472. Beam Me Up, Toddy: A Trek Through Jim Beam's 2025 Rarities
Jim & Todd taste four 2025 Jim Beam limiteds: Little Book Ch. 9, Little Book Infinite 2nd Ed., Booker's Reserves tequila finish, and Knob Creek 21-Year.
Tasting Notes
Show Notes
Beam me up, Roadies! Jim Shannon and Todd Ritter take the USS Bourbon Road on a deep-space mission through four of Jim Beam's most exciting 2025 limited releases. From Freddie Noe's ever-evolving Little Book blends to a knob-Creek age statement that boldly goes where no Knob Creek has gone before, this episode is a full-throttle tour of what the House of Beam is capable of when it's firing on all cylinders. Grab your favorite pour, set phasers to sip, and join the crew for a night of discovery.
On the Tasting Mat:
- Little Book Chapter 9 "None for Granted": A high-proof blend of 11-year Kentucky straight bourbon, 8-year Kentucky straight rye, 8-year Kentucky straight bourbon, and two different 7-year Kentucky straight bourbons. Clocks in at 121.8 proof with an MSRP of $160. On the nose, fresh green apple mingles with vanilla and a new-oak sawdust quality. The palate opens with a buttery, silky texture before delivering roasted peanut shells, Granny Smith apple, a touch of mint, and just enough warmth to remind you it's barrel strength. (00:01:28)
- Little Book Infinite (2nd Edition): Freddie Noe's evolving infinity-style blend brings together distillate from three generations — 22-year bourbon from Booker Noe's era, 10-year from Fred Noe, and 7-year from Freddie himself — combined with what remained of the first Infinite edition. Bottled at 120.8 proof with an MSRP around $200. The nose is layered with vanilla cream, cake icing, and a floral depth reminiscent of a well-aged Four Roses pour. The palate is remarkably balanced — silky, rich in caramel and vanilla with bright fruit, a touch of warehouse funk, and just a whisper of spice from across the whole flavor wheel. (00:09:23)
- Booker's Reserves 2025: The first-ever Jim Beam product finished in tequila barrels — specifically ex-El Tesoro 85th Anniversary casks — for 11 weeks. Age stated at 8 years, 10 months, and 11 days; bottled at 123.3 proof with an MSRP of $130. The nose is classic and restrained: caramel, vanilla, and oak with a hint of high-proof ethanol. On the palate, expect a drier, more structured character — caramel and vanilla are present but lack their usual sweetness, replaced by earthy, herbaceous undertones and a long, lingering finish with an almost indefinable spiced complexity. A natural candidate for pairing with sweet-tipped cigars or cocktail applications. (00:17:06)
- Knob Creek 21-Year-Old: The oldest Jim Beam release to date and the latest entry in the Knob Creek aged series, bottled at 100 proof with an MSRP of $250. The nose signals its age immediately with deep, rich oak, a light tannic note, hints of dried cherry, and just enough warehouse character to set expectations. The palate defies those expectations: velvety and surprisingly restrained in oak, delivering toasted coconut, roasted peanuts, dried cherry, a high-cacao dark chocolate note, and traces of leather and maple syrup. The finish is long, dry, and elegant. (00:26:22)
This is a stellar snapshot of what Freddie Noe and the Beam team are building right now. Whether you're chasing the generational storytelling of the Infinite, hunting a genuinely compelling extra-aged bourbon, or just curious what tequila barrels do to a Bookers-style mash, these 2025 releases make a compelling case that the House of Beam is in its finest creative era. And with Hardin's Creek warehouse expressions already on the horizon, the road ahead looks very bright indeed. Cheers, Roadies — we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.
Full Transcript
Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon.
And I'm your host, Todd Ritter. We've got a great show for you today. So grab your favorite four and join us. Bourbon, the final frontier. These are the reviews of the podcast, the bourbon road. It's endless mission to explore strange new spirits, to seek out new rise and new bourbons, to boldly go where no podcast has gone before. Welcome listeners to another episode of the bourbon road. We're going to get beamy today. Jim, what do you think? It sounds good to me. So who am I? Am I Spock or Chekhov?
What's my name? That's pretty cool.
