Little Book Chapter 6: To the Finish

Definitely get a leather / smoked meat tang, but with a nice rich carmel backbone. First thought was an oak youth note, but it must have been the smoked barrel flavor coming through because it didnt throw me off - blended well with the rest of the palette. It’s almost a cederwood tang

2-5 were all winners for me. Can’t remember which was my favorite, but maybe I’ll go back and check when I get done tasting this to see how installment 6 stacks up. I won’t bore you with the details of the barrel staves used, but the short story is that the theme here is stave experimentation that combines 4 4-year old malt whiskies and a 5-year old bourbon. Nose: Sawdust, pipe smoke, rye spice (interesting, because rye should be extremely low in this blend.) Kettle corn. Baked apple. Dried apricot. Almond. Green apple Jolly Rancher and Cinnamon Apple Jacks. Nail polish. Pumpkin spice. Malt, toffee, vanilla, and honey. Black pepper, clove, nutmeg, and oak. A ton of notes, but some of them don’t mesh quite well. It’s a bit too sweet, but maybe this just needs time to open up. Palate: Cherry. Cola. Caramel, brown sugar, vanilla, and fudge. Maple bacon. Tangy BBQ sauce. Green Apple Jolly Rancher. Peach and sweet tea. Spearmint and wintergreen. Dried apricot. Some plum, date, fig, and raisin. Cinnamon, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, and oak. Finish: Cocoa, black tea, pipe smoke. Caramel, toffee, malt, fudge, vanilla. Cinnamon Apple Jacks. Cinnamon, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, and oak. Long a finish as they make ‘em. I can say without reservation that this was the least impressive installment of Little Book line besides 1 and 7 which I’ve yet to try. It feels young. Disjointed. Too sweet at times. This is also the first malt-dominant expression I’ve had from Beam, and it hasn’t yet become their forte. I know it sounds like I’m tagging on this one. It’s actually a pretty solid whiskey. The diversity of notes kept me on my toes and made for an interesting experience. The heat was respectable but not a turn off either. There were plenty of good qualities to report on with this one. I said earlier that I’d go back and check to see how this stacks up against 2-5. No need. I know those all were 4 stars or above. I’m going to keep this at 3.5.