It seems that Booker’s is making a comeback after some previous batches falling short of expectations. This year’s batches have been trending upwards in age and Lumberyard in particular has been getting noticed. For instance, on the YouTube channel “It’s Bourbon Night”, the host’s thought Lumberyard was a big improvement over the 2021 batches. This led them to do a blind flight fight with Lumberyard going up against a few of their favorite older Booker’s batches (2017-03 Front Porch Batch, 2017-04 Sip Awhile and 2018-04 Kitchen Table). It was an unexpected surprise that Lumberyard came out as the winner. Early this year I snagged a bottle of Booker’s 04-2019 “Beaten Biscuits” and a couple of weeks ago I finally found a bottle of Lumberyard for near retail. I was curious to compare how this new batch of Booker’s stacks up to a very well-liked batch from 2019. Let’s see how this goes.
Taken: Neat in a Glencairn glass, rested about 15 minutes.
Distillery: Jim Beam.
Mash bill: 75% Corn/ 13% Rye/ 12% Malted Barley.
02-2022 “The Lumberyard Batch”
Proof: 124.8.
Age: 7 years, 1 month, 7 days.
Appearance: Golden amber.
Nose
Peanuts, caramel, vanilla, apple, cacao, orange citrus, cinnamon spice, oak. Peanut is the dominant note with vanilla right behind it. Mixed in with a great blend of stone fruit, chocolate, orange peel, cinnamon and sweet oak with no ethanol. This nose is fantastic.
Palate
Very good viscous mouthfeel. The palate transfers from the nose with a peanut forward sip bringing along toffee, vanilla, orange and cacao. Followed shortly by cinnamon spice that gains momentum on the later part of the sip lighting up the whole palate that continues into the finish.
Finish
Spice lingers in the cheeks and palate as oak tannins appear that reminds me of lumber. Power of suggestion? Maybe, but it’s consistent and I’m not complaining. It’s pretty good. Coming back around are peanuts, vanilla and cacao staying through a long finish with no bitterness.
Conclusion
This bottle drinks pretty well neat, but with a few drops of water much more stone fruit comes through on the nose. These notes continue to carry on to the palate with heightened toffee, cacao and cinnamon. This is very good batch that I find myself enjoying more and more.
04-2019 “Beaten Biscuits”
Proof: 126.1.
Age: 6 years, 6 months, 19 days.
Appearance: Golden amber.
Nose
Peanut dust, vanilla bean, brown sugar, cherry cordial, peaches, lemon peel, cinnamon spice and barrel char. Wow, this nose is amazing! The Beam peanut note is there but more subtle, blended with a hefty amount of vanilla bean, brown sugar, stone fruits, cinnamon and barrel char. No doubt this has a buttery character which lives up to its name. The picture that comes to mind is more like a desert waffle drizzled with maple syrup, blended stone fruit topped with vanilla ice cream and cinnamon. There is no ethanol getting in the way of this incredible balance.
Palate
Viscous mouthfeel. More peanut is shining through on the palate then I was getting from the nose. Also carrying from the nose is a good amount of vanilla, cherry, peaches, brown sugar and oak. The cinnamon spice soon ramps up covering the whole palate but doesn’t overwhelm. This is a fantastic pour.
Finish
The cinnamon spice lingers for what seems like forever on the mid and back palate. Towards the middle of the finish, tannins of subtle leather come in along with stone fruit and chocolate; soon followed by tobacco that lingers to the end of a long finish with no bitterness. Even after minutes go by and even a sip of water, I can still feel cinnamon on the mid and back of my palate. This is a very impressive and long finish.
Conclusion
This batch had some surprising qualities to it. Namely, I wasn’t expecting there to be so much vanilla which provides this batch with lot of its underlying character. Not to mention the fantastic balance and complexity of all the other notes that makes this an exceptional batch. I had no issues with drinking it neat but with a few drops of water more vanilla, fruit and brown sugar opened up on the nose and the palate was a bit less spicy giving the pour even more drinkability. This is a fantastic batch.
Final thoughts
Booker’s gets a lot of flak mainly because of the MSRP and inflated store prices. This goes back to 2016 when Beam raised the retail price of Booker’s to almost double what it was. Nowadays retail is still around $85 but $99 is the lowest I’ve seen it where I live in NY (which is the most I’m willing to pay). The divisiveness is all about whether Booker’s is worth the MSRP, not to mention I’ve seen some crazy high prices for Booker’s in stores.
What I love about Booker’s the most is it offers an experience you don’t usually find in other Beam selections (especially in these interesting kinds of batches). But like anything else, it comes down personal preferences and what you are comfortable paying for. Between these two batches, Beaten Biscuits has a fantastic overall profile that is more complex with some flavors that were unexpected. Also unexpected were some of the off Beam profile similarities between these two batches. Although Beaten Biscuits was the clear winner, Lumberyard is no slouch.
Rating: The Lumberyard Batch: 7.5/10.
Rating: Beaten Biscuits: 8.5/10.
1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but better exists.
5 | Good | Good, just fine.
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all time favorite.
10 | Perfect | Perfect.
