MrWizard's Ramblings

My list of open Jim Beam Products that have pending reviews is way too long. So let’s try to get through most of them in a series of side by side tastings. So one important note on Beam products, they all have a very distinctive cinnamon undercurrent in their flavor. There are other folks that are much better informed than me and can certainly offer an opinion on why that is, but for all the reviews below, and for every Beam product I’ve ever tried, there’s always that cinnamon ‘character’ to the primary spice flavor profile.

Knob Creek 2001 Small Batch #2
Nose: Wood and spice. Bits and pieces of cologne notes, excellent.
Palate: Wood, cloves, Beam cinnamon. Not overly sweet and well balanced, almost a little savoury under the spice and the wood.
Aftertaste: Warms up as it goes down and settles into medium-long roasted walnuts and wood bitterness without being unpleasant.
Conclusion: Excellent bourbon that is highly overpriced at its MSRP as store pick single barrel bottles are occasionally attainable at $50-75, and (anecdotally less interesting) 15 year old limited small batch did show up recently at about $79. If you can get this at or under $100, this is well worth it though.
Score: B+
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Old Tub Bottled in Bond
Nose: Sweet cinnamon corn, nose is reasonably young and sweeter than the KC2001. Does open up in the glass a little bit by losing some of the funk notes and leaving sweeter perfume.
Palate: Sugar, spice and Beam cinnamon, and of course some wood… I mean, it’s a bourbon, there’s always a strong wood note due to new barrel requirement. Well balanced, the corn from the nose is noticeable, the palate is quite in line with the nose. Compared to KC2001, doesn’t have that mouth-coating texture, as expected due to age.
Aftertaste: The youth betrays itself here. Slightly off-balance and not overly complex or too long. Descends into slightly bitter wood territory before fading with a ginger tongue prickle, reasonable. If it was any longer, it’d be unpleasantly bitter.
Conclusion: What sort of sophistication was being expected out of $17 bottle of whiskey? Well, color me impressed in the price band. Solid release from the Beam folks.
Score: B-

(Unfair) Conclusion:
It isn’t a fair comparison of a 15 year old distillate to a much younger, no age stated version, even if they come from the same stills, yet alone being under different labels and with easily 5 times difference in MSRP. So there’s no winners or losers in this comparison, but it should be noted that Old Tub holds its own even and is well worth getting a bottle. Old Tub and Fighting Cock (Heaven Hill) have easily exceeded all my expectations for their price and are both great representatives for their distilleries and are miles ahead of the generic bottom shelf swill. If I must draw a ‘vs’ conclusion here, then Old Tub certainly wins on value for the money while obviously KC2001 wins the palate… but as stated before, this is not a remotely a fair comparison here.
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Little Book chap. 3 “The Road Home”
Nose: Brown sugar, Beam spice, wood and lots of nice. Also some of the notes of old, well-maintained leather. Very old craftsman workshop notes in the nose of this pour.
Palate: Brown sugar, Beam cinnamon/spice. Wood. Delicious.
Aftertaste: Brown sugar, wood, and cinnamon that lasts for quite a while.
Conclusion: Smells and tastes like a really good Booker’s (which it really is in Chap 3), with just a tad too much wood as is typical with most Beam products. This really benefits from sitting in a glass for a while to open up.
Score: A-
vs
Little Book chap. 4 “Lessons Honored”
Nose: Sweeter and lighter, with less cinnamon on the nose than chap 3 and more of a typical good bourbon nose that’s high rye (or perhaps almost no corn notes to speak of). Aromatic toasted sandalwood is what comes to mind.
Palate: Little lighter and a little sweeter in the mouth than Chap. 3. This one brings more sweet caramel notes to the table. I don’t usually talk about viscosity of the drink, but I’m getting a feeling that the mouthfeel is a tad thinner compared to Chap 3.
Aftertaste: Beam spices and wood, cinnamon and ginger. Doesn’t fade too fast and due to lighter viscosity of the drink, not as long lasting and lighter, compared to Chap 3.
Conclusion: Certainly interesting and worthwhile to try drink that would please any Beam fan, it’s not something special enough to chase down compared to regular Booker’s releases and the yet another MSRP increase to $125 this year doesn’t make it a ‘must buy’.
Score: B

Conclusion:
Overall, having tried some of the Little Book line and knowing that these are essentially Freddie Noe’s experiments aimed at the whiskey enthusiast market, both are excellent on their own and well worth trying… but of the tonight’s side by side I have to give a slight advantage to Little Book Chap 3. In many ways it is a quintessential representation of Beam’s brands, by being a literal mix of the 4 premium lines and is very-very Beam to its core. Chapter 4 comparably is more of a whimsical experiment that’s delicious on its own but doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the cool kids clique.
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Booker’s 2018-01 “Kathleen’s Batch”
Nose: Subdued and woody. Almost restrained in its potency and slightly savoury. Brown sugar and molasses.
Palate: Delicious and amazingly balanced. The usual Beam bourbon flavors apply just somehow the razor-edge of the balance between them is maintained.
Aftertaste: Medium yet again as is the case with most bourbons. Tiny bit of woody bitterness in the very end.
Conclusion: If you like Beam flavor profile and aren’t afraid high proof… This is the Booker’s for you. There are many many other products that are way less interesting than this batch.
Score: A-
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Booker’s 2018-02 “Backyard BBQ”
Nose: Ever so slightly more brown sugar on the nose than the 2018-01 batch but somewhat similar for the most part. Really, it’s Booker’s so they’re all mostly similar.
Palate: Ah, were we go! Brown sugar galore, Beam cinnamon spice and lots of things nice. Rather on the sweet side. Perhaps a little bit too much rye spice in this one and few metallic notes come though.
Aftertaste: Very in-line with the plate. Medium length and very pleasant, thought notably bitier (ginger?) and some slight alcohol burn which suggests its out of balance a little bit.
Conclusion: A very typical Booker’s release that’s by no means bad but also not very exciting. If you need a Booker’s, sure buy this… If you already have a batch at home… You can spend money elsewhere.
Score: B

Conclusion:
Whelp, these are Booker’s, alright. On paper, they are all mostly similar to each other in majority of the specs and notes, varying slightly on the balance and proof batch to batch. On the palate the story is very different and this is an excellent example how even slight differences in very similar product can change the taste greatly when compared to each other. You’re not going to be dissapointed with either of these or for that matter likely with any Booker’s release but in the side-by-side comparison Kathleen’s Batch balance easily trounces Backyard BBQ sweetness. Winner: 2018-01!
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Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown