Unfiltered Archives - First Pour Cocktails

Old Tub Bourbon

Distillery: James B. Beam

Proof: 50 (100% A.B.V.)

Age: Not Age Stated, Minimum of 4 Years

Filtration: Unfiltered

Bottled-In-Bond

Sight: A solid deep gold.

Smell: Unsurprisingly, the Jim Beam peanut funk comes out here loaded for bear. Around it there’s a nice amount of oak, spice, and caramelized sugar notes. The nose also has a bit of heat to it with a bit of vanilla like notes.

Sip: The mouthfeel starts moderately full. The first notes are peanut like with some oak, before there’s a turn toward hay, tobacco, and black tea. A little bit of caramel and spice flits at the edges, but it’s more on the grain and savory side.

Savor: The ending is oak and more hay-tobacco notes. The finish has a moderate tannic nature, but doesn’t last particularly long.

Old Tub Bourbon is average and not particularly exciting or deep. What it does deliver is a solid, dry, bottled-in-bond offering that gives some more oak forward flavors. The Beam funk is also prominent, but not long lasting. Overall, drinking it straight isn’t offensive, but not exciting either.

In Cocktails

In a Manhattan there’s a nice weight and textural component that makes the drink feel solid. Beyond the weight, the herbal notes in the vermouth tend to vibe with the oakier notes of the Old Tub. The subtle sweetness of the vermouth moves the peanut notes a little toward brittle, but ultimately it leans dry again. The ending brings in more herbal components and oak tannins.

In Review – Old Tub Bourbon

Old Tub Bourbon is unremarkable, and priced accordingly at around $20. It’s the kind of bourbon that gives a little more emphasis than standard Jim Beam White Label, but doesn’t quite expand it’s horizons in any meaningful way. While there’s a big jump in price, it probably is worth considering making the leap to Knob Creek if you’d like to go up in the Beam range, while for higher proof, Wild Turkey can deliver with more spice and less peanut funk. Finally, it isn’t immediately apparent that this is an upgrade over Jim Beam Bonded, but perhaps its dry, less exciting cousin.

When I first began trying to find new bourbons to try, I found myself reading reviews on many websites. While reviewers palates vary, you can generally find alignment if you try a few liquors or beverages and compare notes. This works because reviewers are relatively static, but what about a hivemind like Reddit’s r/bourbon? Well things become trickier, as you have a mix of reviewers sharing opinions on the same bottles. Yet, there are few things they agree on as much as the positive reviews for t8ke’s single barrel picks. And as luck would have it, the first lottery I ever won was for a chance to buy a bottle of Blue Note Uncut Single Barrel – r/bourbon “Supper Club”

Blue Note Uncut Single Barrel – r/bourbon “Supper Club”

The particular barrel chosen has the following statistics and tasting notes:

Aged: 4 Years
ABV: 118.5pf
Bottle Count: 145
Price: $52 (before shipping)
Tasting Notes: Pound cake, citrus, maple, orange rind, a big root beer note, confectioners sugar and butter cream. Syrupy vanilla bean and butterscotch, long citrus and maple finish. Back on that Old Fashioned in a bottle vibe that I got from our first Blue Note (barrel #15036) and I’m here for it. Reminds me of a night at the supper club here in the Midwest.

Below are my tasting notes:

Sight: Amontillado Sherry to Copper.

Smell: Toasted sugar, maple, and pound cake come out. There’s a strong smack of alcohol top note here that keeps flitting in and out. There are notes such as sarsaparilla, toffee, hazelnut, and game meat or smokey leather. Fruit notes are pretty sparse, leaning slightly toward candied orange or white grape.

Sip: The palate is moderate in weight, leaning thick as it sits. Heat starts building quickly, and the edges can get rough. Toasted sugar and cake are present with hits of oak, smoke, root beer. There are some tobacco notes here has well, with just a hint of burnt marshmallow, and a touch of caramelizing green banana towards the transition to the finish.

Savor: The ending maintains that heat and pulls in more notes of roasted pecan, slight pastry, and again, a cola or root beer like note.

Blue Note Uncut Single Barrel – r/bourbon “Supper Club” is complex enough to keep revisiting, but not quite well put together enough to be enjoyable. The palate is hot and the flavors are a bit inconsistent from sip to sip. Given the price point, I want to be wowed, or at least impressed. Instead, it feels young, partially developed, and not quite smooth enough. It feels out of its depth.

In Cocktails

In a Manhattan Blue Note Uncut Single Barrel – r/bourbon “Supper Club” doesn’t quite work as expected. There’s a lot of weight added, which makes for a nice solid Manhattan. Vanilla bean and maple candy mix with an herbal-woodsy note and sweetness that immediately shifts dry on the finish. The herbaceous notes are nowhere in the general palate of just the whiskey. There’s also an interesting smokiness that presents on the finish. Overall, it’s an interesting, if non-traditional Manhattan.

In Review – Blue Note Uncut Single Barrel – r/bourbon “Supper Club”

Reviewing Blue Note Uncut Single Barrel – r/bourbon “Supper Club” is a bit of an exercise in futility. With the extremely limited availability, you’ll never see it. Given it’s a single barrel, it’s subject to all the variation that happens from barrel to barrel. Combine this with the fact that it’s a surviving barrel from a tornado strike, and we’ll it just isn’t representative. So why spend the time?

The fact is that limit availability bottles like this are good ways to peak behind the curtain of different distilleries, and to get an idea of the stock they’re working with. They can serve as potential guideposts when trying to evaluate either a single barrel selector (such as r/bourbon) or the brand (Blue Note). Ultimately, the challenge here is a mix of exclusivity and cost. These picks are not uncommon in many states, and retail for something closer to $40. After exclusivity mark up and shipping, this bottle ended up at $65.

That $20+ is a big jump, and brings this bottle into competition with things like 1792 Full Proof, Maker’s Mark Wood Finish Series and Private Selections, Russell Reserve Store Picks, and more. Those are some big competitors, and Juke Joint’s age and complexity just doesn’t feel like it has the depth to hang here.