UnCapped: Devil's Due Distillery in Kearneysville, W.Va.
Feb. 1—In this episode of the UnCapped podcast, host Chris Sands talks with Wylie McDade and Brian Halbert, cofounders of Devil's Due Distillery in Kearneysville, West Virginia, about the history of the distillery and what they have planned for the future. Here is an excerpt of their talk.
UnCapped: What brought you to open a distillery?
Wylie McDade: We both came from other careers. I was in the Navy for 25 years. Brian was in the private sector for that long, doing his thing. We were both on the retirement track but wanted to manufacture something. Whenever we talked about it, we always seemed to have a glass of bourbon in our hands, so I think we discussed [distilling whiskey] one day and said "what if" — and it went from there. We got a little still, gave it a try to see if we could do it, and then we scaled it up.
UnCapped: What timeframe was that? How long ago was the seed planted?
Brian Halbert: Probably seven or eight years ago, at this point, although that time has flown by, so it's hard to keep track.
UnCapped: That was before craft distilleries really took off.
Halbert: Yeah, and part of me wishes we'd gotten in sooner, but we benefited from coming in a little bit later, because all the micro-distilleries have paved the way, as far as legislation goes and fixing the broken alcohol laws in various states.
UnCapped: I think for craft beer, it was beneficial to be in earlier. One thing that's been said to me by multiple craft distilleries is it's a very different dynamic, because your competition isn't making inferior products. Breweries were going up against large breweries that didn't necessarily have the best flavor, but the humongous distilleries are making amazing products, so your competition is much harder to break into. Having craft distilleries paving the way probably was to your benefit.
Halbert: Yeah, and I think the competition between small distilleries is fairly minimal. All the distillers we've talked to have been very helpful, and we return the favor to other people that come to us. We really were fighting for the market share of Jim Beam and those guys.
McDade: It works to our advantage, in some ways, to find a distinction between much larger distilleries. Of course they make wonderful products, and we make products that fall into that category, but [ours are] different, and they're different or a lot of reasons.
For most small distilleries, because of the way we make whiskey, there are inconsistencies, whereas, you go to a large distillery, there's never any inconsistency. The product always tastes the same.
We create flavors and tastes that you can't get anywhere else. It's a niche. That's the backbone of our business.
UnCapped: I would think, too, when people are buying a bottle of Weller or Buffalo Trace or Jack Daniels, they're expecting it to taste exactly like the last time they had it, so [the distilleries] are not able to play around with flavors the way you're able to. But the craft world has shifted to "I want to try something different."
Halbert: Absolutely. Our batches are one or two barrels, so depending on the season the mash was made and when it was distilled, there's gonna be variance. I think it's fun, because you get to really delve into what causes certain flavors and things like that.
UnCapped: So how long did it take from that drunken idea — my words, not yours — to opening the distillery.
McDade: We started buying books, reading about other people's experiences, hit the road quite a few times together to meet other distillers to get a basic understanding of the business. The vast majority of distillers are amazingly welcome. We've got a lot of friends in the business. I think the common thread is we're all basically the same kind of people — there's a lot of adventure in this, it's a lot of fun — so usually people will open up to you and tell you anything you want to know. That really helped us build the initial vision of the place. Then we started a little bit of experimentation.
Halbert: Yeah, and primarily, we were waiting for him to retire from the Navy.
This excerpt has been edited for space and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at fnppodcasts.com/uncapped. Got UnCapped news? Email csands@newspost.com.
