March 8, 2023
Two entrepreneurs from Wylie and Canton have purchased Herman Marshall Whiskey, the first small-batch distillery to operate in Dallas County since Prohibition.
President Clint Ecord and chief financial officer Ryan Hamar intend to keep the same recipes for the bourbon and rye, and to keep the name Herman Marshall on the bottles.
The company was created by Herman Beckley, the master distiller, in 2010. His stake has been bought out entirely by Ecord and Hamar under the new parent company name, Dry County Distilleries. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“I am proud of the legacy Herman Marshall created across Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, and the role we have played in the renaissance of Texas whiskey,” Beckley says. “Today marks a bold new era for HM.”
Since Herman Marshall launched more than a decade ago, Dallas-Fort Worth has become home to other well-known distilleries like Firestone & Robertson in Fort Worth (which makes the well-known TX blended whiskey) and Western Son, a vodka distillery in Pilot Point.
Hamar says his team wants to “carry on that name, that legacy” from Herman Marshall. The bourbon won a silver medal in 2013 at the American Distilling Institute’s spirits competition and a bronze at the International Whiskey Competition in 2015.
“We’re really going to be able to pump some energy back into it,” Hamar says.
Founder Beckley has moved to California. He returns to Texas regularly to consult with the new distiller, Dan Tolle. They plan to move the headquarters from Garland to Wylie, where Hamar lives.
The move allows the Dry County team to “treat this like a startup distillery — but with shelf space in stores and brand awareness [already built in],” the CFO says.
They’ll feel successful if drinkers can’t tell the difference between the Herman Marshall bourbon on the shelf right now and the bourbon Tolle makes years down the road.
Herman Marshall’s whiskies are aged for at least four years in charred American white oak barrels.
COVID-19 brought challenges upon the Herman Marshall brand, Hamar says, including the shutdown of the distillery for several months. With strict restrictions on distilleries located within Dallas County, Hamar says Herman Marshall’s sales took a hit and they “lost that fire.” Making hand sanitizer was a good thing to do for the community, but it wasn’t lucrative enough.
“I think they needed a little bit more youth and capital,” Hamar says, “and we came in at the right time.”
The distillery will eventually move into a former sports performance facility off of Highway 78 in Wylie. It will use the existing 6,000-square-foot building and build an additional 8,000-square-foot space. Hamar’s vision is to have an indoor-outdoor tasting room with tours.
The new owners don’t intend to build a kitchen; they’ll encourage customers to order from the restaurants nearby — and they’re close enough that neighboring business owners have agreed to walk the food over to the distillery.