Both of us are on the floor at James B. Beam Distilling Co. in Clermont. Worked through the core lineup with the staff — the production scale is real, but so is the family-line continuity that runs through the bottles. Beam is the workhorse of American bourbon, and the campus earns the visit.

What is the James B. Beam Distilling Co.?

James B. Beam Distilling Co. — the formal name reintroduced in 2019 for the Clermont, Kentucky campus — is the largest American bourbon producer by volume and the home of more than 230 years of Beam-family distilling. Jacob Beam sold his first barrel in 1795; the company was reincorporated in 1933 by Col. James B. Beam after Prohibition. Suntory Global Spirits (formerly Beam Suntory) acquired the company in 2014.

Master Distiller Fred Noe is the seventh-generation Beam Master Distiller; his son Freddie Noe III heads the Fred B. Noe Craft Distillery (FBN) on the same campus, which opened in 2021 as the small-scale, experimental site for Little Book and the brand’s innovation program. The flagship lineup includes Jim Beam White and Black, Knob Creek, Booker’s, Baker’s, Basil Hayden, Old Grand-Dad, and Old Crow.