Jim Beam Green Label Rye

On January 13, 2015 Beam Suntory announced Jim Beam 'Pre-Prohibition Syle' Green Label Rye

I was very very excited to learn that Beam/Suntory is replacing Jim Beam Yellow Label Rye, 40% abv, with a 45% abv Jim Beam Green Label 'Pre-Prohibition Style' Rye. It says right on the Green Label bottle that this whiskey is "...perfect for any whiskey cocktail." Fred Noe, master distiller at Jim Beam, further says that feedback from bartenders desiring a rye which was spicier and which held up better in cocktails was a motivating factor in the decision to replace Jim Beam Yellow Label Rye with the Green Label Rye. Mention is made by Beam that this rye is from a different, "one of their oldest", recipes, but no specific mention is made anywhere as to what the mashbill for this whiskey is, or what "Pre-Prohibition Style" is concretely supposed to mean, other than that it comes from a recipe which pre-dates the US Prohibition

Alternate titles for this review were: Black Pepper Rye, An Austere Style of Rye, Austere and Spicy, Spice Trip, Talisker Rye Whiskey, or, suggested by @Dramlette, It Tastes Like They Washed Out Some Old Barrels

Because this is a straight rye whiskey and there is no age statement on the bottle, the whisky is assumed by law to be 4 years old. The reviewed bottle has been open for 25 days. I will do this review in both time sequential and non-sequential formats

Nose: pretty strong spice, but it is almost all black pepper; there are just hints of cinnamon/cassia around the edges. Wood flavours are light to the point of being indiscernable. There is no real fruit to be smelled. I would have trouble identifying this as rye whiskey from the nose

Taste: very strong spices, with a heavy dominance of black pepper. As in the nose, there is no real flavour of dark fruit to be encountered here. Wood flavours are light to almost imperceptible. The body is still pretty light, despite being at 45% abv

Finish: the finish starts to tone down quickly, but maintains some of the flavour for a long time. You taste more wood flavour going into the finish, but the wood flavours taste like a block of wood, and not vanilla, caramel, etc. These wood flavours are barely adequate, and not delicious

Balance: this is probably the most UNBALANCED US rye whiskey I have ever tasted. There is almost nothing here but strong BLACK PEPPER

I have several big questions...1)what is this "pre-prohibition style" recipe Beam is using? 2)how did they remove all fruitiness from the rye? Jim Beam Yellow Label had SOME small element of dark fruitiness. This has essentially NONE 3) how did they eliminate almost all of the BAKING SPICES from the spice mix? Cinnamon/cassia, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, ginger...you almost always get a lot of some of those with US rye. Not here. 4)is this bottle typical of Jim Beam Green Label Rye?, 5)will this bottle change and develop fruitiness or baking spices with long air time? I waited an hour in the glass, and tried with water added...nothing brought out dark fruits or baking spices

Non-time-sequential review: (SQVH)

Strength: Lots of strength of flavour, in what IS there. Score: 23/25 pts

Quality: the flavours which ARE there are mostly pretty good, and certainly quite vivid. Score: 21/25

Variety: very narrow selection of flavours. Score: 17/25

Harmony: harmony is skewed because of lack of variety. Score: 21/25 pts

Total Score: 82 pts

Comment: really, I don't know what the hell Beam is doing here, except that I do take them at their word that this whiskey is for cocktails. I rejoiced that Beam replaced the 40% abv Yellow Label Rye with a 45% Rye, but I am dumbfounded at how they managed to cook up a rye with such a limited range of flavours. Jim Beam Green Label Rye is not a sipping rye whiskey

If you want to sip decent Jim Beam Rye, buy Knob Creek Rye

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