Yeah. I thought we'd have some fun. So we've got four Jim beam limited releases to go through tonight to taste through. Uh, one of them came out back in August, but the other three are just kind of dropped pretty recently. So probably a good time to get to those. Beam me up. Let's do it. All right. So on our first glass, we've got little book chapter nine, which is none for granted. Freddie's the mastermind behind these now. And what he's done with this one is blended a 11 year Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey and eight year Kentucky straight rye whiskey and eight year Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey and two different seven years straight bourbon whiskeys. I'm sure there's like floor, you know, different floors and things like that, but proof is 121.8 MSRP is $160.
Wow. So there's, so you'll call this a seven year old whiskey, basically because the lowest age is seven.
All right. This is kind of like a sister to little book chapter eight, which, you know, this has a small component of that rye in it. Whereas chapter eight was a lot of rye with like one component of a bourbon in it. So kind of a reversal of that. Got it. So the interesting thing that hits me is like this little waft of like, uh, like some apples.
So yeah, I'm getting that. I'm also getting like, um, kind of a wood shop sawdust.
Okay. That peanut nut nut nuttiness that you sometimes gets not really prevailing on this though. A lot of vanilla.
Yeah, I have to agree with the vanilla. I think it's got a great amount of vanilla on it. Just this, uh, this new oak kind of, uh, sawdust wood shop kind of aroma is just, uh, has been intrigued.
Now the little book series started in 2017. So I think, I guess you would call this a pretty much an annual release then. All right.
I'm ready to check it out. 17 and they're on book nine now. So is that right? Let's see. So that's a, that's a little more than one a year. 17, 18, 19. Okay. Drunk math.
Yeah. Well, one came out 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. a two to three to a four to a five. If you count to 25, that's nine.
So it that's nine. Okay. Yeah. You actually have to hear on each end. Yes. All right. All right. Great nose. Love it. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. Wow. Yeah. It's got a little bit of a bite to it. A little buttery though. This is buttery.
Now I'm getting the peanut on the On the pallet.
Yep.
That's coming through a green apple.
Like Granny Smith. Oh, sawdust wood shop thing. It's just transitioned into a peanut shell.
It's warm.
It's silky smooth. It's got a little bit of butter to it. The vanilla comes through. Definitely nutty. He nutty. Nice balance of sweetness. It's not overly sweet. No, this is definitely more oak forward. Um, not mature oak, more, um, more of a new oak. Yeah. A little green. Yeah. Got a little bit of a mint note to it.
That must be that rye. Yeah. Now I couldn't find anything about like the percentages of what was what, um, it might be on those little cards, but, uh, those are so hard to read on those, but. I even have glasses, but no, it doesn't really say the percentages on that.
I think I would definitely call this out as a beam product if I had it. And I didn't know what bottle it came out of or what distillery it came from.
Yeah. I think it's got those beam notes. It's kind of become Freddie's playground a little bit too. He's been... Yeah. Actually, if you think about it, he's got quite a few playgrounds now. They come out with the Distiller Share, which we have a few of those that we could actually review at some point. And then the Booker's Reserve is kind of another playground for him, which we'll get into that one here in a little bit.
And then the infinite, what's, what's the candy bar that has the peanuts all over the outside of it and the white nougat and payday payday. Yeah. This is all payday bar all day long.
That's a good shot. I'm still getting that apple though. There's like this nice, like crisp green apple too. Yeah.
I like it. I like it. The little books have always been sort of a, a nice little surprise, a nice little, uh, interesting deviation for your day. Something a little different than what you had last year, something a little bit different than what geek you can find on the shelf today. It's always been, um, Sort of worth the price, worth getting one, you know?
Right. I've had pretty much at least a sample or a pour from all of them, but like the first three, I think. And I've heard two is one of the best, but.
I think I only have a little bit of number five left. I'm not sure how much, but. All right. I think it came with the first barrel in box. The first barrel in box was book, a little book five, I think. I believe you're correct.
