American Whiskey Reviews #67: Jim Beam Kentucky Straight Whiskey

Distillery: Jim Beam

Region: Kentucky

ABV: 40%

Age: 4 year.

Color: 0.8, Deep Gold.

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Nose (according to the wife) You get a bit of black sugar, a bit of maple syrup, and a bit of coffee with a side helping of rubber.

Palate: There’s really not a whole lot going on here. Fairly bland with the only stand out note being of sweet cereal.

Finish: Medium in length. It’s pretty bad with a very strong ethanol and plasticky taste that tastes of paint thinner. There’s a little bit of cream and oak that pops up whenever the paint thinner isn’t so strong.

Conclusion: This week, the wife and I made the trek up to Minnesota for our favorite fall activity, what we like to call “chasing fall colors”. I grabbed a couple of minis I’ve had around the house for ages to enjoy in the great outdoors including this Jim Beam. I have to say, I probably should have brought something else. The nose is fairly quite nice and the palate is inoffensive but the finish is so awful. That strong ethanol and plastic note just ruins things. I can’t say I’m a fan at all, but at least the picture came out nice.

Final Score: 50.

American Whiskey Review #67, Bourbon Review #54, Whisky Network Review #317

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.