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The 2015 Bourbon Crusade: Jim Beam

Friday, April 10, 2015

Day 1 of the 2015 Bourbon Crusade officially began at 10AM at the Jim Beam American Stillhouse in Clermont, Kentucky. We woke early to ensure that we did not miss anything: today, we were kids on Christmas morning. I chose our home base based on its strategic location, and Clermont was thirty minutes away via I-265 and I-65. The Jim Beam American Stillhouse is less than two miles off of I-65 at mile marker 112. You are first greeted by the iconic white barn emblazoned with the red Jim Beam stamp and ribbon and sitting just off of Happy Hollow Road.17225341061_2169158170_kWe pulled up in front of the Jim Beam American Stillhouse just before 10AM.  I exited the car and was hoping to catch that first whiff of the most intoxicating smell in the world—evaporating bourbon, grain (whole, ground and spent), wood and earth, a smell which I have yet to find in any of the dozens of candles each distillery labels as “Bourbon.”  It was a chilly but clear and sunny morning, which meant that the smell was rising to the heavens and was not hanging like an invisible fog over the parking lot.  Nevertheless, we moved towards the Jim Beam American Stillhouse standing in all its sparkly new construction faux antique glory, and, in fact, Mr. Jim Beam was there to greet us, waving his widebrim hat back in the direction of the front door beckoning our welcome.17225334031_d5bd9fe2b2_kInside stood most of the crusaders, already snapping pictures and taking notes. Just moments later, Craig Weiter, the Single Barrel Manager at the time and self-labeled luckiest employee at Jim Beam Brands, walked up and introduced himself to our group. We followed Craig back out the front door as tens of people were already showing up to shop, browse, and tour this piece of the Jim Beam operation, and we loaded into a red tour bus mocked up with aging barrels.17225344791_cebc0679e1_kCraig gave us the standard history lesson as we wound our way around the single barrel processing and bottling facility, the stillhouse, and up to Warehouse K where every person with the good fortune of participating in a Jim Beam single barrel program selection will pop the bung, pour, nose, sip and argue over about three different barrels of Jim Beam Brand bourbon.Today, we were selecting our own barrel of Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve.As we circled the water reservoir and parked in front of Warehouse K, Craig said, “Gentlemen, today we are not going to taste a barrel younger than 10 years old.” A truthspeaker asked if Craig was able to meet our particular honey hole requests. “Yes, I pulled the barrels from [redacted] and [redacted], as you guys asked,” said Craig. I couldn’t wait.17039729649_b620ba6c65_kWarehouse K is a seven-story metal-sided rickhouse that sits partially up a hill with relatively total exposure to the elements. You enter Warehouse K through a patio that also serves as a loading dock. We walked in and—BAM!—there was the most intoxicating smell in the world. And cold! It was probably in the mid to high-50s in the sun, but the bottom floor of Warehouse K was no warmer than the mid-40s at 10:15AM. The windows were open to allow the airflow that you always hear about on bourbon tours, and the breeze was just as cold as the bourbon-soaked air inside. To your left upon entering is a long line of tasting tables—bars about elbow high with three Knob Creek glasses (red, green and blue) and a pitcher of water for each person on the tasting.17038146998_5f9ad71091_kTo your right are your potential barrels nesting on the floor next to rick tiers filled with thousands of 53 gallon barrels.17224202512_fa07a46c04_kEverywhere the evaporating bourbon and old wood musk clogs the air. Once we were all in and stationed, Craig asked if we wanted to know the ages of our barrels. The answer was “No.” The age was stamped on the barrel for all to see if you knew how to read the code but we did not want to let age bias our picks.Craig demonstrated how to open the barrel, which requires a wooden mallet that you hit either side of the bung with until it pops out. There are easier methods, such as a bung reamer or, as we saw at Willett later, a standard Craftsman drill right to the barrel cap. I opened the second barrel, and once all three were open, we lined up like schoolchildren and made our way single-file to Craig and the thief to get a taste of Knob Creek, first red, then green, then blue. Our barrels, we later found out, spanned a 126 to 137 proof range.16603473494_a8189a7c66_kWe decided the easiest way to pick between three barrels would be to kick out the least liked barrel in round 1. After the tally was complete, about 80% of our group liked the red barrel the least. Then, it was green versus blue. In the end, blue was the runaway favorite. Runaway. In fairness, I picked green, then blue, then red; but, I was only one of two that did not pick blue.I was running high after the pick, and I thought our time at Jim Beam was coming to a close.  We had a tour at Independent Stave penciled for 1PM.  We watched Craig roll the barrel onto a truck bed to be sent to bottling and piled back on the red tour bus to the single barrel processing and bottling facility.  The bus stopped outside the microdistillery, and Craig began to give us a tour of the distillery.  I took a look at my watch and realized that we were going to miss Independent Stave.  I apologize to Independent Stave that we had to cancel, but there will be other crusades.17038137788_374253cded_kThe tour began at the grain mill and microdistillery building.  You enter into a dark room with a metal grate over one end of the room; the grate covers a water source that gives off a mildew smell.  