Yeah. And that's actually where this number nine came from. Um, actually all these came from the beam barreled in box. I've been, uh, I joined that long ago when you guys sent out the, uh, I think I've told that before you guys sent out the code to be able to join. So I've really enjoyed that. Yeah. All right. So we move on to the infinite, which, you know, kind of treks with our Star Trek theme here. We're reaching into the infinite here. This is actually a different subset of the bookers now are a little book. Um, so it's the second edition and it's a high proof, obviously, uh, clocks in that, Oh, one 20.8. And it's almost like an infinity bottle, but an infinity, I guess they have some sort of vat or tote or something or totes. And what he did last year, he released infinity one last year, and then he added some more components to it this year. So this actually has distill it from Booker, his dad, Fred, no, and then Freddie. So it's got a distillate of all three of those in this blend, which is pretty unique. So it's got some 22 year bourbon in it, that Booker No distilled, some 10 year Fred No distillate, and some seven year Freddie. And then like I said, they, they combine it with, they combined it with what was left of infinite number one. So really interesting. Um, I guess take, and it's pretty amazing that they were, that they still had some distill it from Booker too, I think. All right, let's check it out. Yeah. So this one retails for about 200 though. It's got a little bigger price tag.
Oh my gosh. That nose is amazing. Oh, wow. That's like, I don't want to, I don't want to like say bad things here. I want to say only good things. Cause this is really great, but it kind of, it's kind of got a really like high age for Rosa's nose to it. A little morality to it.
Yeah. Really good. Okay. Wow. I'm getting a lot of vanilla. There's a, like just a heap of vanilla ice cream on that.
Yeah. I'm getting a, I'm getting, uh, like vanilla cream, like, uh, um, icing, like cake icing.
It's got some older stuff for sure.
I mean, you said 22 year from, huh? Wow.
Yeah. 10, seven.
Wow. The nose is just delightful on this. I love it. I really love it.
We're going to have to rank the end, right? I know. I know the nose on this has got me.
I'm just saying it would taste.
Yeah, but cheers. Cheers. That's really good. Oh, wow. That's really good. That's even softer than the first one. Wow.
That is an amazing pour. That's delicious. Uh, that wasn't just combining three distillates. That was carefully considering which three distillates to combine. This is, uh, this is well-crafted.
A lot of caramel on this one this time. Like it's almost like, um, Oh, it's something like, I don't say peanut brittle, but like, yeah, there's a lot more caramel than the nuttiness that the little book had, I think.
The vanilla's still there and spade. You take this across the whole flavor wheel and you're going to get a little bit of everything on it. This has got, you know, the floral, the woody, the fruity. It's, it's, uh, it's got a little bit of every part of the wheel on it. It's so well distributed. It was just a teeny little bit of funk. I bet it's coming from that 17 year, the 22 year of the, this was the 22 year. I'm sorry. Yeah. I stole five years from it.
This is good.
This is really good.
Now did you have the last one? I did not try the first one. No, the first iteration. Um, it wasn't a part of the beam, barreled and box set. So, uh, and I never saw it for retail anywhere. It kind of got like, uh, decent reviews, nothing out of the ordinary. I'm getting like some, like, like you said, there's some, a lot more fruit on this one. Um, yeah.
Yeah. It's really good. This, this really does remind me. of an overwhelmingly good Four Roses boar. I just think, and it's not Four Roses, I mean, clearly it's not, this is Jim Beam product, but it just has this great floral aroma, this wonderful, deep, rich, woody character, lots of vanilla, lots of caramel. It's the whole wheel in a glass.
Now we can probably go ahead and tell folks that we've got, there's a new, they also came out with a new set of Hardin's Creek offerings. And those are, basically they're featuring three different warehouses and we'll go into details when we review those. But folks may see them out there. I think they're retailing for about 169. One's called the owl, one's called the mushroom, and one is called the beaver. And they based it, based those names on kind of where, what Rick houses those were like the owl was one of those 10 story beam Rick houses, which are no longer made, but I guess it's just something they did back in the day. And then we're like, and 10 is probably a little too high now. So it's kind of been grandfathered in, but that's pretty amazing to have. That's a lot of bourbon in a 10 story Rick house for sure. Oh yeah, for sure. But yeah, we'll be tasting through those soon too. And those should be hitting up. I've seen them out on the shelves already. So keep your eyes peeled. If you're a big Jim beam fan.
All right. Well, the first two Todd, you're rocking my world. They're great. They're great whiskeys. Both of them little books. Um, fantastic. Fantastic. And a lot different. Yeah.
Oh wow. Go back to that first one real quick.
Okay. Okay. It's got a little bit more back of the pallet bite to it.
