Distillery Plans to Locate in Burr Business Park in Jefferson County

March 30, 2020

Shenandoah Valley Holdings, LLC, has purchased a lot in the Burr Business Park in Kearneysville, W.Va., and plans to construct a distillery and conduct distillery-related activities.

The Jefferson County Development Authority recently sold a 2.5-acre lot in the business park to Wylie McDade and Brain Halbert of Shenandoah Valley Holdings, LLC. McDade and Halbert plan to build a 4,000-square-foot facility to be known as Devil’s Due Distillery for the production and distribution of alcohol. The facility will also include a storefront and retail center. In addition, Devil’s Due Distillery will offer distillery tours, tastings and occasionally host educational events to promote the distilling industry.

Construction of Devil’s Due Distillery is expected to start April 2020 and is expected to take approximately 6 months to complete. Following the model of several other craft distilleries in the region they expect to hire 1-2 people per year during the first ten years.

Both McDade and Halbert hail from the local area, growing up near Purcellville, Va. Wylie is a 24-year U.S. Navy veteran and Brian has worked in information systems for more than 25 years. “After several years of dreaming, researching, and planning, we are finally set to open a craft distillery where we can focus on creating traditional, small batch, grain-to-bottle bourbons, whiskeys, and seasonal spirits and liquors,” McDade said.

Devil’s Due Distillery intends to produce spirits from local and regionally sourced ingredients and to be a good neighbor. “We would like to bring as much opportunity to Jefferson County and the surrounding areas as possible. Devil’s Due Distillery will place great emphasis on trying to obtain high quality, locally sourced ingredients and materials to be used in our products,” he said. “To bring things full circle, we’ll be looking to minimize our waste by re-purposing our spent grain mash, which is still very high in protein, into livestock feed and fertilizer that we intend to make available to local farmers.”

As a business, Devil’s Due Distillery is excited to be moving into Jefferson County. After years of planning and extensive searching in the tri-state area, we found Jefferson County too good to pass up,” McDade added. “Everyone, from The Bank of Charles Town, the County Commission, the Jefferson County Development Authority, and the dozens of local officials, contractors, insurers, and businesses with whom we have interacted have been incredibly welcoming and helpful. In fact, nearly everyone we talk to seems as excited as we are to have Devil’s Due coming to the neighborhood. We look forward to meeting everyone and having people come out to our facility to learn about our operations, take tours, check out our latest merchandise, try our latest products, and maybe buy a bottle of your favorite Jefferson County Spirit.”  

“We’re excited that Wylie and Brian decided to move to Jefferson County and chose the Burr Business Park as the location for their new business. Devil’s Due Distillery will support both our agricultural and tourism industries here in Jefferson County,” said Lyn Goodwin, interim director of the Jefferson County Development Authority.

Plans are to purchase as much of the agricultural products that are used in the production phase of the in-house whiskey from within Jefferson County and West Virginia, according to McDade. Devil’s Due Distillery also hopes the creation of its tasting room will serve as a destination for tourists coming to Jefferson County.

For more information about plans for Devil’s Due Distillery, look for the company’s  Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/DevilsDueDistillery