Our team

Over the course of the last 12 years we have persevered as a small family owned business through recessions, pandemics, and sluggish markets all thanks to our family, friends, and loyal employees. It has truly taken a village to bring this dream to life and we are eternally grateful for every contribution along the way. Today our distillery team is larger than it has ever been now that we have a fully staffed bar, kitchen, and event space. Every one of them is a big part of our story and we love everyone that comes in and plays a part in our customers' experience.

Family owned

the delaneys

Our story starts the way it does for most entrepreneurial leaps of faith: we left jobs that were unfulfilling to follow our passion. Our passion is distilling rum. Our early days of research and development triggered an obsession to create a fine spirit that we were proud of, and one that others would enjoy. Once we nailed down our first recipe, we knew we were on to something. All that was left was finding a way to bring it to the masses.

In 2011, after renting 500 square feet of space in an old textile mill that we found on Craigslist (seriously), we opened the first rum distillery in North Carolina 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. We were pretty proud of that.

However, by 2013 our little pet project had grown by leaps and bounds. This is when we were forced to make the daring transition from our day jobs to a full-time dynamic duo. Muddy River Distillery renovated a previously unusable 6,100-square foot space in the same mill and designed two new cutting-edge stills called Liberty and Democracy. In 2017 we added our newest addition, a 450 gallon still named Independence.

As growth increased, we decided to take another leap of faith. Our newest property, the Historic Mount Holly Cotton Mill has plans to be completely restored, returning to a manufacturing building for our rum. Featuring a massive cocktail bar and plenty of event space, we are excited to be able to connect with locals and tourists alike while producing our Carolina Rum on an even larger scale.

From the reclaimed distillery floors to the custom-built stills to the handcraft rum recipes, we've built Muddy River Distillery from the ground up. Without the help of our friends and family this wouldn't have been possible. There are no investors, no trust funds, no sugar daddies. Still, our greatest point of pride is the superior quality of our product, which we believe is the best damn rum you'll ever taste.

Cheers!