Bourbon Trail Tales (Part 5!) - James B. Beam Distilling
Background
Continuing on my distillery tour series, we moved on from Maker’s Mark to a tasting at James B. Beam Distilling. I had stopped by Jim Beam’s gift shop before, another beautiful campus, but had never taken a tour or eaten at the restaurant. Being a bit of a completist, this made Beam a top tour target for this year’s Kentucky excursion. It is one of the few major distilleries I have yet to explore at all. To really set the scene, we arrived on an absolutely gorgeous fall day. Sunny, crisp air, and the smell of distillery production ripe in the air. Hell yeah, let’s get to a break down of our experience!
James B. Beam: 8 Generations Tasting & Storytelling Experience
Price/Length: $40+taxes and fees, 40 minutes.
Details: This is not actually a tour, but instead a tasting experience hosted in a lovely tasting room above the main gift shop. Billed by the Beam Marketing Team as a “Tasting & Storytelling Experience”, the goal of the tasting is to walk you through the history of Jim Beam’s evolution through the lens of the Beam and Noe family. This mean’s it’s far less production focused, and more about the personalities involved in the lengthy history of operations. As such, you don’t go anywhere but rather settle in for a history lesson alongside a series of seven small pours.
I certainly won’t recount each and every detail of the 45 minute tasting here, but I’ll instead recap the experience via fun nuggets I noted specifically to share:
One of the pillars of Jim Beam’s international success was due to T Jeremiah Beam. He secured a contract with the government to supply the US troops in World War Two. US troops shared and traded the bourbon, thus earning it a reputation amongst international soldiers.
Booker Noe was apparently a legendary trouble maker. As fairly well known thanks to the “Pigskin” batch of Booker’s and other tales, he played football for Bear Bryant at the University of Kentucky. However, he eventually quit the team and dropped out. He then effectively hitch hiked his way to Arizona where he enlisted in the Air Force. When his mother, Margaret Noe, found out and dragged him back to Kentucky to work for Carl Beam.
During Booker’s tenure, bourbon sales really start to slump. This does free Booker up to experiment more though, so he starts blending his favorite barrels from the Boston campus into the release that would be Booker’s- one of the first “premium” releases at a time where everyone thought it was nuts to put a premium on bourbon.
My favorite fun fact- it’s illegal to own a smokehouse in Bardstown (I missed why exactly), but Booker’s smokehouse where he made country ham is grandfathered in.
Baker sold the rights to his name to Booker for a single dollar that is still framed on the wall. Hence, Baker’s became a whiskey! Booker wanted to surprise Baker with his own label, hence why he got Baker to sell him his name.
Throughout these fun facts, we’re tasting a whiskey associated with each member of the Beam family. The full lineup for the tasting was:
Old Tub
Jim Beam
Basil Hayden
Knob Creek
Baker’s
Legent
Clermont Steep (American Whiskey)
Overall Thoughts: How do you have a tour walking through Beam legends and not pour Booker’s?! I’ll be honest, this wouldn’t rank super high on my overall Kentucky tour experiences list. Don’t get me wrong, Beam’s facilities are absolutely worth a stop, I just think this tour at this price point ($40 conveying a more elevated experience) ended up as a quantity over quality proposition. For $40 at Heaven Hill you can taste everything in the You Do Bourbon lineup and decide if you want to fill your own bottle. Of course you are likely to and of course that’ll raise the price… but tasting three unique Larceny, Bernheim, and Elijah Craig barrels (to say nothing of the chance at a 4th Select Stock barrel) alone is more worth it for the price. Bardstown Bourbon Company another comparison point, where for $30 you can thieve some Origins from the barrel. I just think it’s a whiff by Beam to not put some of the premium offerings they have in spades in the gift shop into this tasting. Yes, it would likely require more work to curate a revolving door of releases. But I feel like the payoff would be worth it if you are providing a try before you buy approach to these premium offerings. tl;dr - visit, but try a different experience!
Quick Thoughts on the Kitchen Table Restaurant: I loved it! Let’s start there. It’s a wonderful counterpoint (and of course, we should have both!) to Willett’s restaurant. While Willett is trying to do almost a Michelin star style fine dining menu, Beam is trying to provide family friendly BBQ and pizza classics. I thought the service was excellent, and the Hot Brown Pizza we ordered was delicious.
Notable Gift Shop Offerings: Little Book Infinite, Little Book Chapter 8, Old Grand-Dad 16, Old Overholt 11, Distiller’s Share 07 (Worcestershire Cask Finish), plus a number of more finable options like Booker’s, Knob Creek 12.