As you exit the dark room, you enter the microdistillery which contains a grain exhibit with a small grain cooker, which was cooking as we were walking through. At the top of some stairs in the microdistillery sat a few fermenters.DSCF7653Ever since my first bourbon tour (Hard Hat Tour at Buffalo Trace), I have been in awe of fermenters. It is in the fermenters where the yeast works to convert sugars to alcohol to form distiller’s beer, which means it is in the fermenters where the magnificent K yeast at Four Roses sets in motion the alcohol production for some of the very best bourbon in the industry. After leaving the microdistillery, we headed to the big stillhouse with its larger fermenters and a seventy-plus foot column still churning and smoking behind a separate glass front. Two workers sat opposite the stillroom in command control working the computers in the stillhouse, and they came out to pull some high wine off of the still for us to taste. We were told that the high wine was Old Grand Dad. The Old Grand Dad white dog was intensely strong and flavorful, with a punch on the fumes that could singe nose hair, but a creaminess that we decided was melted orangesicle.DSCF7703-ANIMATIONFantastic white dog. I had two samples. From there, we walked back towards the single barrel processing and bottling facility to watch our barrel show up from the truck.The bottling facility has a loading dock to the side; up pulled the truck with our barrel, and it was off-loaded onto a platform above a metal bed covered in bourbon-soaked charcoal. A hole sat in the center of the metal bed, which fed a pipe that ran into a large 53-gallon graduated cylinder that hung on the wall next a large sign that read “Knob Creek.” My dad did the honors of using the bung reamer to drill out the bung and start emptying the barrel into the metal bed. As the bourbon flowed out, Craig snagged a glass straight from the barrel for one more pass around with the group. 16605731603_096c3a6933_k17038397520_6bcb49b447_kCraig pointed to the graduated cylinder and remarked that, from his time as the Single Barrel Manager, the standard private selection of Knob Creek Single Barrel produced between 30 and 35 gallons straight from the barrel. We started taking guesses. I was on the low end at 28 gallons. I heard as high as 38 gallons. We watched as the cylinder gurgled upwards with cold press coffee colored bourbon only for the gurgling to trickle to a stop at 17.5 gallons. Just 17.5 gallons!17224230122_2c0d7649e7_kI note again that this was the youngest barrel we tasted at just 10 years and 1 month. Just 17.5 gallons! Nobody, not even Craig, saw this coming. Craig had to settle down the chirping and Ric Flair wooing in our group to tell us that we still had to bottle our pick, but that we had to eat lunch while they did the evil task of filtering and proofing down our barrel. So, of course, we started taking guesses on how much was needed to proof down our barrel from ??? proof to 120 proof. At just 17.5 gallons, with guesses of 2-3 gallons of water, we started counting sheep in our head, with the sheep being the number of bottles  we were actually going to get out of this barrel.When we arrived back at the American Stillhouse, Craig said that lunch was on Jim Beam, so we headed down to Fred’s Smokehouse conveniently located on site for some BBQ, and, after about a dozen pulled pork sandwiches and Ale 8-ones later, Craig whisked us back down to the bottling facility to bottle our product.  17039766869_202f9ad02f_kThe Knob Creek Single Barrel bottling line is a great setup needing no more than three men for the union job. We watched as they unpacked our empty glass bottles onto the line, and the first stop for the bottles is the washing station. The washing station flips the bottles upside down and blasts bourbon into the glass to wash them of dust, cardboard and shards.17199999836_1b94f74415_kWhy bourbon and not water?  Jim Beam Brands does not want to water down or alter the flavor of your single barrel bourbon.  There was a one-bottle station to add to the customer experience, and we each got to wash our own bottle and place it back into the line as it made its way to be filled.  When we went to the second level above the bottling line to see our proofed down barrel being loaded into the bottling pipe, we found out that it took just over 2 gallons of water to get us to about 120.2 proof.For those keeping score at home, our barrel produced just under 20 gallons of bourbon out of a 53 gallon barrel after 10 years and 1 month in [redacted] position on [redacted] floor of Warehouse K.  We jaunted back down to the first floor to watch the juice hit the empty bottles and get the new labels.DSCF7800-ANIMATIONThe next stop on the line was the private label station. I took our barrel plaque and placed it on the door and the group began placing the plaques on each of our bottles. If you are lucky enough to grab a bottle, you may notice an upside down or crooked plaque: consider those bottles special. After labeling came waxing, which was done by a union worker who let my wife place a thumbprint in the cap of one of our bottles—you will not be seeing this bottle anywhere in the wild. When all was said and done we got a whopping 93.5 bottles. I am certain that less than a third of these hit the shelves.Tasting notes? Black cherry cordial bomb.17225335401_7e246f519c_kIn sum the whole of our Jim Beam American Stillhouse experience took four hours, and we were bumping against a timing issue with our trip to Maker’s Mark. We already had to cancel Independent Stave, and we could not miss Maker’s Mark, especially after hearing a summary of what the tour would entail. The plan leaving Jim Beam was to make a quick stop at Willett to let group members have access to an extra day’s allotment of Willett Family Estate or for those that couldn’t make Monday to have a chance to buy Willett Family Estate. Fortunately, Willett is in the general direction of Maker’s Mark so we left Jim Beam and hit the Kentucky back roads to Bardstown. 

