New Baker's Bourbon Website Allows You to Learn More About Your Bourbon

So yeah, I know I don’t normally post news and really don’t go out of my way to highlight brand promotions, but when I got a press release about the new website for Baker’s bourbon, I was intrigued.

You know I am big on transparency. I’m a bourbon geek who loves to know everything there is to know about the juice in my bottle. It’s one reason I wish companies that source their whiskey would disclose the source of that whiskey. It’s more fun, and interesting, to know that the bourbon you are drinking is a mixture of Heaven Hill and Jim Beam than it is to wonder just where the juice in that bottle came from.

And that’s why I was intrigued by the new Baker’s bourbon website. They are giving you the chance to learn just a little more about the barrel your whiskey came from. Which since Baker’s is now a single barrel product is welcome. At least to me.

Sure, it’s a marketing gimmick to get you to buy more bottles. But if it helps you understand the differences between bourbon aged in different warehouses and on different floors, I’d say we all win.

Here’s how it works:

Grab your bottle of Baker’s and go to www.bakersbourbon.com/single-barrel-journey.

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After you get through the age gate, enter the serial number on the neck tag of your bottle of Baker’s. Mine was 000426906.

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From there you’ll learn what campus, what floor and rack the whiskey was aged in.

Some of this is already available on the label. But between the website and the label, you’ll know the campus, the warehouse, the floor, and the rack where the whiskey in your bottle was aged. Mine says warehouse CL-P on the label which seems to be a non-Baker’s warehouse by the map they give of the Clermont Campus.

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From there you can discover the timeline of your bourbon.

You’ll get the barrel date, the dump date, exactly how old it is, and you’ll also get some fun facts about what happened in the meantime. Including what happened in history the month your whiskey was barreled and the weather it was subjected to while it aged.

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At the end, you’ll get a summary image of the info you learned. And for a limited time, they are offering a little more. I’ll let the PR email talk now:

To Go Even Further “Behind The Barrel” (For A Limited Time!)

• At the end of the journey, you will be prompted to enter the limited-time program with your name, email and date of birth

• Check your email to see if you were one of the first people to make the cut for our one-of-a-kind special offer - a unique photo with Baker Beam himself in front of your bottle’s rackhouse and/or an exclusive tasting with Freddie Noe!

So there you have it. I know this reeks of a paid ad, but it isn’t. I just thought it was neat and agreed to share in case you also think it is neat. I even turned down a free bottle of Baker’s and bought my own down at my corner liquor store. (I really enjoy Baker’s so that wasn’t a hardship.)

Regular posts back tonight.

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Sample Roulette: Tasting 5 Blind Samples

I used to keep a lot of small sample bottles of whiskey. Until one day, I didn’t. I stopped mostly because the overwhelming urge to never finish a bottle had worn off. I’d finish the bottle without remembering to put aside a sample of it. I summed up my reasoning for initially keeping samples pretty nicely back in 2017 so I’m just going to let Past Me do some of the work for a moment.

There was a time, not so long ago in the grand scheme of things, that I fell victim to a touch of hoarding. Whiskey hoarding to be exact. I had the urge to make sure I never finished a bottle. I had some vague thought that I might never have that whiskey again. And if I never actually finished the bottle, I could still have it anytime I wanted. 

Yes, I imagined the nostalgia I would have in the future for the time I was currently living in. If that is confusing for you, try living it. As part of my need to deal with my, then undiagnosed, anxiety disorder I decided that I was worrying too much about what was still in the bottles. And so I came up with the plan to set aside two sample bottles from each bottle of whiskey I opened. I told myself it was for the blog. It was for posterity. It was long term research to see if things changed over time. But I was really trying to put off that future regret and nostalgia. 

Now back in 2017, I realized that this wasn’t something I needed to do any longer. So, I decided to split my samples between those that I was going to drink immediately and those that I might have a use for in the future. I wasn’t exactly sure what use that might be, but I figured that was a problem for Future Me to deal with.

Now, these samples were sitting pretty high up and pretty far back in the old whiskey closet. To be honest I’d forgotten about them until I started pulling out the old bottles of Four Roses Limited Small Batch. As I pulled the five or six boxes of bottles out, I came to a conclusion.

