Our prayers have finally been answered: true cask strength single barrels from the legendary Knob Creek brand, once just a dream, are now a reality. Each time we walk into those hallowed rickhouses, we taste one of the world's best bourbons straight from the barrel as it was intended—but until now, they insisted on bottling at the traditional 120 proof. The reasons for that have changed over the years. Now, it seems the reasons for cask strength outweigh those against—much to our delight. The beautiful thing about a cask strength version of Knob isn’t just seeing it at higher proofs, but also at lower ones, since previous barrels had to be at least 120 proof to qualify for the program. No surprise, though—none of ours are low proof. We’ve got three bruisers, all close to 130 proof, from an incredible run of barrels distilled on September 9th, 2015. Bottled just a couple of months before their 10th birthday, these three barrels—affectionately referred to as Triple X 5th Floor Magic—are among the best we’ve ever had in all our years tasting at Jim Beam. These high floors absolutely sap the barrels, extracting the maximum possible amount of flavor and delivering a truly unprecedented drinking experience. Barrel A was bottled on June 4th at 127.2 proof, without chill filtration or additions of any kind.