Beam’s Little Book Reaches Chapter Nine
By Richard Thomas
Jim Beam has the ninth chapter of Little Book in the pipeline. This series was launched in 2017 to raise the profile of heir apparent Freddie Noe, the son of Beam Master Distiller Fred Noe. The brand name refers back to their legendary predecessor Booker Noe, and as originally conceived Little Book drew on various sources of whiskey stocks throughout the Beam corporate portfolio. Little Book Chapter 1 was a blend of bourbon, rye, American malt and corn whiskey. Chapter 2 combined Kentucky rye with Canadian rye, including some ultra-aged stock for the later. The series has always been bottled at cask strength, a feature that looks back on Booker’s Bourbon, the namesake brand of Booker Noe and part of the seminal Jim Beam Small Batch Collection of the early 1990s.
As the series has gone on, it has focused more on stock from Beam itself, and Chapter 9 is no exception. It draws mostly on bourbon between 7 and 11 years, plus some 8 year old Kentucky style rye. This hybrid whiskey came out at cask strength of 121.8 proof. The MSRP was $159.99.
