Image 1 of 1
Fellow Drammers!
We're thrilled to welcome the team from Jim Beam Distillery for a special Drammers Global Tasting Party on Friday, June 12th at 7pm, where we'll have the honor of welcoming our guest speakers Adam Harris, their Senior American Whisky Ambassador, and Tim Heuisler, their American Whiskey Ambassador for the Northeast. We've been collecting bottles at auction for a while now in preparation for this event, to make sure we show the team at Beam Suntory that we mean business here at Drammers, ha! So, as usual, we've got an incredible lineup to honor this great distillery. I'll follow up with a more detailed lineup announcement soon after we know which bottles the Beam team are contributing, but I can tell you the bottles that we've sourced (as with other recent events, you'll have to choose either SET A or SET B):
Booker's 25th Anniversary, Batch 2014-01 (BOTH SET A and SET B). We're fortunate that we've been able to secure 2 bottles of our headliner, considered one of the very best bottles they've released in the last decade. Aged 10 years, 3 months and bottled at 65.4% abv. It was released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Booker's Bourbon line, it includes what at least at the time was the oldest whiskey ever bottled under the line (up to 11 years), and using some of the last barrels that Booker himself laid down before his passing. Like most of their highest-end releases, these barrels came from the 5th floor of the Jim Beam warehouses, which they consider their sweetspot. Very hard to get your hands on a bottle of this these days, I can only one for sale online currently north of $1,300/bottle, which is a little above market, but not by much...
Beam's Emergency Ambulance (SET A ONLY). It looks like a giant car, about 1 foot long, but it is actually a bottle of Jim Beam bourbon, aged "100 Months Old" at 80 proof. Right there you know this is an old bottle -- I mean, can you imagine a major whiskey company releasing their whiskey in an ambulance these days? Ha! I'll do a little research on when this was released, presumably late 70s or early 80s, back when many of the major distilleries were releasing elaborate decanters in an attempt to address a general downturn in the bourbon business.
Beam's Choice 8yo (SET B ONLY). Another gem we found in the auction market, a gold, glittering chalice, 90 proof, "4/5 quart", the tax stamp indicates it was made for the export market. That's all we know about it at the moment, will research more, likely same general time frame as the ambulance.
Beam Duck Stamp Series Decanter: Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp (SET B ONLY). Another gem from decades ago, this one was released in 1985, part of a series of bottles celebrating duck stamps of all things! 80 proof. The others in the series were "Green Winged Teal", "Mallards in Flight" and "American Wigeon".
Jim Beam Signature Master Distiller's Series: Six Grains 6yo (SET A ONLY). One in a series of experimental bottles that the Jim Beam Distillery has released, and we may add a couple more to the lineup, we'll see. But obviously you rarely see more than 3 grains in a bourbon, let alone 6. The 6 grains included here are: corn, rye, barley, wheat, triticale and brown rice. This was released back in 2010. 44.5% abv.
Old Tub 4yo Bottled-in-Bond (BOTH SET A and B). I picked up 4 of these 375ml bottles at the Jim Beam distillery last fall. At the time, it was only available on site at the distillery itself, but they're actually planning to release it more broadly later this year, so we'll have to ask Adam and Tim about that during the event. If we can get our hands on a bottle of the forthcoming one, we may split it up so half the gang gets the old, and half gets the new, we'll see...
And more bottles to be added to the lineup! But we wanted to let you know the good news right away so that you could save the date and start thinking about whether you want SET A or SET B!
Cheers!
Charlie