| Whiskey | Little Book Infinite – Chapter 1 (2024 Release) |
| Distillery | Jim Beam |
| Region | Clermont, Kentucky |
| Type | Bourbon |
| Mash Bill | Undisclosed Mashbill – Blend of 4 Whiskeys |
| Proof / ABV | 119.3 Proof / 59.65% ABV |
| Aging |
|
| Filtration | Non-Chill Filtered |
| MSRP | $200 |
| Release Year | 2024 |
Little Book Infinite - Chapter 2 Tasting Notes
Appearance: Dark Golden Honey
Nose: Rich caramel, brown sugar, cinnamon spice, toasted oak, vanilla, red fruits, cherry, citrus notes, leather, tobacco, rye grain, earthy
Palate: Sweet caramel, charred oak, bold vanilla, rye spice, red fruit, citrus zest, baking spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, maple, powdered sugar
Finish: Full finish with a nice oily mouthfeel and flavors that stay on your palate – leaves you with rich caramel, charred oak, and fruit with a lingering pepper and rye spice on the tail end
What is the Little Book Infinite Series?
The Little Book Infinite series is a new product series from James B. Beam Distilling Company.
It is the project of Freddie Noe who is an 8th generation in the Beam/Noe master Distiller for the family.
Freddie created this series as a tribute to his grandfather Booker Noe who started the Booker’s lineup back in 1988 and called it Little Book because his grandfather called him by that nickname when he was a child.
The lineup is designed to be uncut and unfiltered representations of three generations of whiskey from himself, his father, Fred Noe, and his grandfather Booker Noe.
The idea is that it will be a perpetual, evolving blend that uses whiskeys from previous generations with this bottle being the foundation and then each year new whiskey will be added to the blend to evolve over the years.
Edition 1 of Little Book Infinite included the following whiskeys:
- Booker Noe’s component: 20 year old Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Fred Noe’s component: 14 year old Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Freddie Noe’s component: 7 year old Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Shared Family Component: 8 year old Kentucky Straight Bourbon
I’m sure many of you have created your own “Infinity Bottles” where you keep a few ounces from the end of your bottles and combine them together to create an ongoing and evolving blend of your own creation.
Freddie is building on this trend and creating an ultimate Infinity Bottle from the wide range of Jim Beam and Booker’s bourbon barrel collection to create a fun new experiment that will evolve over the next decade as a yearly release.
Is Little Book Infinite - Chapter 1 an Approachable Whiskey?
Little Book Chapter 1 has a bit of heat to it from being nearly 120 proof.
If you’ve ever had a Booker’s Bourbon or the previous bottles in the Little Book lineup, you’ll be familiar with the style bourbon this bottle offers.
It’s a whiskey designed more for experienced whiskey drinkers who are looking for deep flavors with an uncut and unfiltered element to each taste.
The bottle is non-chill filtered which gives a more oily and bold finish which is quite nice.
This additional punch of flavor and boldness may be a bit hot for beginners to whiskey, but if you’re a fan of cask strength bourbon, this one is for you.
Is Little Book Infinite - Chapter 1 Complex?
Little Book Infinite Chapter 1 has quite a bit of complexity and depth of flavor.
It has all your traditional bold bourbon flavors like rich caramel, toasted/charred oak, and vanilla that you would get in Booker’s Bourbon, but there’s another layer of flavor added on top.
This pour has a nice bit of rye spice, cinnamon, and almost an earthy leather and tobacco note that I don’t always get on the Booker’s releases.
I would guess that one of the younger whiskeys in this blend has a bit more rye spice and that blends well with the older whiskeys that bring in the rich charred oak, leather, and tobacco notes.
It’s always hard to pinpoint exact flavor notes on blended whiskeys because you get the best of 4 worlds here, but you can definitely tell the blend adds depth and complexity to this pour compared to your other Jim Beam bottles.
The finish is also quite nice and I’m glad that this infinity series in uncut and unfiltered so we get all the rich flavors alongside the non-chill filtered oily and buttery mouthfeel that really carries the flavors across your entire palate.
What are Little Book Infinite - Chapter 1’s strongest attributes/flavors?
Little Book Infinite’s strongest attribute is that it is an experimental blend that Freddie Noe is testing to see if the evolution of this whiskey can evolve as they add new whiskey each year.
Other distilleries use a sour mash process or a “solera finish” but with this infinity series, Freddie is using complete and finished whiskeys to blend final products into a new batch of blended whiskey.
Where a solera continuously marries liquid in the barrel, Freddie Noe’s Infinite carries over a portion of the previous blend into each new edition, preserving its lineage in the bottle.
Infinite is the blend-as-legacy idea taken literally – a whiskey whose DNA grows a year older with every release.
I find that quite interesting and is one of the big reasons I decided to splurge and spend the $200 on this bottle (and bring you a review).
I was lucky enough to meet Fred and Freddie Noe when my Dad and I visited the Jim Beam distillery during their Clermont Steep release.
My dad and I got to experience a small tasting with 6-8 other people where we got to learn from Fred and Freddie while tasting the new Clermont Steep American Single Malt, Little Book Chapter 6, Jim Beam Distiller’s Share #1 (made with Brown Rice), and Hardin’s Creek.
It was fascinating to hear about Freddie Noe’s curiosity in developing and learning about new whiskey flavors and how they tried to create a whiskey with brown rice instead of rye grain – which actually tasted quite delicious.
They sometimes release these experiments in the distillery, but it makes a lot of sense to me how the Little Book series and this infinite series would fit right into Freddie’s curious nature and always trying to push the boundaries to create a new and exciting product.
I’ve been really enjoying all of the Little Book Releases (especially Little Book Chapter 8) and am excited to see how this infinite series progresses over the next decade.
Is Little Book Infinite - Chapter 1 a go-to whiskey?
Little Book Infinite is a big high proof to be a go-to whiskey for me and the price point would be a bit high for that as well.
Since this is a limited-release bottle, I will reserve this one for special occasions and share with friends who appreciate a good cask strength bourbon.
I’ll also be making sure to reserve some of this bottle to compare against future batches of the infinite series as they progress each year.
Is Little Book Infinite - Chapter 1 priced accurately to its quality?
This is a tough question to answer because the experimental nature of the series if the allure.
If I were to judge this bottle just on taste alone, I would probably price it closer to the $125-150 price range similar to the standard Little Book releases.
However, I knew I was going to buy this bottle regardless because I want to test the initial batch against future batches each year and see just how much Freddie experiments and changes the blend each time.
*Update: Little Book Infinite Chapter 2 has released and I can confirm that it has evolved quite nicely and is even better than Chapter 1.
Conclusion for Little Book Infinite - Chapter 1 (2024 Release)
I’m very excited about this Little Book Infinite series and I think we’re going to be seeing some delicious whiskey being released over the next few years.
Freddie Noe has been doing an excellent job with the Little Book series recently (especially Little Book Chapter 8) and has given us something to look forward to with this new lineup.
If you see this bottle on the shelf and are a fan of cask strength bourbon, definitely give it a shot and be ready to compare this bottle to each future installment in the series.
If this bottle is a bit pricey for you, I’d recommend purchasing a bottle of Booker’s bourbon to try and see what you think of the overall flavor profile.
Booker’s is always a solid buy at the $99 price point for a nice 120+ proof bourbon.
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