” Loewenstein says of the Sturgeon Spirits tasting room, adding that habanero vodka is among his personal favorites. To date, he says “cake vodka” — made with a real piece of cake — has probably been his least successful experiment.
Loewenstein is proud of his young company’s commitment to sustainability and its use of Wisconsin-made products; artificial flavors almost never work out, he says, especially compared to the local products like pears, plums and cherries that he’s able to source. He is even collaborating with businesses like Sunken Paddle Ciderworks, using its product to make an apple brandy, and Fifth Ward Brewing beer, from which he is producing a unique whiskey.
But for all the innovation happening at Sturgeon Spirits, mushroom gin has been its most talked-about, even earning a nomination to Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s 2023 “Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin” competition.
“That’s the thing that’s been really unique in the world,” Loewenstein says of the earthy concoction that’s quickly earning fans. “If you Google ‘mushroom gin,’ nothing else comes up. We’ve sold quite a bit of it, and you can make some really fun cocktails with it.”