Yep. I think that the impedance got a little more balance and a little softer on the pallet, I guess, like you said.
Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think the infinite is, uh, definitely more balanced. It has, um, like I, like I said earlier, I think it, it represents more of the flavor wheel and that the, the older whiskeys bring in the later character. I think it's just great. It's awesome. Really good. I only brought two glasses, so I'm going to have to do something here. I guess I got to drink them, right?
What do you think about taking a break and finishing these two pours off? And then we'll come back and we've got two more beam releases to check out and see what we think.
They're pretty interesting releases. So you definitely need to stick around for the second half. This is going to be a great second half. No doubt. I am excited to try the two you brought for the second half. So stick around folks. We will be right back. All right, listeners, welcome back. Todd and I, uh, had a great break during the half there. We got to finish off both those little book. Pours that were just amazing. I had to finish them off because I only had two glasses I brought to the game. So I had to finish those off. So I made room for the next two pours. So Todd, what do we have?
Uh, first up in the second half. So we're going to keep it in the Booker's family. And this is their reserves. This is the 2025 version. And this is a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey that was finished for 11 weeks in ex tequila barrels from El Tesoro's 85th anniversary release. So this is the first time any bean product has been finished in tequila. Um, it's a blend of different whiskeys, but the, um, age statement on it's eight years, 10 months, 11 days proof is 123.3 and it, uh, retails for about 130 bucks. So this is our second, uh, tequila finished bourbon. I'm kind of interested to see how it turns out. Cause we had that one from May down, which was really interesting.
I thought. And typical of Booker's releases, they tell you exactly right down to the day, how long it's been in the barrel.
Yeah. I'm kind of disappointed. They don't have the hours and seconds, but you know, that's nitpicking.
Very detailed on the Booker's releases.
Yep. All right. The nose. Nose. Not getting the tequila. Really? Not on the nose. No, just kind of a classic, classic nose, caramel, vanilla, oak.
Maybe a little bit of, uh, ethanol singe on the nose, not much, but what was the proof again? 123.3.
Okay. That explains it. It's a little high. That's the, uh, it's the highest of the four we're having today. Nice caramel, a little bit of oak.
Um, I'm not going to say fruit, but something, something's going on there.
Now you and El Torso Tesoro fan.
I don't really know. No.
Okay. I know you like tequila every once in a while.
So I do, I do, but I don't know that I'm a fan of El Tesoro. Okay.
All right. I'm ready to try it. Cause I'm, I mentioned to see how this compares to the, the Mary Dowling that we tried. Cheers. All right. Cheers.
Okay. So serious lack of sweetness, very, um, um, dry and I'm not going to say bitter, but, um, like a caramel lacking sweetness.
Okay. I can see that. Are you getting like, um, I remember the Dowling being a little like earthy and herbaceous. This has got it, but not as much, I don't think. It's a little softer.
I think it leans in that direction for sure. I think it leans towards the earthy notes a little bit more. There definitely is not like this floral effect. or the sweet caramel or vanilla. I mean, it does have vanilla notes. It does have caramel notes, but they're like lacking sweetness. It's like, it's almost like a little more dry, a little more oak bound, if that makes sense. Yeah.
I'm like you, there's like, it's sweet, but there's like a sharpness to it as well. I can't quite put my finger on it.
It's almost like something's cutting the sweetness. It's very interesting. I think that this would pair good and, and just stay with me for a second. I think this would pair good with a sweet tip cigar.
Okay.
Something with a little, yeah. So, so something that brings a little sweetness to the game. And, uh, yeah, I think, uh, Connecticut with a sweet tip on it would be, uh, would be a good pairing for this.
So I've got to say, this is two, I mean, I enjoy this. Um, I do too. So that's two thumbs up on two tequila finishes, I guess.
Yeah. I'm not like zeroing in on the tequila here. I don't like, I'm not like saying, okay, I get the tequila. Right.
But it's really good. But I also, I think it works. I mean, doesn't, um, they don't battle each other, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
No, no, there's no, uh, there's no battle going on here. This is, uh, this is just a good sipping whiskey that lacks sweetness and sort of, uh, I don't know. It just, um, It just exhibits a nice, I just, I just get this feeling like it would be a great pairing for something with sweetness in it. Whether it be a sweet tip cigar, whether it be a piece of chocolate cake, I don't know. Something that, you know, could bring sweetness to the game to balance it out. It would be really good. Yeah. I wonder how it would do in like a bourbon Rita. I bet it would do really good. I bet it would, I bet it would be really good in a bourbon Rita.
