262. Jim Beam Rye Whiskey Review

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

Well, you know who likes to give back to their community is one of our sponsors, Jim. Chris Cruz from Cruz Customs Flags. He does custom flags out of bourbon barrels. Not only does that, he do that, but he's also using veterans to build those flags with. I've got one right behind me, Jim. I know you got one on your bar. Beautifully handcrafted, repurposing a bourbon barrel, not throwing it away, not making it into smoking chips, making a piece of Americana, right?

It's something that'll last probably quite a few years longer than a bourbon barrel would, right?

Not only that, but he's using veterans to build those pieces of art with. You know, you got to love that. But he's also giving back to his community at all times, helping veterans out like ourselves. He is really in tune to that. Go check his site out, uh, cruise customs, flags.com. You can buy his flags on their key holders. Jim's got some, uh, these neat little cups that are chart inside made out of oak that you can put a cocktail in.

They call those the whiskey grail, don't they?

Yeah, that is, it kind of reminds you, you know, when you think of a grail, but truly a whiskey grail right there. Go check those out at Cruz Customs Flags. Purchased from this guy, veteran owned, veteran operated, making a veteran built product.

Hello everybody, I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Room. Today, Mike, it's another Craft Distillery Monday. Definitely don't have a craft distillery on the show today. Well, maybe one of the first craft distilleries. If you go way back in time. 200 years. 200 years.

Yeah. It is definitely not a craft distillery anymore. It's one of the most well-known distilleries in the world. You go anywhere and you see their white label just poking out. And I know what everybody's saying, Jim. It's just Jim being standard, but it's not.

Yeah, we're not doing Jim Beam bourbon today. We're doing Jim Beam rye, pre-prohibition style.

Now, I don't know if that's just marketing or what it is, but what's pre-prohibition mean to you?

Well, it means whatever recipe they were using before prohibition, how they were making their whiskey before prohibition.

I don't know why you'd go back and say that. Why would you just kept making that same recipe or unless somebody said, I want to dig this recipe.

I think it's probably a foregone conclusion that Jim Beam probably more or less uses the same recipe they use since pre-prohibition times. Now they may have changed a few things like barrel entry proof and some other things like that, but I would say that the mash bill and the yeast and the things that they do is probably not changed in a very long time. More than likely still, but they were doing pre-pro.

Yeah, I would think so. Now they did do a change on this in the last couple of years. It went from 80 proof up to 90 proof. Well, that's a good choice. And it stayed about that same price point of $22.

Okay, so we got a rye whiskey out of a big worldwide distiller that's going to be available on every shelf in every liquor store. no matter where you are.

Yeah, you would think that's the key to it right there is I don't know about worldwide on the 90 proof because I think some countries limit distilleries to the 80 proof standard. That's true. So that could be an issue with it. You know, it's got the green label, so you know it's right, right? Their standard bottle. They kind of go talk about that. They went back to it because it's a dry spiced rye with a long soft finish, making it great for whiskey cocktails. Now, is that true? Heck, who knows. We're about to find out. We are about to find out. Now, have you had this before? I haven't. Heck, I don't even think I've ever... Usually I watch what people pour into my cocktail, and usually around here is old Forester rye or the old granddad.

Now, you know, Mike, I would say chances are probably pretty good that one time or another in our life, somebody's pulled this from the well and made a cocktail for us. More likely. I would think so. I probably think so.

Now, this is a non age stated whiskey. We believe it's about 40 years old and it has undisclosed mash bill. Nobody really knows what it is. Well, let's see what that grain tells us.

Well, let's know this. Cheers. Cheers. A little bit of ethanol on the nose there. It's grainy a little bit. It's got a decent amount of oak, but not getting a lot of like, I mean, it's got a good color to it, but there's not a lot of like barrel char to it. Not a lot of like smokiness or toasted kind of.

It has more of a nose for a bourbon and that would lead me to believe that the mash bill on this is a Kentucky rye. Meaning it at least has 51% rye and probably a high content of corn. There's some corn in this. And probably the very least amount of malted barley, I would believe. Yeah. Yeah, I'm getting a little banana taffy on this. It doesn't have a real sweet nose to it though. I get that corn sweetness from it, that banana taffy, maybe a little bit of sweet tea to it, just that tea note.

But the ethanol is a little bit, it's a little bit heavier than I would like, I think, on the nose. You getting any spice on that though? Yeah, definitely getting a little bit of spice. I just can't get past the graininess. It's got a big grain nose to it. So I'm definitely thinking it's got some pretty decent corn content.

I might think this is younger than four years because they didn't put bottled and bond on it, but that could just be them. They're not big into the whole bottle and bond scene.

Yeah, I would say probably not. I mean, it's 90 proof, so there's another reason why. Maybe they just don't feel like they need to do it for their $22 bottles, right?

Yeah. Well, heck, let's try this.

Let's taste it. Cheers. Definitely not a sweet rye. Oak is pretty prevalent on it.

That spice is attacking the forward part of my tongue, not the back end, but the forward part of my tongue. It's got a super distinctive taste to it.

I'm not picking up any fruits. Is that maybe a little bit of that banana you were talking about?

I'm getting that barrel char you were talking about on this, that smokiness. You get a little bit now?

Yeah. And it is, they were spot on about the dryness of it. It's dry. It's starting to build a little bit of a hug there. I've only had one good sip. I am surprised that the finish on it is a little longer than I expected.

But I'm not getting a whole lot of spice on the back of my palate.

If I'm getting anything, it's some black pepper.

