why not a Jim Beam branded small batch??

[monte]

Thanks Chuck, that is really helpful. Wow 40 different Bourbon brands???? that is amazing.

I can understand having the lower end stuff that they wouldn't want to have "Beam" on, but they also produced quite a few decanters with Beam at over 14 years old.

I personally love some of the brands that might be perceived as low end that Beam bought. One of the few I've had the pleasure of tasting is Old Grand Dad, which, when moved to the Beam stills, lost a lot of the flavor and character that the older ND version had.

I'm sipping on some pre-Beam OGD bonded right now and loving it a lot. It's my "go to" bourbon this fall, and it never disappoints, even though I have a pretty well stocked collection of the modern high end stuff.

I would love to try some of the other National Distillers brands, pre Beam, but this part of the country is not really conducive to that sort of thing.

All I know is that this bourbon was distilled with flavor in mind, and it has more of the odd extra congeners that modern whiskey seems to shy away from. For my money, this is the good stuff, and moving the brand to Beam was a downfall.

So, those 40 bourbons involved in the Beam digestion of ND are a real loss IMHO. Even if the brand name (and/or mash formula) was continued, it seems that the elements that made up the flavor of the bourbon were largely lost. Not a good thing!!

From what I see on the Dusty Corners threads, you're in a position to buy some of the old stock from this heyday, as it's scattered about a zillion little stores in your state. If I were you, I'd try to hunt this stuff down and see what it can offer; in my experience, some of the older brands can be quite amazing.

Just my $0.02,

-monte-

[NorCalBoozer]

there are lots of them on ebay. they come up very often and sell pretty cheap, could easily pick one up for $20-$40 (including shipping) or even cheaper if you're lucky.

just search on 'Beam Decanter' or 'Beam 175'....

Are you referring to the Beam 175-month-old bourbon packaged in quite a nice decanter I recently spotted at my local liquor store? They're asking $225 for it, so it won't be coming home with me anytime soon.

Matt

[OscarV]

The first picture shows the Jim Beam Bonded on the left with its box to the immediate right of it.

The 2nd picture shows the Jim Beam Small Batch with Port added..

This Jim Beam with Port is interesting.

Did Beam actually add port to the bourbon?

Or did they have some "Distillers Masterpiece, Port Finished" left over that they could not sell and unloaded on the export market?

Oscar

[BourbonBalls]

This may have been covered here before, but I can't seem to locate it:

What year was the first bottling of Bookers?

[cowdery]

What year was the first bottling of Bookers?

I may be off slightly on this, but by no more than a year. Booker's Bourbon was a Christmas gift to suppliers and other business associates of the Jim Beam Brands Company for Christmas of 1987. It was released as a product some time in 1988.