Little Book Chapter 4: Lessons Honored

Blind pour on a summer evening. Color: light amber, very slow teardrop legs. Nose is bountiful cherry, gala apples, figs, cinnamon, banana, brown sugar, maple syrup and oak in the distant background. The oak and a bit of varnish and tobacco come more forward with time. Bits of rye bread and spearmint in there as well. This is a 9.5/10 nose. I could breath this in all day. Hot and sweet, viscous with a blast of maple, brown sugar and spice with a turn toward an oily, oaky finish propped up some of the fruit esters. Wow. The allspice, clove, peppermint, dash of white pepper all mixed in with brown sugar and vanilla - then the oak/earthy and sweet tobacco notes. This finish just keeps going. What is this?!? It’s big and bold without pushing too far in any one direction. Not tannic or drying. Not bitter in any way. No funky esters. This is so well tied together. This is so Heaven Hill turned up to 11 but with more dark/sweet/earthy notes than I’ve gotten from, say, ECBP. There are no big dill or cedar notes so not MGP. No Turkey bubblegum funk. No Barton banana funk. No over the top stonefruit and vanilla BT characteristics. No Beam peanut funk. I’m sticking with HH but who knows. I’m still getting wood, sweet cherries and tobacco with vanilla sugar minutes later. Is this a blend? Sweet Heaven this is good. Very good. Good as in best pour I’ve had in a while. Age - maybe a sweet 9-13 years, leaning toward the 10-12 but sweet enough that it could be younger. Whatever it is they yanked it at exactly the right moment. Oily enough to be an aged, wheated mashbill but oh so good. Better than Larceny Barrel Proof good. And so wonderfully spicy. I’m out on the mashbill a parts of the nose say high rye but the oily finish is uncanny. This - somewhere in the top 5. Better than Bardstown Distillers series #3, Cream of Kentucky 13 and possibly even the likes of Weller FP (almost too earthy some days) or ECBP A119 or B520…. Won’t hurt you like Stagg Jr or GTS. This is at least Kentucky Owl batch 10 territory. Better than my beloved Lux Row Double barrel or Garrison’s Cowboy?? I’m afraid to say - this is quintessential, well executed and crave-worthy. Absolute thanks to @pkingmartin for whatever this is - it could be just about the best bourbon I’ve ever had. Reveal: Little Book Chapter 4 Wow. Well done Beam, we’ll done! I’m guessing the brown rice whiskey imported some of the unusual viscosity? This also seemed much more fruit forward than typical KC or Bookers (although I always thought Bakers had a noticeable amount of cherry). Being a blend it does have some unfair advantages - but I don’t care. Expressions like this one leave me asking why we aren’t seeing more blended American whiskey expressions outside of Barrell? The creative license beyond blending barrels from a single distiller has clear potential and in this case tremendous results (although it’s all still Beam at the end of the day). I will say that High West Bourye and WM Tarr fall short of what this accomplishes but I say keep at it because this is phenomenal.

Rating: 19/23 N: Spicy, musty wood. A hint of tangerine with a faint faint hint of mineral. Some sweet, dusty corn and a hint of that Beam peanut start coming through. P: Spicy, slightly musty wood. Less full than Booker's Shiny Barrel, but perhaps a bit more complex with all of the mustiness. This is also less aggressive, harsh, and tart than Booker's Country Ham. Maybe I'm tasting the rice with the must and very slight nuttiness. Rather than tangerine, I'm tasting more of lemon and cherry. This is a faint tad oilier and certainly less harsh with more of a full mellowness. This kind of inhabits the rich, fairly sweet, substantially full, and decently spiced (though not hot-spicy) corner of the spectrum. F: The mineral and musty nuttiness carry through. I feel like I should be getting more here, but I'm not really. - Conclusion - I wouldn't say that this is better than the regular Booker's line, but it's kind of more complex and mature with an interesting character to it. I think I prefer this to the Country Ham, but Shiny Barrel is still my favorite so far. This kind of reminds me of Wild Turkey Rare Breed 116.8 - not in its exact flavor, but in how it's a high-proof dram with a funky combination of flavors that makes it taste both young and old. This also a bit reminiscent of Corsair Grainiac in how it adds odd, nuanced flavors. Overall, the lowest I can imagine for this is a 17. Realistically, I think it's in the 18 to 20 range. I think it beats Booker's Country Ham, but I wouldn't say that it's better than Booker's Shiny Barrel. It's some solid competition for Wild Turkey Rare Breed. I think that they're fairly different styles, but quality-wise, I'd say this is pretty close to Booker's Shiny Barrel, which is a 19 that I could imagine going to a 20. In the end, I'm going with a 19 for this one. Thank you @pkingmartin for the sample!

