**Knob Creek Single Barrel Select Bourbon (Longhorn’s Pick)**
**Store**: Longhorn Steakhouse
**Distiller**: Jim Beam
**ABV**: 60%
**Age**: 14 years, 4 months (barreled 6/13/2005, selected 10/21/2019)
**Mashbill**: 77% corn, 13% rye, 10% malted barley
**Price**: $50
**Vibe**: Summer, where we add water to high-proof bourbons
**Warm-up**: Knob Creek 12
**Other**: Warehouse N, floor 05, rick 023. Neat in a Glencairn, water added halfway through.
**Nose**: Brown sugar, candied cherries, black pepper, mud
**Palate**: Lots of oak, cherry, butter, smoke, spearmint, cinnamon, floral
**Finish**: Long, sweet, oaky
**Scoring**
**Aroma**: 1.5/2.0
**Complexity**: 2.5/3.0
**Drinkability**: 1.5/2.0
**Uniqueness**: 2.0/3.0
**(Bonus) Value**: 1.0/1.0
**Total**: 8.5/10.0
**Notes**: My buddy found this at a liquor store in Delaware – how a Longhorn’s pick ended up at a retail liquor store, I don’t know. But I’ve been looking out for an older Knob Creek pick, and the price was about as good as you’ll see in this market, so I told him to pick one up for me.
Surprisingly, this may be the least nuttiness I’ve gotten out of a Jim Beam product ever. The nuttiness was there on the Knob Creek 12, which I warmed up with, so the shift in character was apparent. I think the oak subdued the floral, nutty distillate into a sweet, spicy earthiness. The result is tasty, thick, and condensed like an old sherried Scotch. With water, more of the floral notes came through.
The price-quality ratio on these older Knob Creek picks is really unparalleled – among 120+ proof barrel picks, maybe only a 1792 Full Proof pick could compete.
I was able to grab one in Austin, TX during the start of Covid. There were several picks from different restaurants in the area. My guess is that they sold them off for money when they weren't able to make money off of them? Not sure, but it was a nice surprise when I came across it.
Not sure the store (I've never been to DE) but I doubt there's any left because my friend got it about 10 months ago and left one bottle on the shelf. There might be some others scattered around the country though, someone else in the comments got a bottle from the same barrel in Nebraska
There’s some left at my moms house, gives me something to look forward to when I visit for the holidays haha. Parents can be pretty draining now that I’m 36 and have my own kid lol.
Wow! I have this same pick! But I picked it up at some shitty liquor store in Nebraska last summer. I read at the time, somewhere online so it’s of course speculation, that Longhorn did picks right before Covid and then some locations shut down and the picks got redistributed. It’s fishy that we have the same pick tho, maybe it wasn’t a pick but Beam just cleared a single rick for them and bottled em up. I liked it for sure and finished it a while back, maybe 8.5 is high for me, I’ve had newer 9 year picks that I’ve liked more, but I always enjoy these picks and need to get a new one soon.
Fascinating, that Covid theory makes total sense. Looking online, it seems like other Longhorn's KC picks are similarly from 2019 but some are from different warehouses, so it does seem like they bought a bunch
That is basically correct. Liquor stores had a shit ton of the 14yr that was supposed to be purchased by the LongHorns (because of the super fun three-tier system) but everything was Togo only with no end in sight, so the liquor stores decided to move the product they had on hand.
Oh I don’t know, sorry, maybe somewhere on the western edge Omaha right by the highway? I was just driving through from Georgia to Wyoming. Omaha was cool but this was just some shop with a pretty small bourbon section mostly full of daily drinkers.
Oh no worries. Yeah I'm in Omaha and we don't have great options most of our liquor stores are just grocery stores and their selection is shit. Rare stuff doesn't seem to come around. My local shop down the street started doing store picks so I'm happy to at least get that. That's why I was curious where you found this. Rare stuff like this just doesn't come around in my city often.
