SHOREHAM, Vt. — Meghan Ireland always loved chemistry, but as a college freshman studying chemical engineering, she didn’t know she could channel her passion for science into the art of making whiskey.
It took stumbling across an article about a female chemical engineer who became a master whiskey distiller for something to click: Ireland’s fellow students could go into plastics and pharmaceuticals — she was going into whiskey.
“It was kind of like a connection of, ‘hey, I can see someone who looks like me, who has the same exact kind of education and background doing this job,’ and kind of opened it up as an option,” said Ireland, now the chief blender behind Vermont-based whiskey brand WhistlePig…