Jim Beam leaks the final piece to their revival plan for “The Olds” by introducing “Crow 86”

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Something has quietly been bubbling beneath the surface at Jim Beam for a while now. A program began in earnest many years ago to revive all of the historic and storied brands that they’ve acquired. The ones I’m talking about are Old Grand-Dad, Old Overholt and Old Crow. Internally, these are known as “The Old’s” and for decades now they’ve been relegated to the bottom shelf of liquor stores everywhere.

But you gotta hand it to Beam’s product planners. They observed that American whiskey consumers were becoming more educated in the history and lore of American whiskey producers. They also noticed the market trends that old nameplates that had been revived by other producers were being gobbled up by enthusiasts who were keen on having a taste of history. External pressure by enthusiasts might have also shown them that the demand was there to make their bottom-shelf brands into something more.

The Olds, explained

The first clue that Beam was up to something occurred in 2020 when Pennsylvania and Ohio were privy to a special release of Old Overholt that was 11 years old. This limited release was bottled in the Old Grand-Dad 114 (commonly referred to as OGD 114) bottle. Then came a slow stream of various Old Overholt rye whiskies that were all relatively young and inexpensive. These were a clue that Beam was attempting to jump-start those brands.

This oddly coincided with a period of time from 2019 to 2021 where OGD 114 was in short supply nationwide. Rumors circulated that it was being discontinued – which is a rumor that seems to come around every 3 to 5 years. But that didn’t happen.

What we did learn about in 2021 is that Jim Beam was sitting on some barrels of Old Grand-Dad that were as old as 16-years-old. These were talked about in this Bourbon Pursuit Episode (around the 12:50 mark) where Freddie Noe says that those barrels were blended with 15-year-old Jim Beam mash bill barrels to form their release in the 2021 Bardstown Collection. Then we heard about it again in 2022 when Hardin’s Creek Jacob’s Well was launched and contained 15+ year old Old Grand-Dad barrels in the blend. Now in 2024, Little Book Chapter 8 contains this same bourbon aged for 18 years.

Beam was obviously sitting on some very old barrels of Old Grand-Dad, but why? Were they just for special projects or something bigger?

The Old Overholt line had a busy year in 2023 with a re-launch of a double-digit age stated rye whiskey and details on the upcoming release of A. Overholt Monongahela Mash – which saw the introduction of a new rye whiskey mash bill. 2024 saw it officially come out (and spoiler alert, it was great) along with a new 11 year old cask-strength Old Overholt.

One of the bigger bombshells of 2024 was when Beam submitted a label for approval showing a 16-year-old Old Grand-Dad (100 proof) bourbon in the works. This was music to the ears of many enthusiasts. I am absolutely sure that we’ll see a 114 proof version in the next year.

There was one final “Old” that hadn’t been addressed, though. Old Crow. But on July 11, 2024, we finally have movement in the direction that enthusiasts have been waiting for.

Crow 86

First off, I want to temper your expectations. Crow 86 isn’t going to be a life-changing bourbon. The proof is too low and the age (the back label says it’s “Aged For 3 Years”) is very young. But the proof is more than likely a throwback to the days before the brand belonged to the Beam/Suntory empire. National had originally lowered Old Crow from 100 proof to 86 proof around 1954 in an effort to accommodate America’s growing taste for lighter spirits. They followed this trend by lowering it to 80 proof in 1974 due to a recession.

Old Crow also wasn’t particularly old either (most samples I’ve gotten from that time period were 6 years old). However, it was some of the finest, low-proofed bourbon at the time.

I believe that Crow 86 has dropped the “Old” part of its name for this release primarily because, well, it’s not “old.” I believe that we’ll see the “Old” moniker be revived on future labels as it matures for a longer time.

So what kind of bourbon is this? Is it just rebranded Jim Beam? That’s a question I don’t have an answer to at the moment. But a part of me believes that Crow 86 uses a new mash bill. My reasoning is twofold:

1. Beam has already attempted to overhaul Old Crow before to see if they could increase sales and find new customers. This was with their failed Old Crow Reserve that was launched in 2010 and discontinued a year later. They bumped up the proof from 80 to 86 and added an extra year of age onto it. It is suspected that Beam killed it off due to a lack of demand.
2. We’re witnessing a large shift inside of Beam where new products are finally coming to light. Think of the new mash bills that have come out recently (and these are just the ones we know about): A rice’d bourbon, a 100% malted rye whiskey, the reincarnation of Booker’s Rye, a Pennsylvania-style rye whiskey and various kinds of malt whiskey. A new bourbon mash bill would make perfect sense.
3. To add on to Point #2, it seems as if Beam is allowing each of “The Olds” to establish their own identity. They’ve allowed Old Grand-Dad to retain its own mash bill, yeast and distillation process ever since it was purchased from National Distillers. Now they’re doing the same with the Old Overholt Rye Whiskey line (even though it’s not fully transitioned to the new PA-style), so why not allow (Old) Crow to make a name for itself without being another rebranded Beam bourbon?

A Bright Future

While I’m almost certain that we’re on the cusp of an explosion of new Old Grand-Dad products, Old Crow and Old Overholt labels are going to take a bit more time to get up to speed. It looks like they’re both going to remain around the 4-5 year old mark for a couple more years and then after that, hopefully we see even more innovation from their line.

Regardless, this is a great move and one that I am excited for. I hope they put just as much time and energy into the Old Crow brand that they’ve put into the other two. It absolutely deserves to be returned to its former glory.