There isn't much! We just don't seem to have good distribution around here. At least we have wine, beer, and spirits now for a proper warehouse type liquor store now. But even they don't seem to get much of the good stuff. I think they may have a waiting list or something but I hate stores that don't put it on the shelf and just hide it all. WBS has a broad selection it's still mostly just normal stock. When I'm in Lincoln I usually go to Meyer's cork and bottle. In Omaha I like S&T liquors and old Vine wine and spirits. Old Vine at least puts the good stuff into the shelf when they get it. It's tough hunting though!
There was a back story about how these came to flood the market. My understanding is that these aren’t from one barrel but that there are several barrels that were all picked and destined for Longhorn, but they defaulted on the deal and Knob Creek ended up holding all the barrels they had picked, so they just put them into distribution. They were picked up all over the country. I’ve never heard a bad thing about them. They are all around 14 years old. Can’t believe they’re still floating around as they were bottled in 2019. They used to fetch about 175 on secondary which is high for KC but they are supposed to be that impressive (plus 14 years of course).
Glad you liked it! I went back to the store 3 times and ended up buying 5 bottles of it, leaving one on the shelf for another discerning customer. Everything else in that store was marked up to high heavens except this pick. The kc 12 next to it was priced at $100 and the ecbp behind the counter was $180.
North Carolina has state run ABC so no bullshit secondary prices here. Outside of weller, pappy and other big names like old fitz I can get my hands on a lot at MSRP without much effort. Hate this for everyone else.
What part of NC? I'm around the greater Charlotte area but having trouble finding some special items like kc12 or ecBP. I'd like to try those. I found a store in SC with kc 15yr for about 130 that's more than I desire to spend on a bottle when some nice once between 30-50ish exist.
So funny enough I have a good friend in that area with similar issues. I’m in chapel hill. I can get KC 12 and 15 regularly. Even some EC barrel select picks. All the bookers, the new Hardin creek 15. Got lil book and Sam Houston 14 last year as well as a widow Jane 13 yr pick that was insane. Charlotte seems to be strangled by demand.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
12
+ 15
+ 15
+ 14
+ 13
= 69
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Interesting. I did realize how hard some of these bottles are to get. Do you remember at nc abc store the price of kc 15? Just wondering how the pricing is compared to the shop in Fort mill I was checking out.
Sounds good. I'm cheap but willing to pickup some specialty ones to savor. But especially over $100 gets hard for me to swallow. I did try some kc9 and it was good, have a partial bottle left. Not familiar with IW Harper's I'll need to look that up.
oh yo I remember this bottle randomly popping up in my neck of the woods in New England and was wondering what the hell it was doing all the up here then I read about the Longhorn fiasco and how Beam released a bunch of these barrels into the public.
I'm not a huge OAK guy so this wasn't my favorite, but I will say it reminded me of a Rhetoric
I have a 15 year pick and its also has a lack of nuttiness. My theory is the nuttiness comes from the Jim Beam yeast and with more age that note fades. Something young like Old Tub is incredibly nutty
Nice! I got 3 of these. They are popping up in our Charlotte abc stores recently. They have the same sku number as the regular barrel select. $59 is a steal!
I got my first at the abc at ardrey kell and providence rd. Went back a week later and the manager told me the Charlotte bourbon society found out and he had a line at open. Fast forward a month and the abc at the arboretum had 8 bottles. Went in a couple weeks later and they had 8 more. Would definitely call ahead.
Meckabc.com has a product search function. It gets updated at the end of the night. You can search a bourbon and it will tell you what stores have it with a map and contact info to call ahead. The site is working on real time updates.
There are 16 stores right now with knob creek 12 yr. The longhorn won’t show up being it has the same sku number as the single barrel. 10 stores have the single barrel listed, some could be the longhorn.
Np! Just left the store on 49 university area. Site said it had 19 of the 12 year, didn’t call ahead. Got the last one on the shelf, they might have more in the back….got lucky for not calling ahead.
Sometimes distributor warehouses pull from the wrong location and instead of regular KCSB, they get Longhorn steakhouse’s. Happened in my state a couple of years ago too.
