Small Batch Bourbon: a Catch-All Category
Walking into your favorite liquor store or searching Small Batch Bourbon can be an overwhelming experience. You’ll find a dizzying array of bottles demarcated by everything from brand to age and even whether the whiskey is single barrel or blended. But amidst all this variety are bottles that claim to be “small batch.” That label is something of a crutch word, a vague descriptor that doesn’t really tell you anything about the whiskey inside the bottle.
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To understand what separates a bourbon labeled as small batch from its mass-market cousin, you need to know that standard bourbon production is done by “vatting,” or tipping multiple barrels of whiskey into large vats for blending to create a signature taste. But small batch bourbons differ in that they don’t use as many different barrels and the individual barrels are hand-picked.
The definition of what counts as a small batch is somewhat subjective, with no formal laws or regulations to control it. A producer could theoretically mix together 1,000 barrels and call it a small batch, but it’s probably not wise to do so for legal reasons.
But that doesn’t stop some producers from trying to market their bourbons as small batch. One of the more prominent examples is Jim Beam’s Small Batch Collection, a series that includes Booker’s, Baker’s, Basil Hayden, and Knob Creek. Beam found early success marketing these bourbons as small batches and has expanded the line since 1992 to include higher-proof offerings of each of these brands.