I had to try that. Yep. Yeah. That finishes. There's something on that finish. I just cannot pinpoint. It's, um, I guess it's that, I don't know. Like, I guess it's that earthy spice. It's really, it just sits and lingers forever.
Yeah. That's really interesting. I think I want to save this for one of, uh, staticky sweet tip cigars. There you go. Yeah. You poured me some pretty good samples here, Todd. So I've still got about two ounces of each of these. So I'm going to go back and revisit them afterwards. I'm really looking forward to having a staticky sweet tip cigar with this one.
Like I said, the 21 just came in the mail. Like, Oh, I guess that was like, last week with the beam barreled in box, but I can go ahead and talk about the other bottle that came with that beam barreled in box. And for those interested, you could always, I mean, there's only a few states that allow it. I know Kentucky is obviously one of them, DC, but if you get on their website and check it out, if you're interested, I don't know how often they allow more members in or how many, you know, when folks drop out, I'm sure something like that, but they also, A few times, like they make four releases. And so what came with this one, we've talked about some of these cause we had the Worcestershire distiller share, which we both found really interesting. The Worcestershire and the Scotch finish one. This is distiller share number 10. And it's a, it's a pint. And this particular one is a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey finished in Calvados casks. which is that specific region over in, I guess it's France, right? Where they make the Apple brandies, the Calvados. And it's 110 proof. Doesn't have an age statement on it. Sometimes those do, but we'll probably try to, we've got a few of those in reserve. We may have to have another little beam me up, tidy episode with those two or something.
match bill?
I'm assuming it's the same, you know, their typical match bill, which I don't recall. I'm not good at the match bills. We've talked about that, but it does say it went in, entry proof was 120 rather than 125. And that second entry proof went in at 119 into the Cavados. it doesn't say how long it was in there either, but it might be one to check out. And that's one of those, you can only find that at the distillery. So if you folks happen to be in Bardstown and stop at Jim Beam, you might. I definitely give it a whirl or try. It's another one of those. It's like kind of Freddy's playground. And I know he's teamed up with some chefs and things to do that Worcestershire and, um, a couple of others. I think you've got, I think I've got number nine here, right?
I think you've got eight.
Eight, malt whiskey, I think. Yeah. So they're doing some really interesting stuff with that.
All right. All right.
Here comes, here comes the big boy. Here comes the big boy. Now not in proof, but this bourbon is legal enough to drink itself. Kind of. This is the knob Creek, 21 year old, the oldest to date. Um, Jim beam releases ever had underproof MSRP is pretty big. It's $250. And, um, but it's been getting rave reviews and I'm, I'm excited to try it and check it out with you.
So let's recap the 15, the 12, the 15 and the 18. So the 12 was delicious. It was just a, it was a fan favorite. The 15 came in over-oaked a little bit. I would agree with that wholeheartedly. And then the 18 surprisingly did not come in over-oaked and it was actually less over-oaked than the 15. Yeah. So we're sitting here looking at the 21. We're kind of scratching our heads and saying, what's it going to be? Is it going to be over-oaked? All right. So. All right.
Let's nose it. I'm ready. Let's nose it. Oh, that's really nice. That nose is complex.
I'm getting a little bit of cherry on that on a 21 year old.
It definitely shows its age on that nose, doesn't it? Yes, it does. Deep, rich oak, like definitely showing its age.
It's got that warehouse funk a little bit. A little bit of dry tannic bite, not too much, but just enough to let you know that the Oak has played a major role in this. So it's gotten big, big accolades, huh?
Yeah. Uh, I know Jason was a big fan and some of the other guys I've listened to have liked it a lot.
So I'm wondering, I mean, I'm, I'm nose again. I'm thinking, okay, so this is not going to be an Oak bomb.
The nose. I don't know. Hopefully. I mean the, like you said, the, the nose is okay. So I'm expecting some oak, but I just hope it's not as intense as that 15. I just remember opening the 15 and being, Ooh, it's like chewing on chewing on bark a little bit.
All right. Here we go. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that is nice. How did they tone that down?
