Boot Hill Distillery - Anthem Imports

Boot Hill Distillery is a family owned and operated distillery in Dodge City, Kansas.

Father and son Roger and Hayes Kelman plant and harvest the grain they use to then create their distinct spirits.

Each spirit is distilled in 500-gallon batches, carefully crafted from growth to harvest, to milling, to mashing, to fermentation, to distilling, to bottling.

The Kelman family utilizes a custom-crafted pot still/two column setup to ensure that every spirit is crafted for maximum drinkability, while still being a wholly unique product of Dodge City.

The building they distill in has deep roots in Dodge City history. It is the original Boot Hill Cemetery. From 1873 until 1878, Dodge City’s gunfighters, scofflaws, and soiled doves were interred when they met their unceremonious end.

In 1878 the bodies were moved to the municipal cemetery, and Dodge City’s first multi-room schoolhouse was erected. Known as the Third Ward school, it served the students of Dodge City until 1927. As Dodge City’s population grew and new schools were built, the Third Ward had served its purpose. The building was razed and planning began for what would become the Municipal Building – where Boot Hill Distillery currently stands today.

When the building opened in 1929, it housed City Hall, municipal courtroom, judge’s chambers, jail, fire department and police department.

Over the years it has also housed the Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, and charities.

Rating:

93+ – Tasting Panel Magazine

A high-wheat Kansas Bourbon, Boot Hill whiskey has a pot-still mash bill of 51% forn and 49% hard red winter wheat, using number 3 charred barrels. Bottled at 90-proof, aromas of orange peel, butterscotch coffee and peach pie linger. The palate intensifies and mirrors the perfume, adding a coat of white pepper and oatmeal. The pleasing finish incorporates cedar painted with fleshy stone fruit.

Awards:

93 Point Rating – 2021 Tasting Panel Magazine
Gold Medal – 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Rating:

Using 100% hard red winter wheat, from the Kelman farm, this whiskey is aged for more than two years in American white oak barrels. It is complex with flavors after the aging process. Boot Hill’s Straight Wheat Whiskey is 100 Proof (50% ABV) and ensures a robust and dynamic drinking experience.

Tasting Notes:
Caramel, chocolate, bergamot, balsa, vanilla, brown butter, dried fruit, and leather on the nose. When sipped neat you will get grape nuts, breakfast tea, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and granola. If you prefer your whiskey on the rocks, you will get cereal, allspice, caramel, and soft leather.

Awards:
Gold Medal; exceptional – 2020 Beverage Testing Institute
90 points – 2020 Beverage Testing Institute

Rating:

Boot Hill Distillery’s Red Eye Whiskey is a beautiful hand-crafted trail-aged, frontier-style Kansas whiskey. It is a mix of various barrel sizes and ages – a minimum of two months – that have been shifted throughout barrel storage space. These are then blended to recreate the style of powerful yet balanced whiskey you would have likely tasted in the 1880’s when you stopped in Dodge City.

Tasting Notes:
Prominent notes of sweet butterscotch with a delicate floral finish on the nose. When sipped neat, you will get bright wood on the front end with tons of vanilla and an unexpected spiciness. A beautiful blend of sweet and spice. If you prefer your whiskey on the rocks, you will get sweet grain, powerful vanilla, and soft oak across the back end.

Awards:

3 Stars – Recommended – 2018 F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal
Best Whiskey in Kansas – 2017 Heartland Spirits Festival
Bronze – 2017 Heartland Spirits Festival
Bronze – 2017 The Washington Cup Spirits Competition
Bronze – Recommended – 2017 Tastings.com

Rating:

Boot Hill Distillery White Whiskey is the brash younger brother of their bourbon. Boot Hill takes their heavy-wheat bourbon mash bill, lets it rest one week in charred American white oak barrels, and then get it straight into the bottle. Bold, unapologetic, and uncompromising. You’ll find notes of vanilla, oak, and freshly baked bread in this defiantly young Kansas whiskey.

Tasting Notes:
On the nose you will get strong grain and heavy sweetness. Pronounced corn with hints of black pepper and freshly baked bread. When sipped neat you will get vanilla, quickly followed by black pepper and oak. Rich, long-lasting flavors of yeast and brown sugar on the back. If you prefer your whiskey on the rocks, you will get forward oak flavors. Grain flavors become more pronounced and there’s an easily identifiable sweetness. This white whiskey finishes with distinctive wheat notes.

Awards:

Silver – 2017 The Washington Cup Spirits Competition

Rating:

Boot Hill Distillery Gin is a fresh and unique take on the growing New Western Dry Gin category. Each batch of their gin is vapor distilled in 100-gallon batches, ensuring that the final product is both complex and well-balanced.

Boot Hill Gin features juniper, coriander, bitter orange peel, angelica root, orris root, licorice root, chamomile blossoms and just a tiny dash of sarsaparilla. It’s brash and smooth enough to earn the Boot Hill name.

Tasting Notes:
On the nose you will get powerful burst of juniper up front with soft sweet hints of coriander and orange. When sipped neat you get bright juniper notes immediately flood the palate, with floral notes on the tail. If you prefer your gin on the rocks, you will get the softer sweetness from the licorice and sarsaparilla roots and floral flavors of the gin press forward, with a citrus snap.

Awards:

Silver: Highly Recommended – 2018 Tastings.com
Silver – 2018 The Fifty Best

Rating:

The mash bill is 100% wheat from Kelman Farms, Sublette, KS. Boot Hill took their award-winning New Western style gin and filled it into used Red Eye Whiskey barrels near the end of their serviceable life. It rested for eight months and was then bottled.

The gin recipe was kept simple with eight botanicals: juniper, coriander, bitter orange peel, angelica root, orris root, licorice root, chamomile flower, and a hint of sarsaparilla root.

Tasting Notes:
On the nose you will get heavy citrus notes, vanilla, candied orange peel, floral, and light oak. When sipped neat you get vanilla and orange immediately with juniper taking a back seat alongside light tannins and wood notes.

Awards:

Gold Medal – 2020 The Fifty Best Gin Awards
Silver Medal – 2019 American Craft Spirits Award

Rating:

Prickly Ash Bitters – the company defunct and their product out of production since the 1910’s – now finds a new life as uniquely sweet and bitter American amaro produced by Kansas’ only soil-to-sip distillery, Boot Hill Distillery.

Featuring such unique botanicals as prickly ash bark, buchu leaves, senna, coriander, grains of paradise and cubeb peppers – Prickly Ash Bitters’ unique character and powerful burst of flavor is sure to spice up coffee, beef up a spritzer, or can be mixed with your favorite vodka, gin, whiskey, tequila, rum or any other spirit for an earthy, bitter kick.

Tasting Notes:
On the nose you will get earthiness with hints of root vegetables. Heavy pine and cooling menthol round out the end. When sipped neat you get sweet sugar right up front followed by a powerful wallop of bitterness. Complex hints of mint and citrus dominate the center, followed by a slight numbing sensation across the tongue. If you prefer your amaro on the rocks, you will get a significantly brighter experience as the ice also softens the intense hit of bitterness, forcing it to take a back seat to the complex notes of the other botanicals.