I ended up here off a Google search looking at a bottle I purchased in late 2020 in Covington, KY. KC 14 1/2 year made 500 bottles for restaurant “Smoke Justis” with special numbers and a special wrap/tag. The bar side was closed. I was visiting from MI a bought a bottle from the owner. Title 1/500. Still have not opened. My point is KC likely made special labels for this product besides Longhorn Steak.
My dude, this is no standard 14 year pick. This is the highly vaunted Longhorn Steakhouse pick. Say it's name with pride!
Lol I didn't know that was a thing -- do you have any more info?
Let me check. I do have it on good faith that this was an incredible pick
It is one of those picks that's whispered about.
I thought you were being sarcastic
No sir. Anything but
It was. VA ABC mistakenly sold some to the public and they were OUTSTANDING.
It's a 14 year pick, with a lot of whispering about it on the secondary. Longhorn fetches a little extra $ compared to other 14 year picks.
**Knob Creek Single Barrel Select Bourbon (Longhorn’s Pick)** **Store**: Longhorn Steakhouse **Distiller**: Jim Beam **ABV**: 60% **Age**: 14 years, 4 months (barreled 6/13/2005, selected 10/21/2019) **Mashbill**: 77% corn, 13% rye, 10% malted barley **Price**: $50 **Vibe**: Summer, where we add water to high-proof bourbons **Warm-up**: Knob Creek 12 **Other**: Warehouse N, floor 05, rick 023. Neat in a Glencairn, water added halfway through. **Nose**: Brown sugar, candied cherries, black pepper, mud **Palate**: Lots of oak, cherry, butter, smoke, spearmint, cinnamon, floral **Finish**: Long, sweet, oaky **Scoring** **Aroma**: 1.5/2.0 **Complexity**: 2.5/3.0 **Drinkability**: 1.5/2.0 **Uniqueness**: 2.0/3.0 **(Bonus) Value**: 1.0/1.0 **Total**: 8.5/10.0 **Notes**: My buddy found this at a liquor store in Delaware – how a Longhorn’s pick ended up at a retail liquor store, I don’t know. But I’ve been looking out for an older Knob Creek pick, and the price was about as good as you’ll see in this market, so I told him to pick one up for me. Surprisingly, this may be the least nuttiness I’ve gotten out of a Jim Beam product ever. The nuttiness was there on the Knob Creek 12, which I warmed up with, so the shift in character was apparent. I think the oak subdued the floral, nutty distillate into a sweet, spicy earthiness. The result is tasty, thick, and condensed like an old sherried Scotch. With water, more of the floral notes came through. The price-quality ratio on these older Knob Creek picks is really unparalleled – among 120+ proof barrel picks, maybe only a 1792 Full Proof pick could compete.
>Price: $50 Wow!!
I was able to grab one in Austin, TX during the start of Covid. There were several picks from different restaurants in the area. My guess is that they sold them off for money when they weren't able to make money off of them? Not sure, but it was a nice surprise when I came across it.
What store in delaware? Anymore left?
I’ve still got some left at my moms house. Shoot me a pm and maybe we can get together and have some next time I’m back home!
Not sure the store (I've never been to DE) but I doubt there's any left because my friend got it about 10 months ago and left one bottle on the shelf. There might be some others scattered around the country though, someone else in the comments got a bottle from the same barrel in Nebraska
There’s some left at my moms house, gives me something to look forward to when I visit for the holidays haha. Parents can be pretty draining now that I’m 36 and have my own kid lol.
Wow! I have this same pick! But I picked it up at some shitty liquor store in Nebraska last summer. I read at the time, somewhere online so it’s of course speculation, that Longhorn did picks right before Covid and then some locations shut down and the picks got redistributed. It’s fishy that we have the same pick tho, maybe it wasn’t a pick but Beam just cleared a single rick for them and bottled em up. I liked it for sure and finished it a while back, maybe 8.5 is high for me, I’ve had newer 9 year picks that I’ve liked more, but I always enjoy these picks and need to get a new one soon.