I didn’t need these anymore.

And as I looked through the bottles, I had a thought. Seeing as it is Bourbon Heritage Month, I might as well start drinking some “heritage” bourbon. Well, if you can call samples from 2011-2017 “heritage,” that is. And what is more fun than drinking a sample of bourbon? That’s right. Not knowing ahead of time what bourbon it is or if it is any good or not.

I mean, I had things mostly set up for a lot of fun blind tastings, anyway. I had limited editions sitting next to bottom-shelf turds. I had ryes, bourbons, and Irish whiskey all mingled together. I had craft distiller experiments sitting next to brands almost as old as bourbon itself. All sitting in identical bottles. And all I needed to do was put a little piece of tape over the label to completely obscure what I was pouring into my glass.

So I did. And then I thought that since it is Bourbon Heritage month, maybe you guys would like to come along for the ride with us.

Blind Whiskey Sample #1:

Nose: Mint, garden greens, caramel.

Mouth: Cinnamon, caramel, mint, snap peas.

Finish: Short and mercifully so. Cinnamon, oak, and more snap peas.

Thoughts: Not exactly sure why I decided that I needed to save a sample from every bottle back then... but I did and you get to enjoy my discomfort. Yeah, this one is not good. Snap peas are not a note I look for in bourbon. This one would have been better off being used for flavored whiskey.

Reveal: Old Crow Reserve.

Blind Whiskey Sample #2:

Nose: Cinnamon, cola, oak.

Mouth: Oak, cinnamon, cedar, cola, ginger, mint.

Finish: On the longer side of medium. Lingering notes of cedar, ginger, mint, and after everything else fades, coffee.

Thoughts: This is really good. I'm digging it. A very nice rye whiskey. Kinda wishing I could go back in time to snag another of whatever this is. Who knows, maybe it's still for sale.

Reveal: Col. E. H. Taylor Bottled in Bond Rye

Blind Whiskey Sample #3:

Nose: Peanut butter, clove, caramel.

Mouth: Follows the nose. Sweet. Peanut butter, caramel, and cinnamon.

Finish: Short side of medium. More peanut butter, cinnamon, butterscotch, and a touch of dried grain.

Thoughts: This really reminds me of peanut-brittle. It's very sweet. Almost too sweet. Very candy-like. Dessert in a glass. I'm very interested to see what this is because I can't quite place it.

Reveal: JW Dant Bottled in Bond.

Blind Whiskey Sample #4

Nose: Cedar, mint, cherry pipe tobacco.

Mouth: Follows the nose with cedar, mint, cherry pipe tobacco and cinnamon.

Finish: Medium to short. Cinnamon, mint, tobacco.

Thoughts: I'm going to guess this is a fine example of a producer who bought some 95% rye from MGP and dumped it in a bottle. Of course, since I am a big fan of MGP rye, I only ever minded that if said producer lied about it. And since this is from back when folks were doing that, I'm guessing I was irritated by this one. In any case, I like this one a lot.

Reveal: James E. Pepper 1776 Rye, 6 year old.

Blind Whiskey Sample #5

Nose: Ripe fruits, baking spice, bubblegum.

Mouth: Thin mouthfeel. Strong ripe fruit notes. Cinnamon.

Finish: Medium length and warm. Cherry (almost like cherry cough syrup), cinnamon.

Thoughts: This is either a Brandy or a bourbon that was barrel finished. If it is a brandy, cool. Tastes like brandy. If barrel-finished they overshot the mark because the finish took over. If it isn't either, then hell, I don't know. I do know I don't think I care for this one.

Reveal: New Holland Beer Barrel Bourbon.

Well, there you have it. The first set of blind tastings. I’m sure that there will be more in the future because I had a lot of fun with this. I really enjoyed the two ryes and the Dant. I bought Beer Barrel Bourbon exactly once, and now I think I remember why. And I have two questions on the Old Crow Reserve: why did I feel like I needed to save this? And why did I feel the need to save it a second time? Not to worry though…this time it got dumped out after tasting notes were finished.

