The Story of the Woolly Bully

Hi, we're Audrey and Max, creators of the Woolly Bully.

When Max was growing up, his dad swore by his kamado, a 3000 year old Japanese design for an outdoor ceramic cooker that looks beautiful on a patio and holds stable temperatures for hours. He broke a couple over the years, but cooking on them was such a joy that he always replaced each one with another.

Max always thought that someday we would buy a really nice big one and take great care of it.

In our twenties and thirties, we lived in rental units and starter homes, some of which came with the previous owner’s Weber kettle grill, and we never could find the budget to buy anything else.

While Big Green Egg was becoming synonymous with the backyard cook’s midlife upgrade, we were learning techniques and accessories to squeeze performance out of the classic kettle.

We used the rotisserie ring, the Smokenator, the Slow and Sear, put nomex gaskets on the lids, and added drip pans, water baths, temperature sensors, fans, and more.

A couple years ago we reached a point in our life where we had the means to pull the trigger on an large kamado, when Max's brother challenged us: “Why? You love your Weber, you cook great meals on it. What problem are you trying to solve with the kamado?”

We thought long and hard in response to this, and came to the conclusion that the one trick a kamado has over a Weber kettle is retaining ridiculous amounts of heat, leading to much more even cooking, better fuel efficiency, and the ability to hit higher temperatures or hold longer sessions, depending on the desires of the cook.

We thought that if we could just find an elegant way to add a layer of insulation to the kettle lid, we would be able to match every trick in the ceramic book.

On top of this, we had recently moved from North Carolina to Seattle, WA, and thought that with the right materials we could make the cover impervious to weather, and be able to grill year round in the rainy PNW.

A guy at our local welding supply shop introduced us to a variety of heat-resistant materials and recommended we try ceramic wool, paired with silicone-coated fiberglass cloth.

Audrey made the first mockup on her Singer sewing machine, and it was clear we were onto something. We tracked down a freelance prototyper who created some test units, and a softgoods designer who improved upon them and built a manufacturing-ready tech pack. After a long search for a manufacturing partner, followed by many iterations, the Woolly Bully was born.

It is tested and proven to give your time-honored Weber kettle the same performance as high end kamados, without the weight, breakability, or cost.

We hope you enjoy cooking with it as much as we enjoyed making it!