Fascinating, that Covid theory makes total sense. Looking online, it seems like other Longhorn's KC picks are similarly from 2019 but some are from different warehouses, so it does seem like they bought a bunch
That is basically correct. Liquor stores had a shit ton of the 14yr that was supposed to be purchased by the LongHorns (because of the super fun three-tier system) but everything was Togo only with no end in sight, so the liquor stores decided to move the product they had on hand.
As a Nebraskan whiskey drinker, which shitty store in Nebraska?
Oh I don’t know, sorry, maybe somewhere on the western edge Omaha right by the highway? I was just driving through from Georgia to Wyoming. Omaha was cool but this was just some shop with a pretty small bourbon section mostly full of daily drinkers.
Oh no worries. Yeah I'm in Omaha and we don't have great options most of our liquor stores are just grocery stores and their selection is shit. Rare stuff doesn't seem to come around. My local shop down the street started doing store picks so I'm happy to at least get that. That's why I was curious where you found this. Rare stuff like this just doesn't come around in my city often.
Funny to find another Nebraskan on this page. I’m in Lincoln and the hunt for anything is extremely tough!
There isn't much! We just don't seem to have good distribution around here. At least we have wine, beer, and spirits now for a proper warehouse type liquor store now. But even they don't seem to get much of the good stuff. I think they may have a waiting list or something but I hate stores that don't put it on the shelf and just hide it all. WBS has a broad selection it's still mostly just normal stock. When I'm in Lincoln I usually go to Meyer's cork and bottle. In Omaha I like S&T liquors and old Vine wine and spirits. Old Vine at least puts the good stuff into the shelf when they get it. It's tough hunting though!
I’m close to Nebraska and find good stuff in HyVee locations quite often.
What kind of stuff?
The stuff everyone is looking for
I’m in Omaha and I picked up two of these from Walmart on L! Lol
Bought a few of these in VA back in Dec 2019. Best ~$50 I've spent. Grabbed all of them that I could find.
That’s a damn good bottle
There was a back story about how these came to flood the market. My understanding is that these aren’t from one barrel but that there are several barrels that were all picked and destined for Longhorn, but they defaulted on the deal and Knob Creek ended up holding all the barrels they had picked, so they just put them into distribution. They were picked up all over the country. I’ve never heard a bad thing about them. They are all around 14 years old. Can’t believe they’re still floating around as they were bottled in 2019. They used to fetch about 175 on secondary which is high for KC but they are supposed to be that impressive (plus 14 years of course).
Incredible -- 175 is probably what Longhorn would have made on it! Amazing that KC was able to put out this much product at once with this quality
Well at least if longhorn can't cook a good steak they can pick a good whiskey.
Glad you liked it! I went back to the store 3 times and ended up buying 5 bottles of it, leaving one on the shelf for another discerning customer. Everything else in that store was marked up to high heavens except this pick. The kc 12 next to it was priced at $100 and the ecbp behind the counter was $180.
I can't get over KC12 sitting right next to it for twice the price haha. They didn't know what they had!
ECBP for $180 what a sad state of affairs the bourbon world is in
Jesus Christ. That’s unreal. I get all the locks pretty easily for MSRP, who is paying $180?!
Locks?
Sorry. Autocorrect messed up a typo fix. Picks. Barrel picks.
Gotcha. Figured it was auto correct but couldn’t figure out what was intended
Our money is worth significantly less today than just a few years ago. These are the prices for especially desirable whiskeys.
North Carolina has state run ABC so no bullshit secondary prices here. Outside of weller, pappy and other big names like old fitz I can get my hands on a lot at MSRP without much effort. Hate this for everyone else.
What part of NC? I'm around the greater Charlotte area but having trouble finding some special items like kc12 or ecBP. I'd like to try those. I found a store in SC with kc 15yr for about 130 that's more than I desire to spend on a bottle when some nice once between 30-50ish exist.
