Cinnamon stick | Honey | Graham cracker | Barrel char | Seasoned oak

Peanut brittle | Cinnamon | Peppery seasoned oak | Brown sugar | Pie crust | Caramel | Rich

Baking spices | Aged oak | Dark cherry | Lingering nuttiness

The Little Book Infinite series runs parallel to Beam’s standard Little Book releases. The concept for the Infinite Editions was inspired by the “infinity bottle,” which is a practice among bourbon enthusiasts where you have a continuously evolving blend, adding whiskeys from other bottles and never fully emptying the master blend bottle itself. Pouring it and then continually adding whiskey back into it means the ever-evolving blend will contain a portion of every whiskey ever added, even if in diminishing percentages over time.

Each edition of Little Book Infinite so far has started with 30% of the previous edition, plus 70% new bourbons in undisclosed percentages. What’s especially interesting is that new components have so far included a specific bourbon distilled by each of the three generations of Noe family distillers – Booker, Fred, and Freddie.

Little Book Infinite editions have so far been quite good. Edition III finds more similarity with Edition II than Edition I, striking a nice balance and delivering flavors that center around cinnamon, oak, barrel char, and nuttiness. However, Edition III diverges from the fruit notes found in the previous edition, instead leaning more heavily into nutty and oak-driven flavors with seasoned oak and barrel char on the nose, peanut brittle and peppery seasoned oak on the palate, and aged oak combined with a lingering nuttiness in the finish.

The result is less of a good-better-best comparison, despite the obvious comparison of ratings, and more of an evolution of flavor profile. Edition III successfully evolves and builds off the past editions to an excellent end result that reveals the flavors of the past blends, but takes it in a slightly different direction. My guess is this is exactly what the Noe’s are going for.