Beam 7 year old

[Tennessee Dave]

Was in the local bottle shop yesterday to pick up a bottle of Booker.  The only Beam products I have ever tasted are the ones from the Small Batch Collection.  While in the store there was a small display of 6 to 8 bottles of Jim Beam 7 year old with a sign that read "No longer being made."  Almost picked up a bottle but passed.  Now I am wondering if I should have picked them up.  What say ye Beam fans?  Is this something I should get while the getting is good?

[Enoch]

I picked up several of these several years ago. Decent enough if price is right. I think it is a 90s product and may be excess Basil Hayden or OGD because it taste much more like BH than any JB product I have ever tasted.

[jsrudd]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see any reason to think that Beam products from the 90s should any different from (or better than) what they are making today. The only exception that comes to mind is Booker's, which used to be bottled a little older (8+ years) and routinely came from the Boston instead of the Clermont plant (bottle code starting with "B" instead of "C").

 

1 hour ago, Tennessee Dave said:

The only Beam products I have ever tasted are the ones from the Small Batch Collection.

You should at least give Jim Beam White Label a try. After all, it is the #1 selling bourbon (or #2 if you count JD, which Beam doesn't). 

[Enoch]

I think there has been a tremendous shift in the flavor profile of Beam products over the last 40 years toward the "beam funk" I have bottles of Beam from the mid 70s through the current and even when adjusting for OBE I can tell the increasing prominence of the "funk", especially from the late 90s through current.

[flahute]

3 hours ago, Enoch said:

I think there has been a tremendous shift in the flavor profile of Beam products over the last 40 years toward the "beam funk" I have bottles of Beam from the mid 70s through the current and even when adjusting for OBE I can tell the increasing prominence of the "funk", especially from the late 90s through current.

In my limited experience, yes, this has been the case for me. I have three bottles of Beam's choice 8yr old at 80 proof from 1976 that taste nothing at all like current Beam.

[jsrudd]

13 hours ago, Enoch said:

I think there has been a tremendous shift in the flavor profile of Beam products over the last 40 years toward the "beam funk"

Would you say its worth picking up the mid 90s Beam dusties I see? I normally leave these where they lie (except for Booker's) based on my, perhaps mistaken, assumption that they're are no better than the current stuff.  

[ken_mays]

I would at least pick up a bottle.  To me, there is a big difference between the 7 year and the 8 year Black / Double Aged, with the latter having a drier, oakier taste.  The 7 year isn't a bad at all but the relatively low proof means it's a rare pour for me.