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Knob Creek 9-year-old (2016) vs Knob Creek 9-year-old (2020)

A couple of months ago, I did a review comparing a 2016 bottle of Knob Creek 9-year-old to the then-current Non-Age Stated version of the product.

Well, I thought it was only a couple of months ago. I went back to look at it and it was actually over a year ago on July 2, 2019, that I wrote that post. You know what they say about time moving faster as you get older, don’t you? Well, it seems I am getting older. Because I could have sworn an oath that it had only been a few months.

Well, when I wrote that, I promised that when I got my hands on one of the new age-stated bottles that I would do a comparison. And here it is. Besides, if I don’t then why did I sit on this bottle of Knob Creek for four years?

Knob Creek Nine-Year-Old (2016) vs Knob Creek Nine-Year-Old (2019)

Purchase Info: $33.99 at Village Liquor, Prior Lake, MN for the 2020 version. It’s been four years, I have no clue for the 2016 version.

Nose: Very similar. 2020 is richer on the nose showing more caramel/vanilla.

Mouth: 2016 shows a good hit of dry oak, but is feeling a bit flat when compared to 2020. 2020 is richer and sweeter, with the oak notes better integrated.

Finish: Both are very similar on the finish with 2020 following the trend of being a bit sweeter.

Thoughts: I was honestly not sure there was going to be much of a difference between these two. I mean, Beam has the resources to be really consistent about hitting a flavor profile. Though if there was going to be a difference, I would have expected that the old, discontinued version would be the one I preferred. (I’m a bit of a pessimist that way.) I'm very glad that the one I can buy now is the better of the two.

Is it possible that because stocks were running low, that maybe they ran low enough that the quality of the product was suffering slightly? Or maybe the stocks were particularly good for this batch? In any case, I'm very happy that an old favorite somehow seems to have gotten even better.

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Old Tub Bottled in Bond: Revisited

I’d like to thank the PR folks at Jim Beam for providing a review sample to me with no strings attached.

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It has been a little over two and a half years (943 days) since I last took a look at Old Tub Bourbon from Jim Beam. And honestly, I don’t usually revisit things this soon. But then the announcement came out that Beam would be doing a limited edition national release of the product. And since I didn’t have an overly positive reaction to it last time around, I decided to reach out and see if they’d send over a sample instead of spending my own money on it. They were happy to do so.

Now, I never used to have the best opinion of Jim Beam. I think I was influenced by both the low opinion of others as I got into bourbon. That and I’ve come to realize that I had a definite lack of appreciation of grain forward bourbons. However, in the last three or four years, I’ve learned an appreciation for a well-crafted grain-forward bourbon. One where the barrel hasn’t entirely taken over. And honestly, there have been a lot more Beam bourbons on my shelf because of that.

So based on my previous rating of “meh” (as a reminder meh means fine whiskey just not to my tastes). I decided that with more people being able to sample this Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon, it would only be intellectually honest if I also gave it another try. If my palate had evolved to the point where I liked it, it would be doing a disservice to you to not inform you of that fact.

Plus…free whiskey.

Old Tub Bottled in Bond: Revisited

Purchase Info: This was graciously provided by Jim Beam for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $22.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $1.53

Details: Non-chill filtered. Non-carbon filtered. Bottled in Bond. 50% ABV.

Nose: Nutty with notes of caramel and mint/menthol.

Mouth: Warm in the mouth with notes of cinnamon candies, oak, and roasted peanuts.

Finish: On the shorter side of medium length. Peanut butter, milk chocolate, and oak.

Thoughts: When I am relaxing, I usually drink bourbon out of an old-fashioned glass. I had my initial pour in one of these glasses, it was delicious. To me, this bourbon doesn't fare as well in a Glencairn glass. But that's ok, I hate drinking out of a Glencairn. I'm upgrading this to a like.

I asked the PR guy and he assured me that this is the same juice that they sell at the gift shop, just now more widely available. I guess it just goes to show that our palates are constantly evolving. Two and a half years ago, I was just starting to like grain-forward bourbons. But as I tried more of them (everything from some of the Willett brands to Beam to a lot of the more inexpensive Heaven Hill stuff), I developed an affinity toward them. Sure I don’t like them nearly as much as a $100 15-year-old barrel-proof bourbon, but I totally grade on a curve. This makes a decent everyday sip when neat and a more-than-decent mixer. They recommend an Old Fashioned and I will happily concur with that.

