Construction

When we set out to start a distillery in Boston, our primary concern was the quality of our molasses and wheat, and the caliber of the copper pot still. Digging floor drains and test driving used forklifts was not part of the agenda. All that changed when our 2,400-pound steam boiler arrived from Virginia at 6:00 am on a recent Monday morning. With no way to get the behemoth off the truck, we were forced to search the city for a forklift. Many thanks to Matt O’Teri for lending a hand before the fed-up truck driver decided to head south with our cargo. After breathing a sigh of relief, and with the understanding that unloading 55 gallon drums of molasses with our bare hands is probably not feasible, we raced out to pick up a 1985 Nissan forklift – Will’s Subaru is no longer the ugly duckling of the family. In the next couple weeks we’ll welcome the arrival of the distilling equipment from Germany, wheat from Maine, and molasses from Baltimore. In the meantime, we’ve been working hard to get our warehouse ready - installing floor drains, plumbing, and electricity. We recently got a sneak peek of the distilling equipment, which was built in Germany. We’ve included the pictures below. Stay tuned for more updates.

At Long Last: State Permit

The biggest difference between a micro-distillery and a micro-brewery, besides what they make, is the permit. You can basically open a micro-brewery in your kitchen, but when it comes to distilled spirits the government gets very touchy. Getting ready to file our initial application felt a bit like sitting at base camp getting ready to climb Mount Everest: You can see the peak , but the mere thought of the journey makes you want to weep (full disclosure: I have never climbed Mount Everest). And so it was with a shrug of the shoulders and a shared look of “what do we have to lose” that we mailed off our package of paperwork. Preparing college applications paled in comparison to the blood, sweat, and tears we put into these documents. We could only hope the extra effort paid greater dividends than those personal essays and rosy faculty testimonials. Well I am happy to report that after much hand wringing and restless nights our hard work has paid off; we recently received our state “License to Manufacture Distilled Spirits.” All that remains is the arrival of our equipment and the interior finishing of our space, which means we’re still on target for an official opening later this fall. Hope all are enjoying their summer!!

– The Bully Boys

Creating the “Wash:” A Critical First Step

The most critical part of baking a loaf of bread is not the actual baking; it’s mixing the batter. The same holds true for distilling: The most critical part of making a clean spirit is not the actual distillation; it’s mixing the “wash.” The wash is the combination of distillate (i.e., grain, fruit, or molasses), enzymes, water, nutrients and yeast that is the starting point of all spirits. Simply stated, it is the stage in the spirit’s development when starch is converted to sugar and sugar is transformed into alcohol. Without a properly constituted wash, distilling a superb spirit becomes infinitely more difficult.

Making a quality wash requires plenty of TLC. The wash needs to be aerated, it needs to be fed plenty of nutrients, and it needs to cultivate in a temperate environment. It’s a living organism with very specific needs. If the yeast, which is a critical component of the wash, is too hot, it will create nasty-tasting byproducts like Amyl Acetate and Ethyl Acetate. If it’s too cold, it will be sluggish and competing bacteria could develop. If the wash lacks oxygen or doesn’t have enough nitrogen, the yeast won’t multiply. There are myriad issues that can ruin a wash, and over the course of the three days it takes to ferment, the wash requires constant attention.

For the past month, Will and I have been refining our wash recipes in preparation for the still’s arrival in August. We’ve been choosing between grains (organic winter rye or organic wheat?), molasses (blackstrap or golden?), yeasts (baker’s yeast or champagne yeast?), nutrients, and water sources in an effort to construct a wash free of impurities. The philosophy guiding all of the decisions is a basic one: If you skimp on what goes into your wash, you’re going to end up with an inferior product.

Rum, the Ozarks, and Copper Run

The whiskey movement is taking the country by storm, but it’s the other dark spirit that tugs at our heart strings. In addition to being the original American spirit, rum has a sweetness, complexity, and mystique that is often overlooked and underappreciated. When the idea for Bully Boy Distillers was hatched, we made a commitment to craft truly delicious rum. It was this mandate that brought us to Copper Run Distillery, a remote outpost in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Copper Run is operated by Jim Branson, a lifelong brewer who uses techniques handed down from the old Cognac distillers. It’s Jim’s unique approach to rum and whiskey production that sets his products apart, and it’s Jim’s singular dedication to producing insanely delicious rum that brought us to the Ozarks.