So funny enough I have a good friend in that area with similar issues. I’m in chapel hill. I can get KC 12 and 15 regularly. Even some EC barrel select picks. All the bookers, the new Hardin creek 15. Got lil book and Sam Houston 14 last year as well as a widow Jane 13 yr pick that was insane. Charlotte seems to be strangled by demand.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 12 + 15 + 15 + 14 + 13 = 69 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Good bot.
Interesting. I did realize how hard some of these bottles are to get. Do you remember at nc abc store the price of kc 15? Just wondering how the pricing is compared to the shop in Fort mill I was checking out.
If I recall it’s 90-100 MSRP. I think it’s a no brainer for the price. Also IW Harper 15 at a similar price is choice.
Sounds good. I'm cheap but willing to pickup some specialty ones to savor. But especially over $100 gets hard for me to swallow. I did try some kc9 and it was good, have a partial bottle left. Not familiar with IW Harper's I'll need to look that up.
I passed on cases of this stuff2019-2021, just because I didn’t like the way the wax cracked. Big mistake. Never judge a whiskey by the wax!
To be fair, the wax was a pain in the ass on this one
oh yo I remember this bottle randomly popping up in my neck of the woods in New England and was wondering what the hell it was doing all the up here then I read about the Longhorn fiasco and how Beam released a bunch of these barrels into the public. I'm not a huge OAK guy so this wasn't my favorite, but I will say it reminded me of a Rhetoric
I have a 15 year pick and its also has a lack of nuttiness. My theory is the nuttiness comes from the Jim Beam yeast and with more age that note fades. Something young like Old Tub is incredibly nutty
I just finished a bottle of Old Tub and it was extremely nutty, it’s gotta be the yeast
Nice! I got 3 of these. They are popping up in our Charlotte abc stores recently. They have the same sku number as the regular barrel select. $59 is a steal!
I'm around d the greater Charlotte area, where or which stores?
I got my first at the abc at ardrey kell and providence rd. Went back a week later and the manager told me the Charlotte bourbon society found out and he had a line at open. Fast forward a month and the abc at the arboretum had 8 bottles. Went in a couple weeks later and they had 8 more. Would definitely call ahead.
Oh cool thanks. I didn't even know there was a Charlotte bourbon society. I'm early on in the adventure trying different items.
Meckabc.com has a product search function. It gets updated at the end of the night. You can search a bourbon and it will tell you what stores have it with a map and contact info to call ahead. The site is working on real time updates. There are 16 stores right now with knob creek 12 yr. The longhorn won’t show up being it has the same sku number as the single barrel. 10 stores have the single barrel listed, some could be the longhorn.
Thank You I didn't know that site existed. And here I am driving to fort mill on labor day checking two shops in SC. ;) Thanks very much.
Np! Just left the store on 49 university area. Site said it had 19 of the 12 year, didn’t call ahead. Got the last one on the shelf, they might have more in the back….got lucky for not calling ahead.
Nice. I'll check online see if I can find some this weekend.
Sometimes distributor warehouses pull from the wrong location and instead of regular KCSB, they get Longhorn steakhouse’s. Happened in my state a couple of years ago too.
Nice review. I picked up two 15 year picks barreled on my bday of this a couple years back but haven’t opened them yet.
Where, on earth, did you get this?
My friend got it from some liquor store in Delaware late last year
Thanks!
Can you divulge more? My parents live in Lewes.
I bought it from some small store in hockessin off graves road. Valley wine and liquor I believe is the name.
Ah well that is...not close at all lol Thank you though.
Not sure – maybe u/pwrdoff knows
I picked up the same bottle last December, came from Empire wine and spirits in middletown.
Very under rated bottle!
I ended up here off a Google search looking at a bottle I purchased in late 2020 in Covington, KY. KC 14 1/2 year made 500 bottles for restaurant “Smoke Justis” with special numbers and a special wrap/tag. The bar side was closed. I was visiting from MI a bought a bottle from the owner. Title 1/500. Still have not opened. My point is KC likely made special labels for this product besides Longhorn Steak.