Starlight Bloody Butcher Bourbon Blood Moon Batch (2023) Review

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A lot of my readers are probably familiar with Starlight Distillery. If you’re not, then here are the quick facts: It’s located in southern Indiana about 20 miles north of Louisville. It originally started out as a farm and then years later it sprouted a winery. Recently it has branched out into full-fledged commercial distilling.

Starlight’s main focus seems to be their innovative cask-finished whiskies. That’s not saying they don’t make a decent straight bourbon or rye whiskey, it’s just that enthusiasts don’t seem to talk about those quite as much. Why is that? I’ve speculated on this in the past, but I think it has to do with their rather haphazard way of distilling and maturing whiskey where it seems like Ted, Christian, and Blake (they’re all relatives) does their own thing depending on who is distilling that day.

Getting back on track, the whole reason why I wanted to try this particular bottle was because I was interested to see how they did using heirloom grains in a bourbon that would stand by itself. No finishing cask, just pure, unadulterated bourbon.

Starlight Bloody Butcher Corn Bourbon

The bottle I’m reviewing today is actually the second release of Starlight’s Bloody Butcher Corn Bourbon. The first release came out in the fall of 2022 and was 4.5 years old. The 2023 release saw another year added to its age. I can only assume that means that this year’s 2024 release will have spent 6.5 years in a barrel.

The bourbon is made from undisclosed ratios of bloody butcher corn, rye and malted barley. Starlight never really publishes mash bills and that’s still the case here. If I had to guess, though, I’d say it’s probably around 60/20/20 since that’s what their standard 3-grain bourbon uses.

What makes this bourbon different is the use of a corn varietal that’s rarely seen in whiskey production – Bloody Butcher. This deep red cob is much more costly than standard Yellow Dent corn – which is the most common kind used in bourbon production.

Producers have seen an uptick in the public’s preference for using heirloom grains. This is why we’ve seen an explosion in their use. Producers have tinkered with everything from blue corn to Amanda Palmer corn and unique flavoring grains like Abruzzi rye, Rosen rye and Red Turkey wheat. All of this is done to make whiskey that stands out from the crowd.

I’m going to be blunt; I’ve disliked a majority of these bourbons (see the scores I gave by clicking on the links). I’ve found that most of them impart very “earthy” notes into the whiskey. I suppose if I wanted to be mean, I could say these whiskies taste like dirt, but I don’t want you to take it as me saying they all do.

I feel like new grains need to be experienced over the course of months before your tongue gets used to them. This is my opinion on most alcohols, honestly. I remember starting off hating the taste of rums, tequilas and Scotch. Now I love them all because I stuck with it. It’s all about learning to appreciate their nuances and what they do different.

I am unsure about the exact process of how this bourbon was made, but I’ll come back to update this section if I learn of anything new. What I do know is that Starlight’s Barrel Entry Proof typically ranges from 108 to 125 and the barrels they use are sourced from 6 different vendors and could have between a Char Level #1 to a Char Level #4.

So now that we know some of the story behind this bottle, let’s get down to tasting. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: The first scent I pick up on is savory cornbread and fresh Danishes with an indistinguishable fruit center. Spices come by way of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and a bit of peppermint. Strangely, there is a very small metallic scent. I’ll see this again soon…

Palate: This isn’t as grain-forward as I thought it would be, but grits is still the first flavor I find. Sweetness comes by way of caramel candies and the mouthfeel has a pleasant oily viscosity. There are lots of spices and subtle flavors that interact with each other. I can find cinnamon and allspice with vanilla extract and camphor. There is the telltale earthy note I spoke about earlier, but it’s not that impactful.

What I’m most surprised about is the lack of fruit notes. I pick up on a tiny bit of cherry, but other reviewers claim to find many more than I did. Tannins are mostly dry-tasting with oak and leather as the two main culprits. Overall the palate is much more complete than I thought it would be, but I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of depth to this bourbon.

Finish: Uncooked grits couple with dry oak. The finish is lacking in sweetness overall. But there are plenty of spice notes like cinnamon and ground pepper. Curiously, I even pick up a note I’d describe as “cast iron skillet.” Is this a result of the Bloody Butcher Corn?

Score: 5.7/10

Starlight’s Bloody Butcher Corn Bourbon didn’t really do much for me. It was fairly flat throughout. The most unique thing about it could be that odd metallic/cast iron skillet note. And just as I suspected, the heirloom corn seemed to add an earthy taste to the bourbon that brings it down a peg or three.

I know plenty of people who liked this release which makes me wonder if I’m the problem instead. I have already laid out what I think of whiskies distilled with heirloom grains, but am I psyching myself out before I taste it? I hope that’s not what’s going on. The one bright spot I will admit is that this bottle went down a lot smoother than similar bourbons.

Final Thoughts

What will it take for me to finally like an heirloom-grain distilled whiskey? I’m not sure, but I haven’t been that impressed. I feel like they’re not the kind you can just jump into. Luckily, Starlight keeps the prices low on a majority of their releases which means you wouldn’t be out too much money if you bought this and didn’t like it. As always, I suggest you try before you can buy because there are bottles I feel like I never want to revisit – and this is one of them.