Cass Anderson / BroBible
The sun is shining, breeze is blowing, birds are chirping, and Spring is in full effect as we barrel into the first weekend of April. With that, I wanted to call out the ‘Big Easy Batch,’ the first Booker’s Bourbon Batch of 2026 and a batch that pays homage to a special place where Booker Noe himself visited all of his life.
According to Beam Family 7th Generation Master Distiller Fred Noe, Booker “made his first trips down there as a young man (with) friends like Billy Roby by his side, the two of them eating and drinking their way around town.” This is a trip that would become a staple of Booker Noe’s life, always returning back to Bourbon Street for trips and one time they even temporarily renamed Bourbon Street to Jim Beam Bourbon Street for a day in his honor.
The Big Easy Batch: First Booker’s Bourbon Batch Of 2026
If you are wondering what’s in the bottle, then you have come to the right place!
- 16% was stored on the third floor of warehouse H, a nine-story house
- 24% was stored on the sixth floor of warehouse G, a nine-story house
- 16% was stored on the fifth floor of warehouse O, a seven-story house
- 22% was stored on the third floor of warehouse J, a nine-story house
- 22% was stored on the fourth floor of warehouse M, a seven-story house
Cass Anderson / BroBible
The Booker’s Bourbon Big Easy Batch packs some heat in addition to maturity. It was aged for 7. years, 2 months, and 15 days. And The Big Easy Batch clocks in at a flavorful 129.1 proof.
It has a beautiful color from aging in the white oak barrels for over 7 years and that color translates to a warm sip and lots of sweetness on the tongue, a perfect harmony of high proof and flavor.
Somewhat related, we are now less than a month out from the running of the 152nd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, a city that sits at the epicenter of bourbon culture. At this point, I cannot imagine I will be pouring any bourbon on Derby Day other than the Booker’s Big Easy Batch but I will certainly be experimenting between now and then since ‘Bourbon Season’ is in full swing for me.
Anything in the 120-140 range of proof is considered a ‘high proof bourbon.’ This one sits firmly within that range at 129.1 and what I find is the flavor really comes through in this batch in a way that I didn’t anticipate at first but in hindsight it makes perfect sense that Fred Noe would release an elite-tier batch for the first Booker’s Batch of 2026, which is exactly what he did.
With a suggested retail price of $99.99, the first Booker’s Bourbon Batch of 2026 is well worth the price. You can hit up the BeamDistilling website to search for a retailer near you.