Review: Hardin’s Creek The Warehouse Series 2025 – Mushroom, Beaver, and Owl
Back in 2023, Beam launched a trilogy of bourbons designed to show the impact of location on aging. The Kentucky Series of Hardin’s Creek looked at warehouse terroir by presenting identical distillate aged at one of three different Beam campuses: Clermont, Frankfort, and Boston. The results were eye-opening, and I had some distinct preferences among the trio.
Now Beam is back at it again with a new Hardin’s Creek trilogy, this one even more hyperspecific. For the Warehouse Series, the variable is still location, but it’s now down to the warehouse level. Each of these three whiskeys were pulled from a different warehouse on the Clermont campus: Warehouse R (“Mushroom”), Warehouse W (“Beaver”), and Warehouse G (“Owl”). These warehouses vary in height, age, and construction — so how does all of that play into what ends up in the bottle?
“The Warehouse Series embodies the spirit of exploration that defines Hardin’s Creek – experimentation, discovery, and storytelling,” said Freddie Noe, Eighth Generation Master Distiller, James B. Beam Distilling Co. “By holding every variable constant except the warehouse itself, we’re able to demonstrate the unique impact maturation environments have on the spirit.”
To tell the story and spark curiosity among Hardin’s Creek fans, the whiskey house partnered with internationally renowned surrealist artist Max Loeffler to create a new brand identity. Each bottle depicts a symbolic character tied to its warehouse environment – Mushroom, Beaver and Owl. The designs help tell the story behind the whiskey with symbols illustrated throughout, offering hints of warehouse location, campus, proof and age statement. Hardin’s Creek Warehouse Series invites whiskey enthusiasts to investigate all design elements to discover the story behind each bottle.
All three of these whiskeys carry an 11 year old age statement and hit the bottle at 110 proof.
We tasted all three. Let’s dig in.
Hardin’s Creek The Warehouse Series 2025 – Mushroom Review
From Warehouse R, a unique one-story warehouse with no windows, one of the coldest Beam operates. While this whiskey noses with some charry, turned earth elements that might well evoke the thought of shrooms and dried black tea leaves, the palate tells another story. Here the whiskey is revealed to be quite sweet, those tea leaves backed up by notes of light brown sugar, spearmint, and a candied licorice quality. After a half hour or so in glass those earthy, mushroomy notes come back into view, leading to a quite savory and anise-laden finish. The nickname is apt! The ride from earth to sugar and back is interesting and unique, making this one of the most unusual bourbons I’ve tasted all year. If you taste one whiskey from this collection, this should be it.
Hardin’s Creek The Warehouse Series 2025 – Beaver Review
This five-story warehouse (Warehouse W) is nearly a century old and is situated near a creek, giving it an internal dampness. There’s more spice throughout with the Beaver release, which features a nose of cherry, punctuated by ground cloves. Oak is moderate but well-integrated, giving the aromatics a woodsy, verdant feel. The palate has a lot of similar characteristics as Mushroom, quite sweet up top with a bold brown sugar note that belies flavors of almond extract, then a more herbal character, showcasing rosemary and sage, then fading notes of dried flowers. Toasty and lightly smoky on the finish, the whiskey ends up recalling an evening by the fireplace, with some green branches thrown over it. Almost as good as the Mushroom release.
Hardin’s Creek The Warehouse Series 2025 – Owl Review
Warehouse G is a giant nine-story warehouse, which I don’t think is legally allowed any more due to safety concerns. This expression has a significant spice to it and is smokier than the other two, sometimes by a healthy margin. Plenty oaky on the nose but also quite nutty, with hazelnut and toasted almond elements. On the palate, it’s the most savory and austere whiskey of the bunch, and while notes of tea leaf are vibrant, they aren’t overly sweet, and a lot of those mushroomy notes visible in the Mushroom expression are equally on display here. More nuts and some anise infuse the finish, again quite drying, though a pinch of brown sugar adds a nice touch to the proceedings, pairing interestingly with some fresh thyme. Definitely a fun counterpart to round out the trio.
$150 each (700ml)
The post Review: Hardin’s Creek The Warehouse Series 2025 – Mushroom, Beaver, and Owl appeared first on Drinkhacker: The Insider’s Guide to Good Drinking.