That's like roasted peanuts.
Yeah. Oh, what is that? Roasted peanuts. Oh, coconut.
Oh, you know, that might be it. There's this really interesting finish on that.
That's taking my breath away. Coconut for sure.
Yeah. Like toasted coconut. Yes. Wow. Wow. That is crazy. I mean, there's like leather, there's like a little bit of like rich maple.
It is dry. It does have, um, you know, it definitely does show its age. What I call this out as 21 year old. Hell no. But it is so good that coconut cherry, um, it's even got a little vanilla in it. I mean, some of the things you would expect to like disappear at 21 years, they're still there. How did they do it? Wow. This must've been low in the racks.
Yeah. I'd be curious to know if like it was at a higher, you know, higher in the rack and they were like, all right, let's move it down maybe at some point. Yeah. Wow. I like this a lot.
Okay. I could see why Jason and some of the others were shouting. This was a great pour. It's really good. I've got a little chocolate now too. Yeah. It has, it definitely has the notes of an extra aged, mature bourbon. Um, definitely has a chocolate. There's no real smoke there, but there's definitely a chocolate note. And, uh, you're talking like char, like that oaky char. Yeah.
Char smoke kind of thing. Yeah.
So if I had to pick three top notes, the three top notes that define this whiskey, I would say super high cacao content chocolate, like very, like 90% cacao chocolate, um, cherry and coconut. It does lack sweetness, which is a good thing for a 20 year old whiskey. Right. But it's really velvety.
It's got a nice texture.
And it does have the peanuts still, no doubt.
Yeah, it's like a roasted peanut kind of thing. Wow. Well done.
Really good. Yeah, definitely. It's funny. You know, you go from 12, which was really good. Everybody liked it. 15. Whoa. Overoked set 18, much better than the 15 and then 21 knock your socks off. Wow. They learned their lesson. Did they not? Yeah. I wonder if they'll go higher. They should.
Right. You know, Pappy's at 23. Is that the, you know, and Jack Daniels is getting up there. They've got the, the 15. I think their plan is to do a 21 or something. So wonder how far they'll, they'll push the limit, I guess.
All right. Are we doing winter winter chicken dinner tonight? Yeah, but I think, you know, Let's do all four. There's only four.
Okay.
Let's just go. Let's just do it. If we only do three there, if we only do three, they're going to know the fourth. That's right.
All right. You want me to go first? Go for it, Todd. All right. My fourth place is going to be the little book chapter nine, none for granted.
Okay. So I'm definitely at number nine for the fourth place. Okay. Book chapter nine. Nice for it. Nice for really good. Yep. But clearly number four for me and you, I think. Yes.
So it just couldn't hang with the others. I guess is the best way to put it.
All right. So number three. And we may deviate a little bit on these next three, but I think they're all still going to be pretty, I think we'll be pretty close. My number three is going to be the bookers reserves.
My number three is going to be the poker's reserves.
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yep.
The tequila finishes. I like it a lot. Um, but at, you know, these very close margins, but yeah, I think the other two edged it out. All right. I think you would agree. There are just some certain things in those other two that took it to a different level than the reserves.
So these next two are battling for first place. I mean, they're battling for first place, but I want to hear what you have to say. What's your number two?
Well, let me, let me, I'm going to go back real quick because I was empty on one. Can I, can I pour more too? Yeah, let's. Cause these are really close in my, in my, uh, they are very close.
And by the way, just for anybody who's trying to keep up the two were kind of looking at very closely to see who's going to be the number one and number two is the little book infinite and the knob Creek 21. Okay. You got it. Yeah, I'm pouring them.
I'm still, I'll talk slow. Yeah. All right. So my number two is going to be the little book. Infinite. It just falls a little short of the knob Creek 21 for me. I love the complexity of it. And on a different day, it might, I might flip flop if I did them blind or something, maybe.
Oh my God, they're so close Todd. I'm going back and forth here. Yeah. I think it's clear. I think the little buck infinite is definitely the winner. I think it definitely, um, takes the lead of knob Creek 21, but man, just, just by the slightest amount.
So you're going not a knob Creek 21 is your number two. Okay.
