| Whiskey | Booker’s Big Man Small Batch (2015-01 Release) |
| Distillery | Jim Beam |
| Region | Clermont, Kentucky |
| Type | Bourbon |
| Mash Bill | 77% Corn, 13% Rye, 10% Malted Barley |
| Proof / ABV | 128.7 Proof / 64.35% ABV |
| Aging | 7 Years 2 months 16 days |
| Filtration | Non-Chill Filtered |
| MSRP | $70 |
| Secondary | $400-750 |
| Release Year | 2015 |
Where I Found This Bottle
I have always been fan of Booker’s Bourbon and I was just over my cousin’s playing D&D when we were looking in his pantry and I saw a bottle of Booker’s in the back.
He could tell I was pretty surprised to see it and pulled it out to see the date.
I was shocked to see it was one of the first in the modern Booker’s lineup (only 4 before this).
The Old Style Booker’s Batches ran from 1979-2007 and then stopped for some reason.
The series was restarted in 2012 with one batch in 2012 (C07-B-7), one in 2013 (2013-06), and one in 2014 (2014-06).
They then started releasing 6 batches in 2015, 6 batches in 2016, and then 4 per year ongoing from there.
This bottle is also one of the most expensive bottles to get now so I’m assuming it’s one of the best batches even from back in the early years of the series.
My cousin lived in Louisville, Kentucky when this was released and has kept the bottle all this time.
He let me bring the bottle home to taste and write a review to share with all of you, so I’m very excited to get into this one.
I’ve always heard so much about these early Booker’s being amazing.
My History with Booker's Bourbon
Starting on my first trip to Kentucky back in 2020, I picked up a bottle of Booker’s and loved the big and bold traditional bourbon flavors.
Fast forwarding to 2023, I took a trip to Kentucky with my dad and we visited whiskey distilleries across the state – including the Jim Beam Distillery.
We started with a tour of the Jim Beam distillery and were able to bottle our own bottle of Knob Creek which was quite cool.
It was my birthday so I got selected to pour and taste the whiskey directly from the barrel as we learned more about the Knob Creek process.
But an even better surprise, the tasting we scheduled at Jim Beam was a special tasting for the Clermont Steep launch and it would be hosted by Fred Noe and Freddie Noe themselves!
Fred Noe is behind the Booker’s Lineup and Freddie Noe is the man behind the Little Book series.
It was a group of about 8 of us in the room with Fred and Freddie sharing their history and giving us behind the scenes insight into why they love making whiskey and the impressive style of testing and experimentation they put into each batch.
We even got to taste Freddie’s experimental batch of whiskey made with brown rice – which was surprisingly quite tasty.
Fred and Freddie Noe were extremely nice and friendly.
They took the time to hang out for 30-45 minutes after the tasting to answer questions and spend some 1-on-1 time with each of us and I was very grateful for the opportunity to learn from them.
So suffice to say, I’m definitely a fan of Jim Beam and the Booker’s bourbons so I was extremely excited to have the chance to taste this old 2015-1 batch.
Booker’s Big Man Small Batch (2015-1) Tasting Notes
Appearance: Dark Amber
Nose: Rich brown sugar, caramel, vanilla, charred oak, cinnamon, citrus, leather, tobacco, notes of dark fruit, cherry
Palate: Rich creamy caramel, brown sugar, tons of vanilla, well-balance charred oak, dark fruits, cherry, nuts, cinnamon, tobacco, earthy, rye grain, rye spice, nice oaky tannic spice too
Finish: Very rich finish that coats your mouth with a nice oily mouthfeel but surprisingly hardly any burn – leaves you with delicious brown sugary caramel, rich oak, and a nice rye spice and pepper on the tail end
Is Booker’s Big Man Small Batch an Approachable Whiskey?
Booker’s Big Man Small Batch is surprisingly approachable for being a 64.35% ABV bourbon.