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Knob Creek 15-Year-Old Bourbon

It was Father’s Day this past weekend and I got the exact thing I wanted: no projects for the day. I figured that it was only fair since I spent a month building the garden my wife wanted for Mother’s Day. A month of work for her present, a weekend of rest for mine. It was glorious. I just sat in my chair and read a book. (More on that in the coming weeks.)

Of course, my wife is a wonderful lady who felt that a lack of something that needed to be done wasn’t enough of a present. Instead, she completely spoiled me. She went to get takeout for both lunch and dinner (the purchase of which was a nice gift from my daughter). And while she was out getting the takeout, she stopped off at our corner liquor store to get me something special.

She walked in and saw this attractive bottle of Knob Creek on the shelf. She hadn’t heard of it and had no idea what the price should be so she asked the kid behind the counter how much it was. When they looked it up and found out it was about $100, they decided on a whim that she needed to get a 15% discount on it.

I thought that was really nice. Never had that happen there before. Sometimes it is good to be a regular at your local place.

Knob Creek 15-Year Limited Edition

Purchase Info: $84.59 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN (They gave us a 15% discount randomly on the purchase, which was nice.)

Price per Drink (50mL): $5.64

Details: Release number: KC001, 15 year age statement, 50% ABV.

Nose: Vanilla custard with cinnamon and nutmeg, oak.

Mouth: Strong oak. Notes of ginger, vanilla and mint.

Finish: Warm and long. Nice spicy heat that lasts a while right down in the center of your chest. Lingering notes of oak, brown sugar and baking spice.

Thoughts: This is delicious! Rich and thick. Lots of oak and spice. I'm not sure I'm super happy with the $100 price point, but since it was a Father's Day present from my wife, I don't have to worry about the cost too much. Plus as a limited release, I know that it will cost more than if it became a regular release just because they made less. And heck, even $100 is still better than the outrageous price that Brown-Forman just announced for this year’s Birthday Bourbon ($130!!!).

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Knob Creek 12-Year-Old

Well, I feel horribly out of touch right now.

Apparently Knob Creek released a 12-year-old Limited Release bourbon sometime in late 2019 that I either missed or ignored. These things happen. I see so many press releases (though none from Beam since I seem to have fallen off of their radar) that I sometimes look past the PR emails to the emails that will pay my bills. I try to read a lot of articles about bourbon in order to stay up on things, but since I gave up Twitter, I see less and less of those. And even if I read it, I almost never look at the ones about limited releases because I’m not the type of person to go hunting them anymore. If it isn’t sent from a distillery rep, I usually don’t review them. Mostly because I usually can’t afford them (freelancer…).

But that isn’t the reason I feel horribly out of touch at the moment. Apparently after Knob Creek 12 year old was announced as a limited release, it became part of the regular Beam lineup. And it did so at a halfway decent price point too. Which is pretty cool. We need more bourbons with age statements that aren’t priced more than three-quarters of the way to a C note.

So when I was doing my online COVID/Quarantine booze delivery orders and noticed a Knob Creek 12-year-old on the Total Wine website, I was a bit shocked. I knew nothing about it, except that I wanted it. But I needed to go to the store to pick it up. So I had to wait.

I didn’t have to wait long however as I found an excuse to run to Menards a day or so later and figured that I might as well stop into Total Wine “as long as I was nearby.” I mean making a special trip to a store where you just placed a hundred dollar plus order a day or two earlier would be silly. But stopping in as you happened to drive past? Well, that just makes sense. They have a lot of things available in the store that you can’t get for delivery.

Knob Creek 12-year-old

Purchase Info: $59.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville.

Price per Drink (50mL): $4.00

Details: 12 year age statement. 50% ABV.

Nose: Oak, floral, cherry cough drops, and caramel.

Mouth: Dry, caramel, rich vanilla, wintergreen, oak, and cinnamon.

Finish: Warm and long. Follows the mouth.

