Deacon Giles Distillery sits in a converted historic mill building on Canal Street in downtown Salem, making it Massachusetts’ first rum distillery since the colonial era. Founded in 2012 by Yuseff Cherney, a former software engineer who left his tech career to revive Salem’s centuries-old rum-making tradition, the distillery opened to the public in 2014 after two years of planning and permitting battles. Cherney chose Salem specifically for its deep maritime history – this was once America’s rum capital, with dozens of distilleries operating here in the 1700s before Prohibition wiped them out. The 2,500-square-foot facility houses a custom-built 250-gallon copper pot still named “Maggie” and focuses exclusively on small-batch rum production using blackstrap molasses sourced from Louisiana sugar mills. The operation produces about 1,000 cases annually, with Cherney handling most of the distilling himself alongside a small team of part-time helpers. What started as one man’s obsession with recreating historical Salem rum recipes has grown into a legitimate revival of the city’s most famous industry, complete with tours that blend distilling education with local maritime history.