I just did No. 3, might as well go right into No. 4. So far, 2 and 3 were great. No. 4 is a blended American whiskey, comprised of bourbon and rye, including a bourbon with oat in the mash. Should be interesting. Nose: The rye content is immediately evident. Dill, black pepper, black licorice. Clove and nutmeg. Orange peel. Carrot cake, toffee, and caramel. Heavy brown sugar. Black tea, tobacco, and oak. Layered and powerful. Awesome. Palate: Caramel, brown sugar, toffee, and vanilla. Peach tea, apricot, and carrot cake. Cinnamon, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, allspice, and oak spices. Bitter cocoa and tobacco. Very heavily oaked. Good stuff. Finish: Bitter cocoa, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, black pepper, black tea, tobacco, orange peel, sawdust, and more heavy oak bitterness. Long finish--as you'd expect of a 122.8 proof whiskey. 5/5. My favorite Chapter of the Little Book series. Jim Beam dialed into something spectacular with this combination of whiskies. The product is greater than the sum of its parts with Chapter 4. The nose, palate, and finish all exist separately. The flavor profiles I get at each phase are unique, exemplifying the best traits of different whiskies that comprise this blend. You may this be able to find this one. If you enjoy any Chapter that precedes this in the Little Book series, I couldn't recommend this enough.

I’ve heard some great things about Booker’s Little Book series and my brother is always raving about them, so I jumped on this bottle when it came out, opened it with him and some friends then forgot about it until recently. On the nose it starts off with freshly baked cinnamon rolls then some fruit of sour cherry, candied orange peel, before leading into dark chocolate covered roasted peanuts, cola, and finally those barrel notes of leather, dusty oak and barrel spices with a medium ethanol burn. The taste starts with a medium mouthfeel of creamy peanut butter caramel rice pudding, then cinnamon rolls with those fruits of sour cherry and candied orange zest, again leading to dark chocolate, barrel notes of leather, dusty oak and barrel spices before a medium to high ethanol bite. The finish is medium length with cherry cola, caramel peanut butter rice pudding, leather and lots of barrel spices lingering. Overall, this has a lot of nice flavors in it and I like the addition of the rice whiskey that gives me this rice pudding flavor. I’m happy that I got to try this and drink with some friends but wouldn’t chase another bottle.

This is the first chapter of Little Book that I have landed. Have heard some pretty high praise for these so I am very interested to see how this stacks up. Nose checks the traditional boxes. A little vanilla and some brown sugar with a little hint of ethanol. First sip is a mouthful of cinnamon. Wow, I was not really expecting that from the somewhat traditional nose. There is some complexity here with some very subtle fruit notes on the edges and a fairly strong hint of french toast. On the backside that cinnamon heat just lingers on as the dram comes to a toasty end. Final thought on this one is that they could have called it Chapter 4 Cinnamon French Toast and called it a day. Based on the layers I really enjoyed this one, but as with many of these one off experiments I can see why some give it poor marks. For me this is a great pour and I definitely recommend it (especially for all of you cinnamon fans).

NOSE: Caramel, dried orchard fruit, butterscotch, spice, olde candy, biscuits, touch herbal, oak and banana. Super sweet and oddly dry aroma that comes through like a Canadian whiskey with a bit more rustic bourbon character. PALATE: Dried corn/raw grain, butterscotch, banana, dried orchard fruit, spice, olde candy, copper, touch herbal and farmy and peanutty. Dry and warm it has an overall earthiness to it that kicks up the complexity over the sweet aroma. The palate of this Little Book Chapter 04: Lessons Honored is much more beam-like than the aroma. FINISH: Medium -> Malty hay, banana, butterscotch, dried apples and baking spice fades to a soft, oddly sweet, metallic note.