When Jack Wells and Josh Quinn opened Boone County Distilling Co. in 2015, they had a decision to make about equipment that most new Kentucky distilleries weren't really making anymore. The default move at that scale was to buy a column still — efficient, scalable, the workhorse of every major Kentucky producer. Wells and Quinn bought a 500-gallon Vendome copper pot still instead and named it The Bear. That's a small thing in isolation. But it's the decision that shapes almost everything else about how this distillery makes bourbon and what their bourbon tastes like. Pot stills produce heavier, oilier, more grain-forward distillate than column stills do. They run in batches rather than continuously. They cap how much you can make in a day, which constrains volume and forces small-batch thinking. And once you've committed to that kind of equipment, you've also committed to a different aging trajectory, a different texture profile, and a different price point — none of which is what the modern Kentucky bourbon industry is optimizing around. That's the actual story of Boone County. The 1833 Petersburg Distillery history is real and worth telling, but the distillery you can buy a bottle from in 2026 is the one Wells and Quinn built around a deliberate equipment choice. Everything else flows from there.
The original Boone County distilling operation was the Petersburg Distillery, founded in 1833 by William Snyder and his brother John. By 1880, the operation had grown into the largest distillery in Kentucky. Prohibition shut down legal distilling in 1919, and the Petersburg Distillery never reopened.
In 2015, Wells and Quinn opened Boone County Distilling Co. in Independence, Kentucky — about 20 miles from the original Petersburg site. The “Made by Ghosts” tagline isn’t claiming a personal lineage to the Snyders. It’s a reverence for what the area used to be.
Boone County sits on the same limestone bedrock that gives the broader Kentucky bourbon industry its water advantage. The Northern Kentucky climate runs cold winters, hot humid summers, and aggressive seasonal transitions — slightly more aggressive on both the hot and cold ends than central Kentucky.
Boone County runs two primary mashbills. The flagship Small Batch runs 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley — a high-rye recipe that shows up as pepper, cinnamon, and a brighter, more complex top note.
Their Wheated Bourbon swaps rye for soft winter wheat: 51% corn, 45% wheat, 4% malted barley. The wheat percentage is much higher than Maker’s Mark or Weller, giving the spirit a particularly soft, bready, fruit-forward profile.
The proprietary yeast strain contributes stone-fruit notes (cherry, apricot) running through both mashbills. That cross-mashbill signature is the yeast doing its job: producing a specific ester profile that holds steady whether the secondary grain is rye or wheat.
The 500-gallon Vendome copper pot still — The Bear — is the heart of the operation. Pot stills run in batches, require manual cuts, and leave more congeners, oils, and grain character in the finished spirit. Pot-distilled whiskey has weight on the palate.
A note worth being clear about: Boone County’s Eighteen 33 line is sourced from MGP in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The sourcing is publicly acknowledged. The Pot Still Bourbon is 100% Boone County’s own production — distilled, aged, and bottled on the property in Independence.
Boone County leans heavily on a #4 char — the heaviest standard char level. The deep char filters sulfur compounds from young whiskey and breaks down hemicellulose into sugars that show up as caramel, vanilla, and toffee.
Northern Kentucky’s climate is slightly more aggressive on both the hot and cold ends than central Kentucky. Their barrels are working slightly harder in each annual cycle, which produces bourbon that ages faster and pulls more wood character per year of barrel time.
When you put a heavier pot-distilled spirit into a heavily charred barrel and subject it to aggressive temperature cycling, the resulting bourbon has unusual texture: viscous, oily on the palate, with the grain character still present even after years of aging.
Head Distiller Michael Wells runs the production floor. Founders Jack Wells and Josh Quinn are still actively running the business — local Boone County residents who saw a piece of their county’s history that had been erased and decided to rebuild it.
Boone County Small Batch Bourbon — ~90 proof, ~$40. The high-rye flagship. Vanilla, caramel, and a real cinnamon-and-pepper kick from the rye. The starting point for the lineup.
Boone County Kentucky Pot Still Bourbon — 94.8 proof, ~$60. 100% house production, distilled on The Bear, aged 5+ years. Mashbill: 74% corn, 21% rye, 5% malted barley. Heavier mouthfeel, more grain expression, fuller texture than comparable column-still bourbons.
Boone County Wheated Bourbon — The 51/45/4 mashbill. Softer profile, bready and fruit-forward, with the same yeast-driven stone-fruit thread.
Eighteen 33 Single Barrel Cask Strength — varies, ~$100+. Sourced from MGP, aged 10-12 years, bottled at barrel strength. Old, complex, oak-forward bourbons with significant barrel-to-barrel variation.
Eighteen 33 Standard Release — 90.8 proof, ~$50-60. 10-year age statement. A genuinely fair price for a 10-year-old bourbon.
Boone County Bourbon Cream — A bourbon-and-dairy cream liqueur with a hint of maple. Unexpectedly good in coffee or as a dessert pour.
OAKR’s blind tasting panel scores every bourbon across more than 100 flavor notes, organized into 10 macro categories. Spirit Match scores show you which Boone County bottle — the Small Batch, the Pot Still, the Wheated, or one of the Eighteen 33 single barrels — is most likely to land for your specific palate.
[Download OAKR free on iOS, Android, or web →]
Bourbon enthusiast, spirits industry analyst, and the voice behind OAKR's distillery guides, brand reviews, and bourbon education content. Visiting distilleries, dissecting mashbills, and translating the craft into data since 2024.
Pot-still bourbon from Northern Kentucky’s 1833 revival. Which expression matches your palate? Spirit Match knows.