The 128.7 Proof-point had me expecting burn on the first sip or two, but it didn’t. Instead, it has the excellent mouthfeel of a high-proof bourbon but with none of the heat and all of the flavor.
This bourbon does still pack a lot of flavor into each sip so beginners may want to start with a lighter proof-point bourbon, but for anyone who likes big bold bourbon… this is an excellent bottle.
Is Booker’s Big Man Small Batch Complex?
This 2015-01 release of Booker’s is a bit complex and has very rich depth of flavor.
I had always heard about the older Booker’s bottles but they’re so hard to find.
Luckily, I was over my cousin’s playing D&D and when I looked in his pantry, I saw this bottle of Booker’s sitting in the back.
He had purchased it back when he lived in Louisville, Kentucky and kept it all this time.
He saw I was excited to see such an old batch so he let me bring it home to review and compare to the newer Booker’s batches I have in my collection (oldest one in my collection is 2021).
But let’s get into the complexity of this bottle.
Booker’s is pretty well-known for what it does and that is to produce a big and bold traditional bourbon whiskey.
They don’t branch out into finishes and other experiments on this lineup, they select batches to release and give a good expression of what their best bourbon is that year.
With that being said, this Booker’s offers top-tier traditional bourbon flavors starting with an extremely rich brown sugar and caramel note that is much more developed from what I’m getting in the newer batches.
The vanilla and charred oak influences are much more balanced as well and create a nice medley of flavors without being overpowered too far in any direction.
The finish is quite nice as well and adds a nice layer of rye grain and rye spice with a light touch of pepper on the tail end to keep your mouth tingling after each sip.
What are Booker’s Big Man Small Batch’s strongest attributes/flavors?
Booker’s Big Man Small Batch’s strongest attribute is easily how rich the finish is while having nearly no heat with such a high proof-point.
Of course, the flavors are delicious as well, but this is by far the smoothest Booker’s I have tasted so far, and I’ve tasted a lot!
Is Booker’s Big Man Small Batch a go-to whiskey?
If only I could get Booker’s from 2015 on a more regular basis.
I would easily drink this bottle regularly if I could get more of them at a decent price.
I’m not exactly sure what has changed with Booker’s from 2015 to their newest releases in 2025, but the bottles are quite different.
I’ve always been a fan of Booker’s and I buy at least one bottle of each batch, but there is most certainly something special about this 2015-01 release of Big Man Small Batch Booker’s.
Absolutely delicious.
Is Booker’s Big Man Small Batch priced accurately to its quality?
Since this bottle of Booker’s is about 10 years old, it’s very hard to find them anymore.
Bottles on the secondary market can go for anywhere from $400-$900 since the rarity of finding them is so tough.
From what I could find, this was the most expensive edition of Booker’s in the recent batches which started in 2014 (more earlier but kind of a different run).
With that being said, when this bottle was released it was about $70 and that is a great price for this bourbon (even in 2015 prices).
I’m definitely glad my cousin had this one store away nicely and it has retained all its flavor, but I definitely would not be spending anywhere near secondary prices to try this one out.
I think the prices at this point are just for collector’s who want an entire Booker’s lineup, but I will say that it is the best Booker’s release I have tasted so I can see why it’s the most valuable of the series.
Conclusion for Booker’s Big Man Small Batch (2015-01)
Booker’s Big Man Small Batch (2015-01) is absolutely delicious.
It has extremely rich flavors and is the most balanced of the Booker’s series.
It also has a deceptively smooth finish while still giving a rich flavorful oily mouthfeel that lasts for quite a while.
I’m extremely happy to have the chance to try this bottle.
I now understand when people said the old Booker’s bourbons were just different.
It makes sense and I can see the clear difference, this is the best Booker’s I have tasted.
I even tasted it side by side against my previous favorite Booker’s Lumberyard Batch (2022-02) just to be sure.
Just wish I could get more of these!
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