Established in 2012
Our history
During a flight to Waco, Texas in 2011 for a work site visit, Robbie Delaney stumbled across an article about how craft spirits were the next beverage boom in the US. At the time, craft beer was having a revival across the country, and Charlotte was no different. Throughout the trip and the months that followed, Robbie couldn't shake the idea of what if.
A dream became reality, but the journey to get here was a long, brutal and oftentimes rewarding adventure that saw us grow from a 500 sq ft warehouse to a 6,100 sq ft old mill shop space and now into a 17,000 sq foot historic mill cotton mill. Though we have experienced an incredible amount of growth, our dedication to our craft and using premium ingredients has not wavered. Read on to learn more about our long strange trip.
2011
After renting 500 square feet of space in an old textile mill, we opened the first rum distillery in the Carolinas roughly 50 yards from the “muddy” Catawba River, which gave Muddy River Distillery its name. Soon, by working on the weekends, we were producing 35 bottles of rum a day in a still named Freedom that we built ourselves.
2013-2015
In 2015, North Carolina passed a law that enabled in distillery bottle sales. 1 bottle per person, per year. (We had to take name and drivers license # to sell a customer the 1 bottle.) This opened a new tourism aspect to the business, increasing sales and allowing the distillery to hire more employees.
2017
We added our newest addition, a 450 gallon still named Independence. Muddy River Distillery was now able to distill 1,200 bottles per day and began to really stockpile barrels for long-term aging up to 20 years. Founders Caroline and Robbie Delaney were recognized as outstanding entrepreneurs with the Montcross Chamber's EPIC Award. EPIC stands for entrepreneurial, progressive, innovative and collaborative.
2018
The Delaneys became a family of 3 having their son, Marty. We won 2 gold medals at the Miami Rum Fest (the largest rum festival in the world). We were also named “Distillery of the Year” at the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association’s Annual Chef Showdown (NC’s premiere culinary and mixology competition). Moreover, North Carolina raised bottle sale limits, allowing distilleries to sell up to 5 bottles per person per year. This more than doubled the in-distillery sales revenue. Muddy River Distillery launched Queen Charlotte’s Reserve 4-year Carolina Rum.
2019-2020
In 2019, North Carolina removed all restrictions for bottle sales doubling the annual tour sales again. Muddy River Distillery hired additional employees to keep up with our growing demand and guide tours. Muddy River entered the international market with exporting products to Canada.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Muddy River Distillery pivoted its focus toward the community with sanitizer production. As the largest distillery in the area, our operation ran 7 days a week producing and bottling hand and surface sanitizer. At a time when sanitizer was hard to come by, Muddy River answered the call from local first responders and health care organizations to meet the immediate need donating nearly 1,000 gallons of sanitizer. Despite the pandemic, Muddy River was able to increase bottled rum sales by 20%.
2021
In 2021, Muddy River Distillery entered its 10th year in business. We experienced a growth of over 30% in sales throughout the year. With increased demand, we grew our staff to support increased production and growing tour attendance. In addition, the company was selected to return to the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association’s Annual Chef Showdown to reclaim its title as “Distillery of the Year.” The Delaneys also welcomed another member to the family, Max. Bursting at the seams, Muddy River began the search for their forever home.
2022
After experiencing year over year growth, navigating through a pandemic, and seeing brighter days ahead, we made the decision to bet on ourselves once again by purchasing a historic cotton mill down river and up a creek. The Mount Holly Cotton Mill is the oldest existing mill still standing in Gaston County, with a history that showed a story of adaptability and perseverance. The 17,000 sq ft building with a parcel of right around 5 acres, overlooking Dutchman's Creek, felt like our destiny. Putting North Carolina's oldest legal distillery in the oldest standing mill was an obvious next step for our history.
2024
On June 22nd, 2024 at 11a we opened the doors to our new home in Mount Holly, NC. After two long years of refurbishing and construction, we gave this 150 year old building a new lease on life, bringing it from mill to still. The new mill distillery provided us the opportunity to expand on the experience we offered our customers by opening our own craft cocktail bar that highlights our Carolina Rum and Queen Charlotte barrel aged rum. We added a canteen kitchen for small bites, a side patio to enjoy Dutchman's Creek, an event space upstairs on the third floor, a back lounge area to enjoy family and friends, a 7,000 sq ft production level, and plenty of room outside to stretch out and run around.
INDEPENDENCE, DEMOCRACy, and LIBERTY
About our stills
Democracy is a custom built hybrid reflux column still. We designed and built this machine in house and it takes a lot of the credit for why our products have such a unique taste. This still has 5 plates and distills to around 90% alcohol. The distillation process takes 1 long day and we collect only the best of the hearts for our products. Liberty is our 3rd production still at 200 gallons. Most of the build for this machine was completed in house. Independence is our 4th and largest still. With a 450 gallon capacity, Independence more than doubled our capacity.
Interested in learning the history of rum? Click here for more information!
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About our process
We start by fermenting the best American ingredients. Once fermentation is complete, we distill in our custom built hybrid reflux column stills. Distillation takes a full day and produces around 1500 bottles a day. Check out the videos below of our bottling process.