Yeah, I could get black pepper on this. I'm getting actually a little bit of pecan on this and maybe even a little bit of pecan shell of that bitterness drying to it. But more of that smoky charcoal flavor, a little bit of tobacco on that. Maybe those swifter sweet cigars.

Yeah, this wouldn't be high on my list on a sipping rye. But it's holding its own. The finish is longer. Like I said, the finish is a bit longer than I expected it would be for a $22 bottle.

Yeah, I think it's got a good soft medium finish on it. And they're spot on about a cocktail, I believe. If you're going to be putting some good simple syrup in your cocktail, you're going to be putting even some maple syrup in it from our good friends up at Seldom Seen Farms. This right here would be perfect with that type of cocktail that's You know, you already got your sweetness from your syrup. You're not going to get much from this.

No, you're going to get your spice from this. Right. Going back to the nose, I'm still getting that, that ethanol burn. Yeah.

I'm just getting a little bit more of now like chewing tobacco taste from it. Um, like Levi, Garrett, big red. Um, it's making my mouth water a little bit.

Yeah, I have to say that the grain is forward on this. The spice is a little more subtle than I thought it would be, but I am getting that black pepper heat in the back of my palate. The hug is pretty substantial. For $22, you can't go wrong here. This is not your sipping rye.

No, definitely not a sipping ride. Now we are drinking this neat out of some Arglene Cairns that you can get on our website. So that's how we're drinking it. We're not drinking it in a cocktail. That's probably the only way I would drink this is in a cocktail and make some fine summer cocktails. If you're looking to have some spicy food, maybe some Mexican food or some Caribbean food, something like that. Maybe some Asian. That's a pair perfect for that.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a good bottle. Yeah. I mean, if somebody says, is Jim is Jim Beam, right? OK. And when you ask him for a right cocktail, I would definitely answer the question. Sure. For 22 bucks. How are you going to beat that?

I mean, 90 proof. It's not 80 proof. I think it's worth the money for it. If you're looking for it, it's definitely going to be down. It depends on the liquor store. The liquor store I went today, it was on the shelf with all the Jim Beam products right up next to it. I'm glad I picked it up. It's a good experience to have. It's good to know what it is. Let our listeners know what it is if they're looking for a little bit more spice in their cocktail. This would be it right here. If you're looking for a candy sweet ride, this is not your ride. Definitely not. Well, hey, another good review, Jim, of a Monster Craft distillery.

They're definitely doing the craft, no doubt about it, but they're far beyond the capacity of our friendly neighborhood craft distillery. Yes, they are.

I just thought it would be a good review for us to have Jim Beam on. Once again, we haven't had a Jim Beam product or a Jim Beam review since last year's vacation. We did Jim Beam down there in Mexico. A good, good rye whiskey.

Well, Jim, where can people find us on social media? Well, you can find us on all the social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. You can find us on TikTok. You can find us on our private Facebook group called The Bourbon Roadies. Got a whole bunch of people on there, good friends, sharing whiskey, sharing pictures, sharing stories, sharing life experiences. Good people hanging out. Talking about whiskey.

Yeah. The other place you can find us is on our website, right? The bourbon road.com. You can find our articles on. I know, I know, I know I haven't written any articles in a while. I've been too blocked. I got a lot of stuff going on. I apologize for it. I'm going to try to get back to writing those again. Life just kind of gets in the way sometimes and you got to take care of other things so it doesn't overtake you.

But on there, you can find our articles. You can find our reviews.

We haven't missed any reviews. So you want to check those reviews out while you're staying in the liquor store. Like I said, the bourbonroad.com, you can find our swag on there. And we'd appreciate if you would go on there and buy that swag. Those whiskey glasses that we're drinking out of right now, our decanters, our whiskey flask, our coffee cups, and our two t-shirts, our ball caps. Go on there. That money helps us get down to Bourbon Road.

So we do two shows a week. Every week on every Monday, we do a craft distillery Monday episode like today's with the Jim Beam pre-prohibition rye. Every Wednesday, we'll do a full-length episode. We'll have a couple of expressions on. We'll have a guest on. We'll travel somewhere. We'll give you a really good show. We'll deep dive on a subject and we'll give you two 30-minute haves. We'll get you to work and get you home. Every week, we have two episodes. We'd love to have you listen to both. Mike, how can they be absolutely sure they won't miss one?

Well, you want to look at the app you're using, whether it's Spotify, whether it's Apple iTunes, whether it is Amazon Music or Amazon Podcast, whether it's even on YouTube you listen to us on. You want to go up to the top. Usually there will be a check sign, a plus sign or a little sign that says subscribe. You want to hit that and that'll let your Apple let you know that, hey, these two jokers got a show today. then what you want to do is scroll on down hit that five star review because you know who will pay you if isn't the big bad booty daddy of bourbon heck he'll come with one bottle of jim beam ryan one hand and another bottle of jim beam in his other hand drink all night long you'll be laughing giggling hey we might have to call jim to help us out but at the end of the night you're going to get that five star review those comments but seriously those help open up doors that gets great whiskies in our hand gets us into Beautiful distilleries to tell you all about, set up your trips, have great guests on. We'd really appreciate it.

Well, Mike and I are very approachable. We'd love to hear from you. If you've got an idea for a show, if you've got an idea for a guest, we'd love to have you reach out to us. Like Mike said, you can go to our website. On there, we have a Contact Us page. Fill it out. Quick message. We'll get it. We'll respond. You can also send us an email. I'm jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's mike at the bourbonroad.com. But like we always say, probably the best way is to hit up our DMs on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief. And we'll see you down.