Thoughts: This is delicious! I really like it. While tasting this, I was struck by an intense craving for a root beer float. Which makes sense since a lot of the flavors in the mouth, vanilla, caramel, and wintergreen, are those that also lend their flavors to root beer. This, however, does not taste like a root beer. For one thing, it is very nicely oaky and dry. It is not at all sweet. It is so good, however!

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The BourbonGuy.com "Stuck at Home" Bourbon Brackets: Four Roses Small Batch Select vs Knob Creek & Henry McKenna Bonded vs 1792 Bonded

It has been a super weird week. On Saturday I was on the deck having drinks in a t-shirt. Sunday and Monday it snowed almost half a foot. And now today, everything has melted and you could be back out there in a light jacket since it is about 45°F or so. But it wasn’t only the weather that has led this to be a bit weird. Monday morning we had a freezer scare since it was so overloaded that the door popped back open after we left the room (luckily we didn’t lose much). Tuesday our washing machine broke, filled with water and overflowed even though it was not on. And yesterday I fixed said washing machine after the new part arrived. As I said, it’s been a weird week.

I also ventured out of the house for basically the first time since our lockdown (I’ve gone on walks with our pups). Man. Folks at my local ACE Hardware do not give a shit about social distancing. No masks or gloves for the employees. To pay you need to stand on either side of a counter that’s only a foot and a half wide. And the employees sidle right up next to you to ask if you need help. It took all I had to not answer with “Yeah, you can get your ass 6 feet back outta my face!” If I get this damn thing, I’m blaming my local ACE Hardware.

Anyway, that’s not why you’re here. You want to know what happens in Round Two of the “Stuck/Stay at Home” Brackets.

Four Roses Small Batch Select vs Knob Creek Bourbon

Whiskey 1 (Knob Creek)

Nose: Mint, caramel, wintergreen, brown sugar cinnamon candies

Mouth: Mint, cinnamon candies, caramel, hints of vanilla

Finish: Medium length, notes of cinnamon and dried grains

Whiskey 2 (Four Roses Small Batch Select)

Nose: Anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel, vanilla

Mouth: Follows the nose with anise, cinnamon, mint, caramel, and vanilla

Finish: Medium length. Notes of anise, cinnamon, mint, and vanilla.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

Whiskey # 2 is the clear winner here. #1 is good and I could see it winning against other competition but the rich and layered spiciness of #2 is too much.

Reveal: Based on price alone, this should have come as no surprise. Whiskey 2 cost me twice as much as Whiskey 1. But as price and quality are only kinda connected in the whiskey world, we still needed to do the tasting. But in this case, the more expensive whiskey won. No upset: Number 1 Seed Four Roses Small Batch Select advances to the Finals over Number 5 seed Knob Creek.

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Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond vs 1792 Bottled in Bond (store selection)

Whiskey 1 (1792 Bottled in Bond, South Lyndale Liquors selection)

Nose: Vanilla, caramel, cherry, nutmeg

Mouth: Nutmeg, caramel, vanilla

Finish: Medium length and warm. Dusty oak and caramel.

Whiskey 2 (Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond)

Nose: Vanilla sugar, cinnamon, mint, tropical fruit

Mouth: Vanilla, cinnamon, mint

Finish: Medium length and warm. There is a "pop" of fruit, tannic oak, and baking spice.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

Kind of a boring matchup compared to the others. These are both right along the lines of your stereotypical "bourbon" notes with very little variance from that baseline. That said, I'm enjoying #2 just a little more so #2 wins.

Reveal: Though I would happily take a glass of either of these, it looks like we have our first upset of the second round. It is only an upset because of where I bought this particular bottle, though. Most of the stores that I frequent sell Henry McKenna for over $40, but Total Wine offers it for just over $30, though they don’t have it very often. And since I bought it at that $30-ish price point, Henry McKenna got the #3 seed while the bourbon that it beat cost over $40, sat at #2 and got a first-round bye. Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond wins and advances to the Finals over a local store selection of 1792 Bottled in Bond.

