Jim Beam Brands Co.

Jim Beam is the bourbon almost everyone has had — and it remains the world's best-selling bourbon by volume. The Clermont, Kentucky stillhouse traces back to Johannes "Jacob" Beam, who distilled his first barrel of corn whiskey in 1795 under the name Old Jake Beam. The product was rechristened Old Tub in 1880 and finally renamed Jim Beam in 1943 to honor James Beauregard Beam, the man who rebuilt the family operation in 120 days after Prohibition ended in 1934.

The Clermont site is the marquee facility, and it's now anchored by the Jim Beam American Stillhouse visitor center alongside the newer Fred B Noe Distillery — the small-batch craft operation honoring Frederick Booker Noe II (1929–2004), the 6th-generation master distiller and Jim's grandson who introduced Booker's Bourbon in 1988 and basically invented the modern small-batch category. Beam Suntory operates two additional Kentucky sites: the Booker Noe Plant in Boston, Kentucky (production for the larger Beam volume brands) and the Old Grand-Dad Plant in Frankfort.

Fred Noe, Frederick Booker Noe III, became the 7th-generation Beam master distiller in 2007 and remains in the role. The standard Jim Beam mash bill — corn, rye, and malted barley — is aged a minimum of four years in new charred oak barrels, bottled at 80 proof. The Small Batch Collection (Booker's, Baker's, Knob Creek, Basil Hayden) expands the range from there, and the Knob Creek line in particular has become the entry point for serious bourbon drinkers who started with the standard label.

Beam was acquired by Suntory Holdings in 2014, the largest bourbon-related acquisition in history, and rebranded as Suntory Global Spirits in May 2024. The American Stillhouse tour at Clermont remains one of the most accessible introductions to Kentucky bourbon production — open year-round, multiple tour tiers including a barrel-pick option, and easy interstate access from both Louisville and Lexington.