Knob Creek 12 Year Old Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon 750ml

Knob Creek 12 Year Old Cask Strength is a 12-year age-stated Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey bottled at cask strength and released as a limited edition by the James B. Beam Distilling Co. in Clermont, Kentucky. Because it goes into the bottle uncut at barrel proof, the strength shifts from batch to batch rather than settling on one fixed number — the proof stated on the bottle in hand is the proof of that specific bottling.

Knob Creek was created in 1992 by founding distiller Booker Noe, who built the brand around a pre-Prohibition style of bourbon: heavier, older and fuller than the lighter whiskeys that dominated the market at the time. The house method has not moved much since. Knob Creek bourbons are aged in new, maximum charred American oak barrels — the deepest char level the distillery uses — which is what drives the caramelized wood, toffee and char-smoke character the brand is known for.

What separates this bottling from the standard 12 Year is the dilution, or rather the absence of it. The core Knob Creek 12 Year is proofed down to 100; this one is not proofed down at all. Twelve years of Kentucky summers in a maximum-char barrel concentrate the whiskey through evaporation, and bottling at full barrel strength preserves that concentration instead of trimming it back. It also means the batch-to-batch variation is real and visible — two bottles from different batches will not be identical, which is the point of a cask strength release rather than a flaw in it.

The whiskey carries the Noe family lineage that runs through the entire James B. Beam operation. Booker Noe, Jim Beam's grandson, established the small batch program; his son Fred Noe serves as seventh generation master distiller, and Fred's son Freddie Noe is the eighth generation master distiller now steering the distillery's limited and experimental releases. Knob Creek's age-stated bourbons — the 9, 12, 15, 18 and 21 Year expressions — are the clearest expression of that long-aging philosophy.

For collectors, the appeal is the combination: a double-digit age statement and full barrel strength in the same bottle, from a distillery that releases age-stated Knob Creek in limited runs rather than continuously. Each batch stands on its own, and once a given batch is gone the exact proof and profile of that bottling are not repeated.

• Size: 750ml
• Proof: Cask strength — varies by batch
• Age: 12 years
• Origin: Clermont, Kentucky, USA
• Distillery: James B. Beam Distilling Co., Clermont, Kentucky (labeled Knob Creek Distilling Company, Clermont, KY)
• Whiskey Type: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, bottled at cask strength
• Cask/Cooperage: New, maximum charred American oak barrels
• Bottling: Limited edition; bottled uncut at barrel proof, so strength varies batch to batch
• Series: Knob Creek age-stated bourbons (9, 12, 15, 18 and 21 Year)
• Master Distiller: Fred Noe, seventh generation; Freddie Noe, eighth generation