Booker's Bourbon Batch 2016-04 "Bluegill Creek"

Pours a clear golden orange color, nice legs. Smells intensely of oak with some caramel and vanilla pitching in, some earthy tobacco type notes too. With water, some cinnamon spice emerges. Taste is rich and sweet, lots of caramel, toffee, oak, and vanilla, some spice kicking in too, maybe cinnamon? And booze, tons of booze. Mouthfeel is full bodied, rich, and yes, boozy af. I mean, yeah, I have a baby beer palate, but this is pretty tough. But tasty, and not the worst heat I’ve experienced. A little dry in the finish as well. Overall, a little hot, but it’s a really good bourbon. Beer Nerd Musings: I haven’t had anything specifically marked as a Booker’s Bourbon barrel aged beer and I don’t see many out there either. Allagash apparently made a Booker’s aged variant of their Curieux, but I must admit, the tripel style is not my favorite way to showcase a bourbon barrel treatment. Still, I’d assume this would make for a pretty good barrel for beer aging… but then, what wouldn’t?

Bookers (Bluegill Creek Batch) 6yrs, 5months.  64% abv. Bookers is the one of the 4 premium Jim Beam small batch bourbons and is barrel proof.  It’s an excellent example of just how good Jim Beam bourbon can be.  The smell is really nice with burnt sugar, caramel, brown sugar, oak, mint. The taste is awesome, even sipping it neat you get a blast of flavor. Caramelized Sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, oak, toffee.  For being barrel proof this is really enjoyable neat or with some water.  The finish is long with the same Brown Sugar with some Cinnamon, Spice, Burnt Toffee Sugar and vanilla  Bookers is great, it’s certainly my favorite of the premium Jim Beam line. I have sampled multiple batches and some are better than others but  I haven’t come across a bad Bookers yet.   Overall Grade: A

Let's be real: the proof on this is not fooling around. Bottle lists 128 and the friends I've shared with say you can really tell. Even having largely immunized my tastebuds over the years this runs a bit hot and piquant. But ultimately I quite enjoy that aspect and you can tame things down with a bit of water should you wish. Playing it straight, I get a smooth, grainy sweetness that rises to float above the spiky warmth - almost like cornbread topped with thick caramel sauce. Flavorful but not rich or heavy. Nose will open your sinuses with a light chocolate edge and a tinge of white pepper. Adding water changes things up quite a bit. Nose shifts toward cinnamon cereal and the caramel flavors bloom to fill your mouth.

to the eye: color is a lush, caramel in color, legs fast moving. to the nose: sweetness of caramel up front with lingering oak undertone. to the taste: initial sweetness, followed by cinnamon burn, oak after flavior, mouth stayed quit warm, nice smooth warmth heading down the throat. Despite the high proof was easy to drink neat, if your accustomed to having the alcohol burn. Please and after taste remains for some time. added some water, really calmed the proof down to the smell, and eleminated much of the alcohle bite, without affecting the sweetness and cinomon burn. A pleasant relaxing dram...

Nose- peanut butter, vanilla, brown sugar, hazelnut, caramel, toasted oak Palate-Toasted oak, peanut oil, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon Finish- Medium, chewy finish with notes of cinnamon spice and caramel Great bourbon. Very good nose and the palate is nice and balanced, a palate that developed and changed as I drank it. I love the peanut notes I get on the nose and palate. Extremely balanced for 128 proof and drinks much lower than the proof.

If you like your bourbons hot, spicy, and high proof, this one's for you. Did I mention it's spicy? Oddly, I added a few drops of water, which only to seemed to make it spicier. While ita not exactly my cup of tea (glass of whiskey?), there's a lot here that I can appreciate. The only other bourbon that I've had that manages to avoid tasting like a small blowtorch at this ABV is William Larue Weller.