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The BourbonGuy.com "Stuck at Home" Bourbon Brackets: Round 1, Knob Creek vs. Johnny Drum and Old Forester vs. Very Old Barton

If you are like most Americans, you are stuck in the house right now. The novel Coronavirus has most of us living under a Stay-at-Home order. If you’re like me, this isn’t a huge change. I mean, I hardly ever leave the house anyway. Mostly what is has meant is that my wife is working from home. But she is in her office in the basement while I’m in my office upstairs. We hardly ever see each other during the day unless I am delivering her a coffee refill.

Huh, starting to sound like working from home has gained her an assistant. I wonder how much that pays…

Anyway, this is the first competition in the Stuck at Home Bourbon Brackets. The brackets created because I can’t leave the house to go whiskey shopping and I don’t want to sit on the phone asking the poor guy on the other end which of the many things I’ve never reviewed that he has on the shelf in order to place a delivery order.

First up, is our division one, number four seed Johnny Drum Private Stock versus number five seed Knob Creek.

Johnny Drum is a product of the Willett distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. Long known for their prowess in sourcing barrels, they started distilling their own juice early on in the last decade. Now that their own distillate has started to come of age, they are using that in some of their brands. Not having followed up with Willett lately, I have no idea if Johnny Drum is one of those.

Knob Creek is a product of the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. It was a founding member of the Small Batch Collection and one of the first Small Batch bourbons to be advertised as such. It is supposed to regain its nine-year age statement soon, though this particular bottle doesn’t have that yet.

Johnny Drum vs. Knob Creek

Note: These were tasted blind in the following order. The tasting notes may be a bit strange as these were tasted at the same time and may have influenced one another.

Whiskey 1-Knob Creek

Nose: Oak, mint, almond, nutmeg and a hint of brown sugar.

Mouth: Dry and spicy. Nutmeg, cinnamon, mint and dried grains.

Finish: Hot and of medium length. Mint, nutmeg, oak and a hint of fruit.

Whiskey 2-Johnny Drum

Nose: Toffee, strawberry jam, and a hint of oak at the end.

Mouth: Lots of caramel and cinnamon. Ripe red fruit.

Finish: Warm and on the longer side of medium length. Lingering Strawberry jam.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

This is an interesting set. Both are good but one is sweeter and fruitier and one is much drier. Usually, when we do these head to head, the sweeter one wins. But in this case, I am enjoying the spicy dryness more than the sweet strawberry jam notes. I'm picking whiskey 1 to move on.

Reveal: Whiskey 1 is #5 Knob Creek. Whiskey 2 is #4 Johnny Drum. Knob Creek wins. I get Knob Creek for $25 and Johnny Drum is almost $10 more for a 750 mL. Neither of these are terribly expensive, but it is interesting to see the lower price come out on top. Though when the lower-priced option is from the largest producer of bourbon on the planet…maybe not so surprising.

Very Old Barton 100 proof vs. Old Forester 100 proof

Note: These were tasted blind in the following order. The tasting notes may be a bit strange as these were tasted at the same time and may have influenced one another.

Whiskey 1-Very Old Barton 100 proof

Nose: Mint, cotton candy, ginger

Mouth: Warm and spicy with cinnamon, vanilla, caramel, and oak

Finish: Warm and of medium length with a pleasant oaky bitterness.

Whiskey 2-Old Forester 100 proof

Nose: Toffee, mint, Cedar, vanilla

Mouth: Thick mouthfeel. Sweet with a lot of caramel, cinnamon, nutmeg, cedar

Finish: Warm and medium length with an antiseptic note of mint, caramel, and oak.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

The antiseptic notes on whiskey two just aren't sitting right with me today. On another day the thick and sweet mouthfeel might be enough to carry the day. But today at least, Whiskey One is tasting oh-so-good. Whiskey One advances.

Reveal: Whiskey one is Very Old Barton 100 proof. Whiskey two is Old Forester 100 proof. Very Old Barton wins. Talk about an upset! When I travel to Kentucky, Very Old Barton 100 proof is often available for less than $15. When available, it is my “drinking back at the campsite” bourbon while I stay in Kentucky. $12.99 is a whole other level of value. I put it in the brackets because I was originally basing this competition on 100 proof versions of what was in the Bottom-Shelf Brackets, but I really didn’t expect it to hang with the more expensive competition. I should have guessed that this delicious bourbon wouldn’t disappoint.

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