Knob Creek 9 Year Old looks like a lot of bourbon for the money, with nine years in the barrel and a bottling strength of 100 proof. The James B. Beam Distilling Co., which produces the bourbon, priced it at $34.99 when the nine-year age statement returned to the bottle in 2020, and the price has remained more or less stable since then, with prices ranging from $35 to $40.
If you’re used to older or stronger bourbons costing $50 or more, it’s fair to wonder whether there’s a catch to Knob Creek 9 Year Old’s surprisingly affordable price. However, there are a lot of reasons why (and how) this particular bourbon is so affordable, and none of it has anything to do with quality shortcuts.
So, let’s take a look at how Knob Creek 9 Year Old is made, and why it remains a top value bourbon.
What Is Knob Creek 9 Year Old?
Knob Creek is made by the James B. Beam Distilling Co. at its campus in Clermont, Kentucky, which also produces Jim Beam, Baker’s, Booker’s, and Basil Hayden. Booker Noe, Jim Beam’s grandson and the distillery’s longtime master distiller, created the bourbon in 1992 as part of the Small Batch Bourbon Collection.
The Noe family has stayed involved with the brand ever since, and it was Booker’s son, Fred Noe, who explained the return of the nine-year age statement in 2020. Fred’s son, Freddie, now also works as master distiller.
The mash bill is widely reported as 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley, the same recipe used for Jim Beam. The whiskey is aged in heavily charred new oak barrels, and because US labeling rules require an age statement to reflect the youngest whiskey in the bottle, some of what goes into each batch can be older than nine years. It’s bottled at 100 proof, or 50% ABV.
Neither the age nor the strength comes cheap, so the next question is how Beam covers the cost of both.
What Does 100 Proof Actually Cost?
Bottling at 100 proof does cost more than bottling a standard 80- or 90-proof bourbon. Less water goes into each bottle, so every bottle holds more whiskey, and each barrel fills fewer bottles. Federal excise tax is also charged per proof gallon, which means a stronger bottle carries a slightly bigger tax bill.
In practice, the extra tax works out to cents rather than dollars per bottle. By our rough estimate, a 750ml bottle at 100 proof carries about 50 cents more in federal tax than the same bottle at 80 proof, although the exact figure depends on which tax rate a producer is paying.
The extra whiskey is a real cost too, but it’s one that a producer with Beam’s barrel stocks can take on without pushing the shelf price up, and that’s where the company’s size comes into the story.
The Beam Scale Effect
The biggest reason Knob Creek 9 can sell for around $35 is the size of the operation behind it. James B. Beam Distilling Co. has roughly 3.1 million barrels aging in about 100 warehouses spread across Clermont, Boston, and Frankfort, Kentucky.
Knob Creek is made on the same Clermont campus as Jim Beam, which is the world’s top-selling bourbon at the time of writing and it’s reported to use the same mash bill. Because the two brands come out of the same operation, the costs of grain, distilling, warehousing and bottling are spread across an enormous number of bottles. Knob Creek is a big seller in its own right, too, with the brand moving around 500,000 cases in the US last year, according to Impact Databank.
A smaller distillery making a nine-year-old, 100-proof bourbon has to cover the same kinds of costs from far fewer bottles, and its shelf price usually reflects that.
The Age Statement That Disappeared
Making a nine-year-old bourbon means predicting, nine years ahead of time, how much of it people will want to buy, and Knob Creek hasn’t always got that right. In 2009, Beam ran a campaign publicizing a shortage of Knob Creek after demand outstripped the forecast it had made in 2000, when that whiskey first went into barrels.
In late 2016, Beam removed the nine-year age statement from the label because it couldn’t guarantee that all of its stock had reached the full nine years. Master distiller Fred Noe later explained that dropping the statement let him blend in some barrels slightly younger than nine years alongside older ones, keeping the flavor consistent while meeting demand.
The age statement returned in 2020, once Noe said “our stocks are balanced out around the nine-year mark,” and the price stayed at $34.99.
The industry is dealing with the opposite issue in 2026. With so much bourbon sitting in warehouses right now, it would be easy to assume that’s why Knob Creek is so affordable. Kentucky had a record 16.1 million barrels of bourbon aging at the start of 2025, and Beam paused distilling at its main Clermont distillery this year.
The $34.99 price goes back to 2020, well before the surplus built up, so the current glut isn’t what’s keeping it low. Affordability has always been part of Knob Creek.
Where Knob Creek 9 Year Old Sits on the Shelf
Knob Creek 9 looks even better value when you set it next to other well-known bourbons in a similar bracket. Russell’s Reserve 10 Year, which is bottled at 90 proof, is $41.99 at Total Wine. Eagle Rare 10 Year, also 90 proof, usually sells for around $60 once it reaches the shelf (though it is much cheaper in the UK). Four Roses Single Barrel, bottled at 100 proof with no age statement, is $42.99 at Total Wine. Knob Creek 9 matches or beats all three on proof and usually costs less than any of them.
The 9 Year is also the entry point to the Knob Creek range. Above it, the 12 Year sells for about $60, the 18 Year for about $170, and the 21 Year for $250. Those older bottles draw on barrels Beam has held back for much longer, and they’re priced accordingly, which gives the brand room to keep its best-known bottle in the mid-$30s.
So Is It Actually Any Good?
Yes, and the awards back that up. At the International Wine & Spirit Competition, Knob Creek 9 won Gold Outstanding in 2022, and it took gold medals at both the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and the International Spirits Challenge in 2021. San Francisco also named it Best Bourbon back in 2015.
It might not be a groundbreaking bourbon, but it is tasty and reliable. Think vanilla, oak, caramel, and spice on the nose followed by a peppery palate of more vanilla, caramel, ripe fruit, and hazelnuts. Oak spice and leather linger on the finish. It is solid, affordable, and honest, evidenced by the age statement reintroduction in 2020.
Cheap, or Just Well Priced?
Knob Creek 9 sells for around $35-$40 mainly because of the company behind it. Beam has millions of barrels to draw from, makes Knob Creek alongside Jim Beam, and has learned over the years, sometimes the hard way, how much nine-year-old whiskey it needs to set aside.
The older bottles further up the range sell for considerably more, which leaves the 9 Year within reach for most bourbon drinkers.
If you’ve been eyeing a bottle and wondering what the catch is, there isn’t one. You’re getting a nine-year-old, 100-proof bourbon for a low price. Win-win.
Read the full article at How Is Knob Creek 9 Still Only $35?