After hopping a puddle-jumper in Memphis, we landed in Springfield Missouri, the nicest, most empty airport in America. I have to imagine Jim was a touch unnerved when an oversized, white mini-van (a free “upgrade” from Hertz) pulled up in front of his house, but Jim met Will and I with an enthusiastic handshake. We immediately began working on Jim’s 150 gallon pot-still, which is pictured below. One of the techniques that creates Jim’s unique rum is his use of traditionally discarded “heads” and “tails,” collectively called “feints,” to add complexity and character to his spirits. The “feints” are analogous to marbling in a good steak; their absence can lead to a bland, soulless product, but you have to know what to keep and what to eliminate. The line between a sweet, full-bodied rum and one that smells like Will’s dog Foggy is a fine one, and we spent countless hours learning how to walk that line.

Another critical component of any dark rum is the aging process, which over time eliminates harsh congeners that can make your rum taste like, well, Bacardi. Rum is typically aged in used wine barrels, but there are myriad decisions about the variety of cask and duration of aging that can have a dramatic effect on taste and hue. After waxing poetic about rums we enjoy and rums we loathe, we decided upon a plan of attack for aging our rums. Without giving away too many recipe secrets, when we launch, fans of Bully Boy can look forward to a white rum and an aged dark rum to follow. Alongside the rums, we’ll also be aging a wheat-based whiskey, which will accompany the introduction of un-aged “moonshine” whiskey. We’re especially excited about our white rum. Unfortunately, the taste of most white rums has been hollowed out by large-scale production techniques (Most of the white rums on the market are essentially glorified vodka products). Our white rum will have a taste profile more similar to dark rum, but it will mix beautifully, elevating the taste of traditional drinks like the “Mojito.”

Check out the pictures of Dave and Will in Missouri below.

The Liquor Landscape: Industrialized vs. Craft Distilling

No one likes to think about the mass produced nature of the liquid they are pouring into their tumbler but since the end of prohibition, large conglomerates have controlled the liquor industry. In 2009, companies like Diageo, Bacardi, and Beam Global Spirits accounted for roughly 80 percent of all liquor sales in the United States. Consolidation is even more apparent within individual market segments. For instance, Bacardi brand rum accounts for 43 percent of all rum sales in the United States, while Captain Morgan rum accounts for another 22 percent of rum sales. Given that a handful of manufacturers account for such a disproportionate percentage of liquor sales, it also stands to reason that a handful of companies are responsible for distilling a disproportionate amount of the liquor produced in the U.S.

Industrialized Distilling: The Continuous Column Still

Manufacturing nine million cases, which was Bacardi’s output in 2009, requires a very big still. Enter the Continuous Column Still, the 800 pound gorilla of the distilled spirits industry. Invented in 1826 by Robert Stein in Scotland and improved and patented in 1831 by Irishman Aeneas Coffey, a Continuous Column Still commonly has a fractioning column that stands about 100 feet high. The still runs 24 hours a day for months at a time, producing millions of gallons of liquor. Continuous Column manufacturing is the liquor industry’s dirty little secret. Much of the liquor produced by these monolithic stills is purchased on the cheap by smaller brands, rebottled, and then marketed as a premium, craft-distilled spirit. Consumers are lured into believing they are buying a product of higher quality by buzz-words like “triple distilled” and “charcoal filtered.” The reality is they are buying the same product being sold by well-known, cheaper brand names found on the shelves of most liquor stores. While not illegal, this practice is certainly a disingenuous way of doing business, and is antithetical to the artisan credo of distilling.

Artisanal Distilling Takes Hold

In an ironic twist, the craft-distilling movement owes its success in large part to major brands like Grey Goose, Belvedere, and Kettel One, which established the high-end spirits market in the late 1990s. With the introduction of premium price-points, the economics of craft-distilling began to make sense. The movement was supercharged in the early 2000s by two major developments: One, states around the country began easing legislative barriers to entry, allowing qualifying distilleries to conduct tastings and sell directly to the consumer. The second development was a shift in consumer taste towards local, artisanal goods. As higher price-points, less-stringent laws, and the artisanal movement coalesced in the mid-2000s, small-scale distilling burgeoned. In 2000, there were less than ten craft-distilleries in the U.S. In 2010, there are roughly 184. The movement, however, is still in its infancy. Craft-distilleries account for less than one percent of U.S. liquor sales. Bully Boy Distillers is honored to be a part of the transformation of homogenized liquor production into a more regional, quality driven marketplace. As Boston’s first craft distillery, we look forward to providing consumers with a product that is truly handmade.

