When it comes to a storied American whiskey maker like Jim Beam, the place of origin–Kentucky, obviously–influences products in a wider, more pervasive way than one might initially consider. It is no surprise that Beam’s many bourbon brands all reflect its Kentucky origins, but consider the brand of rye whiskey that has functioned as the Beam company’s bottom shelf flagship for the last few decades, Old Overholt. Since that brand (along with Old Grand Dad) was acquired by Beam from the now defunct National Distillers in 1987, it has been a Kentucky-style rye, with a mere 51% rye grain in the mash bill. But the product Beam initially acquired didn’t hail from Kentucky at all–like many historic ryes, it had its roots in Pennsylvania, once a center of rye whiskey production in colonial America in particular. Suffice to say, the version of Old Overholt that Beam has been making for years is a pretty standard Kentucky-style rye, but it didn’t really reflect the history of the “Old Overholt” brand. But the company’s new A. Overholt Monongahela Mash Straight Rye Whiskey is intended to do exactly that.
We should first note that this is a line extension, not a replacement of the existing Old Overholt brand. Beam’s high-value rye whiskey brand had already been undergoing some evolution in recent years, adding a bottled in bond version and then even an 11-year-old expression of Old Overholt. The new A. Overholt brand, on the other hand, is a reference to original founder Abraham Overholt, and the “Monongahela Mash” refers to its origins in the Monongahela region of Pennsylvania, along the banks of the titular river, where much of the rye used in American rye whiskey was once grown. This product has thus been designed as a complement to the existing, Kentucky-style Overholt, with both set to exist independent of each other.
Notably, this includes a brand new rye whiskey mash bill, and a new mash bill for a company the size of Beam is always a notable undertaking. This is a much higher percentage rye product, with 80% rye in the mash bill, joined by an unusually high 20% portion of malted barley. Notably absent is any element of corn, the company seemingly want to make as clear a philosophical break from the existing Overholt recipe as possible. With that said, this is still reportedly fermented with the standard, house Beam yeast profile, so there is a philosophical throughline present there. The resulting rye whiskey carries a 4-year age statement, and is presented at 47.5% ABV (95 proof), with an MSRP of $40. That would seemingly gear it toward the cocktail market in particular, to compete against other high-value midshelf ryes from the major producers, a niche that Beam had been somewhat lacking. The official website includes several of those cocktail suggestions, though I must confess I couldn’t help but laugh at this particular “serving suggestion” of “pour it in a glass and drink it.” A real mixologist’s masterpiece, there.
