Bully Boy Straight Bourbon Whiskey Review

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I joined my wife for a trip to Boston back in May of this year. She was there for a conference which gave me plenty of time to explore the city. Since I was stuck in the middle of the Seaport district, I decided to look around for a place with a good bourbon selection. One thing I quickly learned was that everything was terribly overpriced or had nothing good on the shelf. I shouldn’t be surprised though, everyone I asked before I went told me that Boston was more of a “beer city.”

But I did find a distillery that was close enough I could walk to – Bully Boy Distillers near the South End. The distillery was undergoing a transformation of sorts while I was there. They were putting the finishing touches on a garden/patio area across the street from their tasting room that looked pretty inviting. The building that all of their operations are in had been repurposed from what looked like an old warehouse. The inside had a pot still and blending area along with a small warehouse aging space and a speakeasy-type tasting room.

I was expecting a drink menu centered around Bourbon or Rye Whiskey, but what I found instead was a distillery that takes its rums, Amaro’s and gins even more seriously. So I started with a rum flight. Bully Boy sources a lot of aged rum from various Caribbean producers and blends them together to create profile blends of particular countries. I was pretty proud of myself that I was able to identify 2 of the 3 rum profiles without knowing a thing about them – Jamaican Pot Still and Martinique. Then it was time to move on to their bourbon.

Bully Boy Small Batch Bourbon

I was fully expecting to find Bully Boy using sourced bourbon, but much to my surprise, they made their own. The mash bill gave it away – 61% corn, 30% malted wheat and 9% malted barley (a mix of distillers malt and 2-row malt). The yeast strain that they use isn’t specified, but they do hint to the fact that it’s typically used in single malt whiskey rather than bourbon. They chose it due to the floral and fruit-forward characteristics it creates.

After the fermentation process is done, Bully Boy’s head distillers run it once through their pot still to separate the hearts from the heads and the tails. They then run the heads and tails back through the pot still one more time and collect the second “hearts” to blend with the first distillation’s. This mixes together a distinctly more robust first run with a cleaner, lighter flavored second run. After the distillate is blended, it’s put into a 53 gallon barrel that has received a medium toast and a Level #3 Char.

Aging happens over four years and initially takes place in the non-heated section of their warehouse. One thing to note is that they will be releasing a Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon in 2025 that will use a different, ryed bourbon mash bill. Stay tuned for that.

Bully Boy claims that the barrels don’t spend the entire time in the non-heated portion of their warehouse. They are moved to a heat-cycled area of their building for the second half of their life. I only found this out after I visited there and really wish I could have taken the tour to see that spot. I do recall the entrance being notably warmer than the speakeasy room – and this was on a relatively cool day in May.

Finally, the bourbon is dumped into a batching tank and cut to proof (95 proof). I’m unsure what it would have been at cask strength, but their website hints that some barrels have seen proofs reach as high as 130!

For bottling, Bully Boy uses glass that has a small resemblance to to Sazerac Rye. The label clearly displays all of the most important information and has a clean, understated look. But what I know you’re all here for is to hear how it tastes. Without further ado, let’s get down to it. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Sniffing my glencairn shows me a profile that’s fairly light. I find notes of vanilla, creamed corn and some unbaked pie dough. There is some oak floating about and it’s a mix between seasoned and youthful. Spice comes mainly from nutmeg with cinnamon playing second fiddle. Unfortunately, I do detect some earthy notes which is common with craft whiskey and might signal it needs to be aged longer.

Palate: Each sip has a distinctively grainy taste. These remind me of the cereal “Honey O’s” and it’s accompanied by cinnamon and clove. Fruits lean towards (unsweetened) rhubarb, lychee and orange citrus extract. The palate doesn’t come off as overly sweet, but all flavors still have a sort of balance to it. Once again, I do find a bit of earthiness to the whole profile but I bet it has a lot to do with the large amount of malted wheat. I should also point out there’s a little bit of ethanol on the tongue.

Finish: The finish changes slightly to lingering notes of spiced honey, oak spice and ethanol. Oddly, I can also detect notes of camphor, citrus oil and copper pennies. That last one is strange!

Score: 5.5/10

I had two thoughts as I started drinking this bourbon. The first was a bit of an “aww man” moment when I realized that this was not sourced MGP. The second was the realization that what I was drinking was actually not that bad. In fact, if Bully Boy Distillers ever manage to tamp down the earthy notes (likely through longer maturation) then this would have easily been rated in the mid-6’s. Overall, I like what Bully Boy Distillers is doing in terms of their thoughtful approach to distilling and maturation and would find it interesting to see how their products end up a few years down the road.

Final Thoughts

Bully Boy Distillers is a fun little distillery making whiskey with an approach similar to that of New Riff, Chattanooga Whiskey or maybe the Alan Bishop-era of Spirits of French Lick. They’re constantly experimenting and aren’t afraid to go against the, errr, grain when it comes to unique mash bills. Just take a look at the cool ones they’ve made over the years.

I love to support the little guys, so I will say that Bully Boy should be on your short list of distilleries to visit if you’re in Boston. I’d even go as far as to say you should take a bottle home with you if you found yourself enjoying what they’ve made here. It seems like they’re doing a lot more right than other craft distillers that I’ve tasted lately. But if you decide to pass on a bottle of bourbon, just don’t forget they also make some excellent rums. This proves that the little distillery on the South End has something for everyone.