Little Book Chapter 4: Lessons Honored

That’s about the hottest glass of whiskey I’ve had, warm brown sugar, intensity reminds me of 4 roses single batch, almost tastes like cake. This is solid.

Neat. Neck pour. I missed out on Ch 1 and 3. Really liked Ch 2 as a oddly refreshing rye. Intrigued by the concept of brown rice whiskey here. There is a lot going on with this nose. Getting the Beam peanut shells/peanut brittle. Bubble gum. Bubble gum is wrong... Sea salt taffy, strawberry sea salt taffy. Wow, leaning so bright. Vanilla. Lemon. Okay now it is dark and got this nice milk chocolate. This is a crazy nose. Okay it changed again. Now it is savory like the sauce in an orange chicken from a Thai restaurant. I’m a bit at a loss. Back to the peanut. I can’t keep up. Very nice, viscous mouth feel and it is packed with flavors. This is so complex it is perplexing me. I am getting milk duds up front. Transitions into a killer butterscotch which flows into peanut brittle. Getting orange and vanilla on the finish. Peanut brittle is hanging strong. Really hanging strong. Still hanging strong and even getting this nice rye now in the back of the throat. Now I am getting a distinct oat/rice on the finish. It won’t stop changing. I’m not sure I did that justice at all. This is one of the craziest whiskeys I have had. It’s delicious, it’s surprising, it’s unrelenting. It’s undoubtably Beam but then not Beam at all. Such a great finish. I am impressed by this one.

Nose: Dark brown sugar - we're leaning into that molasses here, charred oak, and some high-quality vanilla. Rice bran - if you've ever smelled brown rice while it's cooking, you know what this note is. Biscuits and roasted nuts. Clove, anise. Leather, tobacco. Plums. Dusty books. Citrus oil and pine. The proof here makes itself known, though it isn't nearly as in-your-face as I was expecting. Ripe blueberries and strawberries. Palate: Big, deep, charred oak, brown sugar, and vanilla. Solid barrel bite, but in a very appealing way. Dark chocolate, leather, and dark roast coffee. Tobacco. Take a second to acclimate to the proof and you'll find tons of banana, apricot, peach, and blueberries up against the baking spices that the rye brings to the party. Plenty of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, and thyme. Wintergreen, too. Deeply toasted grains. Lemon oil. Solid tannin presence in texture and taste. This is firing on all cylinders, with the upper, middle, and lower palate all perfectly balanced. Mouthfeel is medium-heavy. Finish: As you'd expect, we start with a big rush of ethanol. As that subsides, brown sugar, charred oak, and vanilla are revealed. Barrel bitter, mint, and lemon oil work their way to the front. We then shift to clove, nutmeg, dark chocolate, and cavendish tobacco (think particularly gloopy OTC stuff like Captain Black). Long finish - this stuff hangs out for a while. Other notes: I have yet to try a single high proof thing out of the Beam distillery that I haven't been genuinely impressed with, and this is no exception. The blending on display is excellent, with the brown rice bourbon bringing some excellent character that makes me wish it would become "a thing". Personally, I'm a sucker for big, chewy, high proof bottlings and this fits nicely into that category. An excellent addition to the Little Book lineup, and one that I will likely buy a few more times before it disappears. In fact, as much as I enjoyed Chapter 3, I find myself preferring this by a good margin. This is the kind of thing that I would regularly buy and have stocked if it weren't a limited release. Guess I'll need to sock a bottle or two away for the long term.

I have not had the first Little Book, but this one is definitely my favorite of the other three. On the nose you can smell the rice bourbon that’s in the blend. It’s a bit different, but not in a way that is off putting.

Cherries, following the full caramel not a smaller hint of butterscotch chimes in. Great low even heat. Probably helps with the 4 and 7 year statements.