[For those who don't know: An alcoholic drink's strength is measured either in ABV (alcohol by volume, AKA percentage) or in "proof," which is basically half the ABV. For example, a 100-proof liquor is 50% ABV. As a long-time barman, I alternate between the two below with the assumption that an audience can work this out for themselves.]
Jim Beam has always been the great underdog of bourbons.
It never quite achieved the premium success of Maker’s Mark, nor did it capture the elitist, over-rated snobbery of Woodford Reserve. It certainly never came close to the way Jack Daniels - which isn’t even a true bourbon - has managed to dominate the market.
Despite all this, it has a certain charm. If Jack Daniels is Arnold Schwarzenegger - huge, brash, charismatic and known the world over - then Jim Beam is Sly Stallone. A little less self assured, a little less bombastic, but with a little more depth and still fighting a similar corner with undeniable charm - even with lower success rates and elevator shoes.
Then again, maybe this is the wrong analogy. Jim might not be the runner-up, the also-ran, the lesser star. It could be that Jim Beam is the Velvet Underground to Jack’s Beatles; dismissed initially in the face of a wildly popular alternative, only to gain in success over the years as the zeitgeist finally caught up.
It’s worth pointing out that Jim Beam’s flagship White Label, whilst rougher than Jack’s ubiquitous “Old No.7”, is still operating the way it was designed to. Jack Daniels has watered down by 10% ABV in the last 20 years, and as such has cornered the market on bourbons, even though it is technically a Tennessee whiskey. Jim, by staying true to its roots, has come off as a rougher, harder hitting spirit that is less suited to the mass audience palette. Jim never sold out the way Jack did, and has paid the price in sales, but never in dignity.
In recent months, things in the bourbon world - which I cheerfully inhabit about 30% as often as I do the sober one - have gone from bad to worse, as Maker’s Mark, always a solid, smooth, 90-proof, luxury bourbon, announced it was watering the product down to a more market-friendly (not to mention less-heavily-taxed) 80-proof. After outcry from drunks and whiskey fans everywhere*, Maker’s Mark relented and vowed to keep their established ABV, but only in America. In other markets, such as “all other nations on the planet earth,” the watering-down would go ahead. This means drunks in the UK, for whom I happen to be a spokesman (or, more accurately, slursman) are being cheated.
Credit, then, to the plucky folks at Jim Beam who, having seen their greatest competitor water down and kowtow to the bastardised market years ago, and who are now watching one of their other competitors undergo the same pointless, petty neutering, have decided to buck the trend and release Jim Beam: Devil’s Cut, a bourbon 5% stronger than their normal product.
Sure, it’s rougher than some high-proof alternatives. This is because it’s made from bourbon pressed out of the walls of the oak distilling casks. In distilling, over a number of years, the inevitable evaporation caused by keeping a barrel in a warehouse over time is referred to as “the Angels’ share.” This is the alternative. Whiskey that didn’t evaporate into the ether over time, but soaked into the hard oak of the barrel to be forced out, alive and seasoned and spoiling for a fight.
This is then mixed with 6-year-aged Jim, which, in my humble opinion, is a mistake.
Jim Beam Black, the lesser-known cousin of Jim Beam’s usual bottle, is chemically indistinguishable from Jack Daniel’s. Every bit as smooth, but without that annoying, unimaginative quality or, again, the knowledge that Jack sold out years ago. This is because Jim Beam Black is aged 8 years, and mellows accordingly.
By combining the Devil’s Cut with a relatively raw six-year-old bourbon, Jim Beam has made a minor mis-step in creating a product that should be saluted universally.
As such, Devil’s Cut is a little rougher on the palette than it needs to be. Then again, Jim Beam has never been about subtlety. It is a brand built on good, honest Kentucky bourbon, which has never sold out like others did.
As such, I salute - and will continue to support - Devil’s Cut as a bourbon that had the balls to stand up for itself.
In an age when “X-Treme Heatwave” means “mildly warm” and “Extra Strong” means fuck all, Jim Beam have quietly rolled out a product that bucks the trend, increases the alcohol content and makes it very clear that if you want more booze in your booze, then you don’t want Jack.
Good luck to ‘em.
*The distinction often boils down to exactly WHERE you’re drinking at any given moment.
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