Yeah its hot and spicy, just had one with my son. Then put 2 cubes of clear r/o ice in it, let sit for one minute, and wow. All flavors balance, more pecan, apple and caramel come in; still rich, but much more complex. Yeah its a matter of taste (and pride) but c'mon guys, its 124+ proof - try adding a little pure ice, my son and I think it improved impressively and became a top 10.
If I can find this for $90.00, I'll grab it. Sounds good! But it's getting hard to find these Booker's batches for SRP. Dropped about $120.00 for Charlie's Batch last year, and that was supposed to be in the $89.00 range… and I spent $100.00 for Storyteller Batch.
I had a pour of the Beam House Batch this week at a bottle share... it was just fine. That's my problem with Booker's - it's a nice bottle and a silly box but the market is fully of comparable, and better, whiskey for less money. It's annoying to pay extra money because they want it to seem like a premium product when it's actually 7 year old uncut unfiltered Beam. This blend is middle of the road for a recent Bookers batch - I'd say its better than 24-01, 23-01, and 23-02 but worse than 23-03 and 23-04. To each their own but it's not a premium product and they charge a premium price tag... That said... I did spend $160 on the most recent Little Book and that's a fairly similar product (and an even worse value) but I can stomach 1 annual release from Bookers instead of 5. Also Beam just dropped too many bottles this month. A. Overholt Monongahela Rye, KC BourbonXRye blend, KC 10 Yr rye, Bookers 24-02, and Little Book chapter 8 all this shelves in my city over the past 5 days. That's crazy. Booker's is the only one of those that is actually a bourbon (Little book 8 is actually a rye) so if you don't like rye whiskey it's only 1 new release, but still that's a lot of bottles in a short window. Booker's were fun to buy but now there are too many better options - even from Beam. I'm buy KC 9 store picks and KC 12 over a Booker's in nearly every situation. Heaven Hill's profile is similar to Beam and I'd take a ECBP over a new Booker's anyday of the week and those are $10-15 cheaper.... but I only buy ECBP if they are above average (like C923). Haven't bothered with either batch this year - I've tried them and they were just good not great. Similar to Bookers 24-01 and 24-02
Appreciate your thoughts man! Like you said, to each their own - agree on your notion that this Bookers release was pretty middle of the road. Personally I enjoy the Bookers style and can stomach the MSRP a few times a year to find out if they’ve put out a special batch like last years Storyteller. The two this year certainly haven’t been gems. Beam has definitely been busy; Kurtis picked up the Knob Creek BourbonxRye and I’m anxious to try it. thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts, hope you keep coming back man!
Thanks for the heads up - do you find this to be the case on all of our videos? I've never messed with the intro volume, this week included, so I'm curious!
@@BourbonBarkeep I do find the intro music to be much louder than your in-video voices in all videos - extremely noticeable watching on my tv / home theater, noticeable on my computer + watching on my phone with headphones. Not noticeable watching on my phone with phone speakers. Tested 3 videos with intros vs 1 without for voice level.
Yeah its hot and spicy, just had one with my son. Then put 2 cubes of clear r/o ice in it, let sit for one minute, and wow. All flavors balance, more pecan, apple and caramel come in; still rich, but much more complex. Yeah its a matter of taste (and pride) but c'mon guys, its 124+ proof - try adding a little pure ice, my son and I think it improved impressively and became a top 10.
Water can do wonders for sure. I’m open to any ideas to open this up. It definitely was tight even after letting it breathe.
Nice review! Huge fan of the Mighty Fine Batch from 2023. Hopefully the availability keeps up in the area
That was a nutty bugger BUT we did enjoy quite a bit.
If I can find this for $90.00, I'll grab it. Sounds good! But it's getting hard to find these Booker's batches for SRP. Dropped about $120.00 for Charlie's Batch last year, and that was supposed to be in the $89.00 range… and I spent $100.00 for Storyteller Batch.
Storyteller was pretty far above the other batches of 2023 for us, so I can’t fault you one bit. Was beam house bad? Absolutely not.
I had a pour of the Beam House Batch this week at a bottle share... it was just fine. That's my problem with Booker's - it's a nice bottle and a silly box but the market is fully of comparable, and better, whiskey for less money. It's annoying to pay extra money because they want it to seem like a premium product when it's actually 7 year old uncut unfiltered Beam. This blend is middle of the road for a recent Bookers batch - I'd say its better than 24-01, 23-01, and 23-02 but worse than 23-03 and 23-04.
To each their own but it's not a premium product and they charge a premium price tag... That said... I did spend $160 on the most recent Little Book and that's a fairly similar product (and an even worse value) but I can stomach 1 annual release from Bookers instead of 5.
Also Beam just dropped too many bottles this month. A. Overholt Monongahela Rye, KC BourbonXRye blend, KC 10 Yr rye, Bookers 24-02, and Little Book chapter 8 all this shelves in my city over the past 5 days. That's crazy. Booker's is the only one of those that is actually a bourbon (Little book 8 is actually a rye) so if you don't like rye whiskey it's only 1 new release, but still that's a lot of bottles in a short window.
Booker's were fun to buy but now there are too many better options - even from Beam. I'm buy KC 9 store picks and KC 12 over a Booker's in nearly every situation. Heaven Hill's profile is similar to Beam and I'd take a ECBP over a new Booker's anyday of the week and those are $10-15 cheaper.... but I only buy ECBP if they are above average (like C923). Haven't bothered with either batch this year - I've tried them and they were just good not great. Similar to Bookers 24-01 and 24-02
Appreciate your thoughts man! Like you said, to each their own - agree on your notion that this Bookers release was pretty middle of the road. Personally I enjoy the Bookers style and can stomach the MSRP a few times a year to find out if they’ve put out a special batch like last years Storyteller. The two this year certainly haven’t been gems.
Beam has definitely been busy; Kurtis picked up the Knob Creek BourbonxRye and I’m anxious to try it. thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts, hope you keep coming back man!
Please equalize the intro music and the in-video sound as the music is almost twice as loud as your voices.
Thanks for the heads up - do you find this to be the case on all of our videos? I've never messed with the intro volume, this week included, so I'm curious!
@@BourbonBarkeep I do find the intro music to be much louder than your in-video voices in all videos - extremely noticeable watching on my tv / home theater, noticeable on my computer + watching on my phone with headphones. Not noticeable watching on my phone with phone speakers. Tested 3 videos with intros vs 1 without for voice level.
Appreciate your feedback! Will turn down the intro a bit in future episodes.