Pictured Above: An Industrial Column Still

The Still: It’s all about Copper

Hello again from Bully Boy Distillers. As we mentioned in the last blog entry, we’ve ordered a six hundred liter, Artisan Pot Still. The still is being hand-crafted by Kothe Distilling Technologies in Germany, and it will make its journey across the Atlantic sometime in late August. The still is constructed almost entirely of copper, a material that plays a critical role in the distilling process. To understand why, you need to know something about how spirits are manufactured. Let’s start from the beginning.

The first step in manufacturing any spirit is fermentation. Technically you can ferment anything with starch, but taste, cost, and practicality favor basic grains and fruits (think corn, wheat, apples, etc.). During fermentation, starches are converted to sugars, a process that is facilitated by the introduction of enzymes. The end result is a slightly alcoholic “mash” that is transferred to the pot portion of the still (the stout apparatus in the picture below). The “mash” is then heated, and as the temperature within the still begins to rise, vapor is produced, with low-boiling congeners (i.e., acetaldehyde, methanol, and certain esters) rising first, then ethanol, and then higher-boiling congeners (i.e., fusel alcohols). The vapor then travels through a series of condensers, which convert it back into a liquid. The lower-boiling congeners, the “heads,” are disposed of, as are the higher-boiling congeners, the “tails.” The ethanol, or “hearts,” forms the base of the finished product. So, why is copper a critical material in a still? As the “heads,” “hearts,” and “tails” are making their way through the still, they contain noxious sulfides. The copper neutralizes the sulfides, and in the process it helps create a cleaner, better tasting product. Not all stills are made of copper, but for artisan distillers committed to quality over quantity, there is no substitute.


















We’ve been getting requests for tours of the “vault.” Practicality prevents any on-site tastings, but here are a few pictures.

An Idea Is Born: Boston’s First Craft Distillery

Welcome to Bully Boy Distillers, Boston’s first craft distillery. We have signed a lease on space near Boston’s South End, and we have placed an order for a six hundred liter copper pot still, all of which means Boston’s first small-batch distillery is close to becoming a reality. No doubt many of you are scratching your head, so let’s back up for a moment.

In 1920, the Federal government enacted the 18^th Amendment – otherwise known as The Noble Experiment or Prohibition. With this a generation of despondent drinkers was forced to either abstain, which was unacceptable, or learn the ancient art of distilling spirits, which was illegal. Unwilling to live in a world without libation, a smattering of brave souls chose to risk the government’s ire. Around this time, our grandfather Richard started amassing an arsenal of bootleg whiskey, rum, and vodka. With names like “Medford Rum,” “Cow Whiskey,” and “Very Old Vodka,” these early precursors to today’s craft spirits were harsh and remarkably undrinkable (We know. We’ve tried all three). Richard stored his spirits in a dank vault in the catacombs of his farmhouse basement. The vault doubled as the unofficial neighborhood tavern, and Richard was known to hold court with family and friends deep into the night.

In 2003, roughly seventy years after Prohibition was abolished with the 21^st Amendment, Massachusetts enacted legislation making it easier for farms to distill spirits. The bottles were covered in dust and cobwebs, but the vault was inspiring and we hatched the idea for a distillery that continues the legacy of artisan distilling in Massachusetts, albeit in a more drinkable form, and carries on Richard’s commitment to our family farm. Paying particular attention to the caliber of ingredients used in our products, Bully Boy will hand-produce premium spirits in small batches, emphasizing quality over quantity. As homage to our Grandfather, who served as inspiration, we named the distillery after his favorite work horse, Bully Boy, and made a decision to conduct the operation in a manner that supports local agriculture. Bully Boy’s legacy as a "willing and patient family member" is memorialized with a plaque dated 1926, which is pictured above.

Stay tuned for more details related to our product line and launch – our blog will be updated regularly.