The sprawling 29-acre property that makes up Song Dog Farm Distillery in Boyds was nearly a decade in the making for a Jewish couple with a dream.
Up a gravel driveway off Route 28, the kosher distillery is part tasting room, part production facility and part sorghum crops. Song Dog sells bourbon, rye whiskey, vodka, gin, liqueurs and ready-to-pour cocktails.
A majority of their ingredients are sourced locally, according to co-founders David Harris and Megan Draheim, with the goal of honoring rye as Maryland’s whiskey. They work with a farmer on the opposite side of Montgomery County to grow their red corn and rye grain. Their barley comes from a malthouse in Carroll County. Their wheat is sourced regionally in the Mid-Atlantic, and Harris said he and Draheim will begin sourcing their wheat closer to home in Montgomery County.
“We’re a big believer in local flavor,” Harris said.
Inside the 45-seat tasting room, a large glass panel allows visitors to see a room full of distillery machinery. Rye and bourbon age in custom oak barrels featuring many different levels of char and infrared toast, which imparts a unique flavor into the spirit.
“We hope that people feel like they’re at the intersection of the magic of distillation that’s happening right there and the beauty of American agriculture that’s surrounding us,” Harris said. “We want people to know that they’re not just in a bar.”
The distillery opened its doors in October 2025, but it had been in the works for a decade. Washington, D.C., residents Harris and Draheim formed Song Dog Spirits as an LLC in 2015 and secured a building in Rockville in 2017. At the time, Montgomery County had yet to allow licenses for farm distillery alcohol production. After a few years of engineering, architecture and other work, they had completed the permitting stage, but were sidelined by the pandemic just before construction began in Rockville.
“For several months, we didn’t know what to do,” Harris recalled, adding he had all the equipment, but nowhere to put it.
The co-founders had long been interested in spirits, touring distilleries across the country and world. They began with scotch, then branched into American whiskey and “fell in love with it,” according to Draheim.
Harris and Draheim were not yet part of the food and restaurant industry. Draheim, a conservation ecologist, was teaching at Virginia Tech, and Harris worked in Jewish communal politics.
“The joke is that politics drives you to alcohol,” Harris quipped. “I enjoyed it. I felt like I made a great difference, but I felt that 20 years was plenty, so I was honestly casting about for the next thing to do.”
All production at Song Dog is certified kosher by the Chicago Rabbinical Council, a nod to both co-founders’ roots in that city. While observant Jews would be hard-pressed to find vodka that’s not kosher, other items, such as rock and rye — traditionally a spicy rye whiskey with rock candy — and coffee liqueur contain many ingredients that are often non-kosher elsewhere.
Kosher versions of both these spirits and more line the shelves in the tasting room. Song Dog’s rock and rye is their own rye whiskey flavored with cherries, spices and sugar, according to Harris.
No food or drink is permitted in the production room in order to keep the facility kosher. These regulations aren’t difficult, Harris said, because the federal and state governments already require precise regulations and public laws regarding production.
The kosher certification is important to the couple, who belong to Adas Israel Congregation and send their daughter to Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School.
The distillery is an extension of Draheim and Harris’ kosher home.
“I think that was part of our thinking about creating kosher spirits,” Harris said. “We did this for us. We didn’t do this as a market play, thinking we should market to [Jewish people who keep kosher].
“We did this because … the concept of trying to stretch ourselves and see if we could do everything kosher is exciting to us. It was for us, and we’re incredibly humbled and thrilled to see that a lot of people actually care.”
He spoke to the “great support” the business has already seen within Montgomery County’s Jewish community. Local alcohol and beverage stores have added Song Dog spirits to their kosher sections.
“It’s been great to see people looking there for our products,” Harris said. “I’ve found it tremendously gratifying to see our spirits crop up at the simchas and weddings and anniversaries of our friends and our friends’ friends and our friends’ families. There’s nothing better than to see people responsibly using our product to magnify a wonderful, happy occasion. To see that in the Jewish community uniquely is especially special.”
He reiterated that he and Draheim didn’t pursue kashrut with an eye toward turning additional profit: “We thought that the payoff was personal and that it was meaningful for us to see a kosher stamp on our bottle.”
Community members celebrate with Song Dog spirits at outside events, but Harris and Draheim also get to witness the joy. The two host year-round gatherings, tours and tastings, farm stands and more.
“In the tasting room, we’ve had an engagement, we have birthday parties, we had a wedding brunch not long ago, and then just the everyday good times too — just having friends come in, be together and enjoy the evening,” Draheim said. “That’s been this sort of unexpected delight that’s become much more meaningful to us than I think either of us thought it would.”
Their products have also gained recognition in national competitions. Song Dog took home five medals in the 2026 American Craft Spirits Awards, including one gold for its straight rye whiskey.
The Boyds distillery won a silver medal for its straight bourbon whiskey at the American Craft Spirits Association’s 2025 Heartland Whiskey Competition and four silver medals at the inaugural Kosher Spirits Awards for its gin, amaro, elderflower liqueur and orange liqueur.
“It’s still a little surreal,” Harris said of Song Dog’s success.
The couple said they look forward to soon selling their products in D.C. and Baltimore, and directly to consumers online.
“We’re hoping eventually to have an orchard here, so we can make brandy and pour some of our botanicals here,” Draheim said. “We have big plans for the farm in the future.”
zbell@midatlanticmedia.com
