Cass Anderson / BroBible
Summer is Bourbon SZN in my household and with July winding down I looked back on the last month and realized there was really only one bottle I’d reached for anytime I wanted to pour a dram: the Booker’s ‘Milkshake Batch.’ Upon reflection it seemed I foolish not to share the good word because it has proven to be one of my favorite pours in quite some time.
This is second Booker’s Batch Bourbon release of 2026 and ‘Milkshake Batch’ is a nod to the late great Booker Noe’s tradition of drinking chocolate malts after fishing drips with his dad. Am I a sucker for a good backstory? Always. Especially when there’s fishing involved.
Booker’s ‘Milkshake Batch’ — What’s In The Bottle?
Cass Anderson / BroBible
For the second Booker’s Batch release of 2026, they pulled 26% from the fifth floor of warehouse 3, a seven-story house, 23% from the third floor of warehouse L, a seven-story house, 19% from the third floor of warehouse M, a seven-story house, and 32% from the fifth floor of warehouse G at waterfall, a seven-story house.
The finished result is a 124.4-proof bourbon with an age statement of 7 years, 6 months, and 12 days. It has, dare I say, the perfect amount of vanilla. Being in that 7.5ish year age range the oak flavor really is optimal.
Those rich flavors combine for a long and lingering fishing after a full-bodied sip down the gullet. The first time I cracked open Booker’s Milkshake Batch I drank it neat and then later added one large ice cube. I have to say I like it both ways and have trouble deciding which I prefer.
Is this the perfect bourbon for someone who has never had a sip of bourbon in their life? Probably not. There’s plenty of heat. But that heat is erupting with flavor like a volcano spewing lava. Ever sip is better than the last.
7th Generation Beam Master Distiller Fred Noe, the mastermind behind Booker’s Batch Bourbon, says the milkshake tradition after fishing was something he’d do with his father back when he was a kid but one day his dad poured a little Jim Beam into his milkshake and the rest was history.
A new tradition was born: chocolate malt milkshakes with a pour of Jim Beam. Decades later, this Booker’s Batch Bourbon release was named in honor of that tradition.
With an MSRP of $99.99, this is firmly in the premium to ultra-premium tier of bourbon. But is it worth it? I’d say so. I just finished the bottle I cracked open back at the end of June and this is the first bottle I’ve finished so far in 2026. That says a lot to me!