Named after the way Booker would “chew” his whiskey meet the Booker’s Bourbon Batch “Kentucky chew.”

Following the end of the American Revolutionary War, Johannes Reginald Beam emigrated from Germany to the United States, and eventually settled in Kentucky County. At the time, Kentucky County was still considered part of Virginia, and was overseen by a military governor named John J. Bowman. After settling in Kentucky, Beam began harvesting corn and set forth a family tradition by distilling the excess grains he harvested into whiskey. Since then, seven generations of the Beam family have been involved in whiskey production for the eponymous company (the company is actually named after James Beam, who rescued it following Prohibition).

Booker’s Small Batch Cask Strength Bourbon Whiskey is named in honor of Booker Noe, the grandson of Jim Beam. Made from a mash of primarily corn, the bourbon was initially bottled by Noe to be used as gifts for close friends and family. Today, the bourbon is matured in virgin American oak casks that are situated in the center of a Kentucky rickhouse, where the temperature and humidity are the most favorable for maturing whiskey. After the bourbon has matured for seven to nine years, it is bottled at cask strength (~130 proof) without the use of chill filtration or artificial coloring.

Booker’s Batch 2018-03 is named in tribute to founding distiller Booker Noe and his signature way of tasting bourbon. The term was first coined by a whiskey writer decades ago who enjoyed a bourbon tasting with Booker. To get a good ‘Kentucky Chew,’ Booker would take a sip of bourbon, work it around his mouth and then smack his lips a few times in such a way that it appeared like he was chewing on the liquid.