Boston Harbor Distillery (BHD) opened at the Port on Boston Harbor in Dorchester in June 2015, reviving an entrepreneurial center from the mid-1800s. BHD creates proprietary craft spirits that integrate rich history, distinctive experiences, and beverage culture into each bottle it produces.

Housed in a pre-Civil War era building overlooking Boston Harbor, the distillery serves as a distilling facility and an event space, tasting room, cocktail lounge and mercantile, as well as a community gathering place and entertainment center for local music, arts, and other cultural events.  Boston Harbor Distillery pulls inspiration from New England’s bounty of seasonal tastes to distill and bottle its own blended creations that are branded with the names of early Massachusetts entrepreneurs who once occupied the same site: SS Putnam Nail Factory, George Lawley & Son Shipbuilders, and the confectionary line inspired by Seymour’s Ice Cream, the last notable entrepreneur to have commerce there.

American Whiskey: When did your involvement with the ASWMC begin?

Rhonda Kallman: Since its inception when Steve Hawley and Westward Whiskey began the commission and asked craft distillers who were making single malt to participate. I was delighted to be among a small group of dedicated artisans that had taste and vision!

AW: How did the distillery’s journey into creating American single malt begin?

RK: Putnam New England Single Malt was the first whiskey ever made at Boston Harbor Distillery in 2015. Given my passion for great whiskey and my history at the forefront of craft beer for 25 years, I recognized there was a white space for good, quality whiskey making in my home town of Boston, MA. I also recognized that single malt was and still is the gold standard for whiskey in the world. In New England and in the US in general, few distillers where making it, so I thought it would be exciting to create a whiskey that is an ingredient story with delicious 100 per cent malted barley that would be a different flavor profile and ingredient story than bourbon that is required to be made from a majority of corn. 

AW: Could you talk me through your process of creation?

RK: I was looking to have a unique proposition that used local ingredients. However, at that time (and still now) there isn’t much grown in the area. My master distiller, John Couchot, lived across the street from America’s oldest chocolatier, the Walter Baker Chocolate Factory, and it inspired us to select a mash bill of caramel malt and roasted barley (both from Briess Malt that I used in the beer business) resulting in a rich, robust flavor with notes of chocolate, toffee, and coffee.

AW: What would you say is the key differentiator for your American single malts in the market?

RK: The flavor profile and locality make it special.

AW: How has the recent ratification of ASMW impacted your distillery?

RK: At this time, not so much, though expect in the months/years to come people will become more aware of the choices and start to seek them out. We would certainly welcome that!

AW: Have you noticed an uptake in interest in ASMW since the ratification was announced? 

RK: Not from my end, though I’m sure the ratification has inspired other craft distilleries to start distilling it.

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