From John Casper to the Brady Brothers-Roanoke has its own distillery after more than a century

Brady Distillery is a family businessPhoto byYoutube screenshot

Roanoke has it's own distillery again

In case you didn't know the Star City once again has it's own distillery after more than a century without one. The Brady Brothers — Tim, Brian, and Andy have revived a tradition that Roanoke hasn’t seen in more than 100 years. In the 1900s after North Carolina went dry John Casper Distilling which sold alcoholic beverages via mailorder came to the "Noke." Casper was only in the area for a few years and left before prohibition went into effect.

The Brady Brothers began their business in 2020 but COVID-19 slowed things down. Brady's Distillery is located at Pocahontas Ave NE Roanoke between Williamson and Plantation roads. Tim Brady told the Roanoke Rambler “We wanted to respect that heritage of Southwest Virginia, but we knew we didn’t want to go down the path of being legal moonshiners.”

The Brady Brothers offer something unique

The Brady version of corn whiskey is a Solara whiskey called Accomplice. It does not, however, go straight from a still into a Mason jar in a few days but is aged for several years. Solara is "a traditional method the Spanish used to age their Sherry and keep it consistent". The Brady's partnered with Midwest Grain Products in Indiana to source their vodka. Tim says this gave them a "finer six-times distilled vodka and he would put the product up against any major brand".