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Reviews Reviews

SF Crusader: Booker's 25th

Booker's 25th Anniversary is a huge bourbon. Clocking in at 130.8°, it's shockingly drinkable neat. The packaging is beautiful too, with a gorgeous gold and dark wood combination.IMG_20151105_210104IMG_20151105_205854NoseI've always thought that Booker's has a distinct peanut, or maybe peanut-butter note (both nose and palate)1, and this is no exception. Nosing neat I get caramel-coated peanuts, toffee, some lighter leather (as opposed to the dusty leather I've gotten off of some scotches) and of course some alcohol, though again not as much as I would have expected.PalateWithout water, immediately getting that strong, delicious roasted peanut. This bourbon is not a tannic oak bomb (though there is a great amount of barrel in there), and is in fact surprisingly sweet, maybe a maple-type sweetness, for being that such a high proof. I'm still shocked that I'm sipping it -- and enjoying it! -- at 65.4% ABV. Picking up some fresh-baked cinnamon bun (the heat from the alcohol is simulates a fresh-out-of-the-oven warmth to complement the flavors). I just got a blast of mint, which I definitely didn't notice previously. This bourbon is very complex - even though there's only 13% rye in the mashbill I think I'm starting to notice it here and there.FinishPretty good finish. No bitterness at all, this finish isn't the longest I've ever tasted, and while I'm not picking up any new flavors on the finish I'm still getting a lot of the nose and tongue. Actually I take that back, I'm getting a little chocolate which was hidden before behind that nutty nougat flavor. The heat is gone now, and a delicate sweetness remains. After about 20 seconds, it's time to reach for the glass again.I almost don't want to add water to this but I'll take one for the team and add a few drops for this review2.After adding water the nose is much sweeter, almost a Cinnamon Toast Crunch sort of quality combined with those maple notes from before. The peanut thing I was picking up on has disappeared. The palate is sweeter as well, though certainly not overly so. I can still taste the nutty flavors I mentioned above, but they're much weaker. The finish is shorter as well.This particular bottle has been open for upwards of a year, so it's definitely had time to open up. I would continue drinking this without water in the future. Pretty wonderful stuff.1 - This has historically lended itself to an outstanding Old Fashioned variant I call the Peanut Butter Cup, with a few drops of water, a little simple syrup and some Xocolatl Mole bitters2 - David Perkins of High West has talked about "bottle shock" with respect to blending whiskies, where he'll put a blend together that tastes great and then a week or a month later it will taste completely different. I've heard Drew Kulsveen of Willett say similar things about Noah's Mill, I think, that in an ideal world they'd sit on the bottles for a few months more so that things get a chance to settle. I think the same is true with adding water - at the very least, when you first add it you can immediately see the viscosity difference with an oily-looking shimmer that disappears when you swirl it enough, but I do generally find that after adding water it's best to let it sit for a few more minutes. Nothing wrong with that, this is definitely a bourbon to be savored.Rating: 4 / 5

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The Primordial Soup

“Excuse me, we can’t let you do that here,” said a voice not far behind my back as I was placing a coffin of Booker’s 25th next to a bottle of Heaven Hill Select Stock “Bottled for the Bourbon Bar,” which I had just moments before placed next to the empty orange juice container on the breakfast bar at a mid-market hotel in Buckhead, Georgia. Here began the series of events that led me to become a Bourbon Crusader. The voice belonged to the hotel evening manager, who must have been shocked more than anything to discover seven gentlemen pulling bottles of bourbon and rye from various bags and setting the bottles disorganized onto any available counter space. Sazerac 18 was nearest the cereal dispenser, and a Willett 25 year rye was, I believe, standing guard in front of the forks and knives. I was in Buckhead for an impromptu whiskey tasting spurred by a random tweet from a well-known truthspeaker. It was an easy 90-minute drive and an even easier excuse to try a lineup of whiskeys as grand as I may ever again taste.

Rather than take the defeat to heart, our tasting group retreated to the confines of my hotel room and transformed the desk into a temple of brown spirits.It was somewhere around the Willett red ink that one of our group said, “Hey, we should try to do this again in Kentucky.” “Yes! Definitely! Say when!” echoed in response. I, at first, took it to be the typical words of jubilation that inherently start from multiple pours of whiskey churning in the stomach like spent mash with the words rising up and stripped into buzz-inducing alcohol vapors in the brain before being condensed and flowing down and out the mouth as the verbal equivalent of harsh, unrefined low wine distillate. Yet, just weeks later, the same truthspeaker put out a 140-character clarion call for a once-in-a-lifetime “fantasy camp” trip to the Bluegrass State, an immersion experience like no other for bourbon lovers. Two others in the Buckhead tasting and I responded and shortly thereafter, having dropped off the dog, I found myself driving up I-75 on April 9th into a five-and-a-half day Crusade that will never be replicated.

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Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem

Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem.Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem.Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem.Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem.Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem.Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem. Non Satis Mundus Habet Veratatem.

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