Many St. Mary’s County residents survived during the Great Depression from revenue from stills in the woods behind their homes. Could stills be on their way back? Maybe!
The St. Mary’s County Planning Commission on Monday night held a public hearing on a proposal to make stills, under their more proper name of distilleries, legal for a change. The proposal has the support of St. Mary’s County’s farming community, which sees it as a way to create a home grown market for their grain products.
Robert Copsey, owner of a farm in the Oraville section of Mechanicsville, told the planners he would like to take a crack at making a go of it. “There’s a strong market for it,” he said.
According to St. Mary’s County Zoning Administrator Yvonne Chaillet, the proposal allows for the distilling and bottling of whiskey, but not the sale or tasting, as is allowed for wineries in the county. State law requires whiskey to be sold to a wholesaler and that law would have to be changed to allow direct sale. In addition to overcoming the current zoning prohibition, a prospective distiller would have to secure two permits from the Maryland Comptroller’s Office.
If Copsey succeeds in his quest he would not be the first. Recently a distillery opened on Kent Island on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The distillery called Blackwater Distilling sells a vodka called Sloop Betty.
In additions to the Depression-era stills, George Baroniak of Dameron told the planning commission there is quite a tradition of distilling in St. Mary’s County “All families had a small still and made whiskey for their families,” he testified at the hearing. “We made an excellent rye whiskey here,” he added, noting that the quality of the whiskey depends on the quality of the water used in the distilling processes. Iron in the water makes for bad whiskey.
Other than the prohibition of retail sales and tasting, the language for the zoning proposal is similar to that for wineries, and they would be allowed in the same zones. Commission member Susan McNeill asked Chaillet why breweries weren’t included in a more comprehensive approach that included wineries, distilleries and breweries.
Chaillet said the beer brewing process was different. And, Copsey said he probably would be interested in setting up a brewery because of the cost. Brew pubs, such as the Ruddy Duck in Solomons, are also prohibited in St. Mary’s County.
The only negative comment at the public hearing was from Robert