Yep. So we're flopping. We've varied on the last two. Okay. And I, I can't explain why, but I just went back and forth on them and It's a, just a hair's width apart. It is so close. So I could, I could, on another day, I could easily say the other way around. So I think the top two little book infinite and knob Creek 21 are so close that on any given day, they could flip flop and be one and two or two and one. So yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Wow. Great whiskies. Yeah, this was fun. And this is Freddie.
Freddie is like killing it. Yep. And the one thing is there's like, they are, there's no shortage of limited additions. Like I said, we've still got the Hardin's Creek 11 years to test taste through and like, you know, they've really upped their game. I mean, it used to be just Bookers, you know, Bookers was their special release, you know, and now you've even got the Baker's 13 and. They're always bringing something new to the market, which I guess keeps interest in your brand for sure.
Wow. So good. I'm so glad that you poured me like four ounce samples so that after the show, Todd, I still have two ounces of each to go back and, and taste again. I think the little book infinite, uh, for me, etched it out a little bit. And here's the reason it's got this, uh, this broad palate appeal that just kind of touches all points on the flavor wheel. Like everything gets represented on the flavor wheel. And Knob Creek 21 is a masterclass in delivering extra aged whiskeys that don't over oak you. So, I mean, hats off to the team that put out the Knob Creek 21. Because it seems like they learned their lesson with Knob Creek 15 and they fixed it in 18 and they definitely fixed it in 21. Agreed.
And I'm going to do a gym and I'm mixing all four. Good. Let's hear it. All right. I thought the nose on the 21 might be a dominant, but no, it's kind of got Might take them a while to meld. All right, here we go. Okay. That's interesting. The, the infinite seems to be like the, the highlight of the, of the blend. Yeah. But then there's like this, yeah, at the very tail end, you get that like 21, that 21 year old oak going on in the background. Yeah. I think that's one of those where the, the parts are greater than the sum.
Well, you never know how it's going to turn out. I mean, it's always interesting to see when you, when you mix things together. We've had a couple of recent successes, but they're not all successes for sure. That's right.
All right, Todd. Great show. Yeah. I was going to say, I think by the time this one releases, uh, Thanksgiving will have already occurred. So I hope everyone has a, has had a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving folks out there. All the roadies out there listening and cheers to you all.
How are you doing your turkey this year, Todd?
I'm going to Louisville to an ants and we're having two different versions of Turkey. I think, you know, one, just the roast. And then I think one of my cousins is deep frying one.
Oh, good. Oh, I've heard those are awesome. I haven't had one, but so I'm spatch cocking and smoking one this year. So that's what I've done the last three or four years and everybody loves it. And, uh, but people in our family tend to lean towards ham. Okay. So the Turkey comes in a close second. Uh, but ever since I started smoking the turkeys, it's been a little more popular. So I'll do it again this year.
There you go. See, I didn't even question what's batch cocking is. Cause I know exactly what that is. Well, I know three splay them out, splay about cooking, cooking through.
All right. Well, it's been a great day. We had a good time. We had some, uh, little book, number nine, little book, infinite, some bookers reserves and some knob Creek 21. It's been a well rounded show of, uh, beam me up Scotty. Such a great show, such a good time to sit down with Jim beam. We're going to do it again. We're here real soon with some Hardin's Creek releases. So, uh, definitely tune us in. You can find the permanent road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, tick tock space, Facebook threads. I was going to say space book. I like it. Maybe it'll happen someday. Facebook dreads all those places. We do a show every single week. Todd and I put on an episode. A lot of times it's just Todd and I sitting down drinking through samples. Sometimes we'll have a guest on. It's always fun. We're always drinking whiskey. We hope you'll join us every single week. The best way to make sure you don't miss an episode is to scroll to the top of that app. You're on hit that subscribe button. That way when we put out an episode, you'll get a notification, letting you know that it's time to put on your headset and join us for another episode of the bourbon road podcast. When you're not listening to the show, we hope you'll jump onto Facebook and hop into the bourbon roadies group. It's our private Facebook group on Facebook and, uh, come in, say hi, join the group, talk about what you're drinking, take some pictures. It's always fun. We're always having a good time. Make sure you check out the bourbon road website, the bourbon road.com. We've got our. wears on there, we've got our swag hats, shirts, glasses, all the good stuff. Every time you buy something on the bourbon road podcast, you help us get down the road. But until the next time we will see you down the bourbon road.
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