How Craft Is the New Jim Beam Signature Craft Series?

About 20 years ago, Jim Beam came out with a bourbon called Jacob’s Well, named for family patriarch Jacob Beam and the spring at his first Kentucky distillery. In advertising, they said it was, "the First Micro-Distilled Bourbon."

It wasn't.

Jacob’s Well Bourbon was made in the same big stills at Jim Beam as white label and everything else. Maybe you could call it ‘micro-bottled,’ because they never sold very much of it, but calling it ‘micro-distilled’ wasn't just an adroit turn of phrase, it was a lie. They could, conceivably, have made it on a small still, but they didn’t. There was nothing ‘micro-distilled’ about it.

Someone took to the then-very-small online bourbon community, on a service called Prodigy and another called CompuServe, and blew the whistle. Beam was very angry at the whistleblower, who was estranged from Deerfield for many years. Today, everyone who was there then is gone. By their nature, big corporations have short memories. It’s better for business.

A few years ago, Beam was suddenly bitten by the new products bug. Beam recently unveiled its Global Innovation Center near the Jim Beam distillery at Clermont, Kentucky, where they develop new Beam company products for the world. Two such products for the U.S. market were announced last month, although they won't be in stores until late summer. They represent the debut of an ultra-premium Jim Beam line extension called Jim Beam Signature Craft. (Previewed here in February.) 

Much as the word ‘micro-distilled’ was used 20 years ago to remind people of the then-nascent micro-brewing industry, the word ‘craft’ is meant to evoke the currently-nascent craft distilling industry. This time, Beam isn’t being so clumsy. You don't have to be little to be craft, they argue. Big producers can do ‘craft’ projects too.

So how craft is Jim Beam Signature Craft?

The first two products in the new line are a 12-year-old, 43% ABV straight bourbon, and a 43% ABV straight bourbon finished with Spanish brandy. As ultra-premiums go they're a good value at about $40 a bottle. Both are to start appearing in stores in August. Assuming it sells, the 12-year-old will be a permanent product while the brandy-finished bourbon is a one-off. The plan is to debut a different one-off in August of 2014, and so on. The ‘signature’ of the title is Fred Noe’s.

Noe and company have done an excellent job choosing and managing the barrels they reserve for the 12-year-old. The whiskey is not a bit over-wooded. It is right where a 12-year-old bourbon should be, wood dominant on just the right side of the tipping point; rich with caramel, vanilla, and oak; but without much soot or smoke. Here the ‘craft’ is primarily in wood management and barrel selection, both of which are done exceptionally well.

The brandy-finished bourbon is unusual because it is not, as one might assume, brandy barrel finished. It is finished by the addition of a very small amount of actual brandy. Beam has long sold a product in Australia that is a bourbon finished with port. This is the same idea. It works very well. Much like the wood finish used for Maker’s 46, the brandy provides a grace note. Although it is an added flavor, it doesn't overpower the whiskey like the cherry flavoring in Red Stag arguably does. The craft here is in the finish itself, selecting the brandy and adding just the right amount, and in selecting the best bourbon for the pairing. Again, it’s a job well done. The stuff is delicious.

Beam got the packaging right too. The bottles are very sensual in the hand and I commend Beam for going with a simple plastic screw cap instead of cork. Corks have become ubiquitous in high-end spirits, even though they confer not a single benefit and are inferior in terms of seal, plus they can break down and taint the whiskey. Corks and high proof spirits just aren't a good combination, but there will be dopes who will complain that Beam ‘cheaped out’ by going with screw caps. They'll be wrong. It is a bold, elegant, and appropriate choice.

Beam also deserves credit for saying, in their promotion materials, that both products should be enjoyed neat or on-the-rocks. They declined to provide any cocktail recipes. They can't hold out forever, the cocktailian pressure is too great, but we appreciate the sentiment.

Another iconic Kentuckian, Muhammad Ali, famously said that, "the man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life." Wise man. Whiskey fans love whiskey because it’s real. It has real flavor and real history, and it’s a sturdy enough platform to support wild experimentation. Marketers will always find reasons to spin. They just have to remember that bourbon drinkers are (mostly) grown-ups. We can handle the truth.

Beam Launches $200 Bourbon; Everything Is Not for Everyone

A robust American whiskey industry, which we all want, means there will be products for certain audiences, whether they be people who like cherry-flavored whiskey, or people who can and care to spend $200 or more for a bottle of bourbon.

It's a big tent. Not everything is for everyone.

On Wednesday, Beam announced that it will release on Kentucky Derby Day (Saturday, May 4) a new edition of Jim Beam Distiller’s Masterpiece. It is an extra-aged Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, barrel-finished in Pedro Ximénez (PX) sherry casks, and bottled at 50% ABV (100° proof). It will be sold only at the distillery gift shop in Clermont, Kentucky. The price is $200 a bottle.

If $200 sounds like a lot for a bottle of whiskey, even if it does come in a wood box, consider that Heaven Hill has a bottle of 23-year-old Evan Williams it sells only at its gift shop for $300. It comes in a leather bag.

And Kentucky has some catching up to do. Last week The Macallan (that's a single malt scotch) announced their latest expression, a single cask whisky aged in American Oak for 22 years, sold in a package with a bombproof flask for $1,500. Yes, bombproof.

Has whiskey loss due to bombs become a problem?

For a measly $200, Beam won't even tell you how old the whiskey is ('extra-aged' tells you zip) nor how limited the edition is (The Macallan 22 is 550 bottles), although they imply that if you're not there bright and early on May 4, you won't get one.

This is actually the third release in the Distiller's Masterpiece series, but it's been more than 10 years since the first two came out.

If you are a person of more modest means, you might want to hold out for the Jim Beam Signature Craft Series 12-year-old bourbon, finished in the same new American Oak barrel it was born in, which should be coming out soon for about $40 a bottle. And that cherry-flavored stuff costs about $20. Something for everyone.

If you're interested in the new Distiller's Masterpiece, go to the American Stillhouse website for more information. The gift shop opens at 9:00 AM on Saturdays, which gives you plenty of time to buy your bottle and get to Churchill Downs in time for the Kentucky Derby.

Beam to Debut 12-Year-Old Burbon

A few years ago, when bourbon stocks began to tighten, one sign was the disappearance of age statements on the labels of many brands, such as Evan Williams. Most observers predicted that, going forward, age statements would be reserved for only higher end products. Those predictions have proved to be correct.

Recently, Bulliet Bourbon launched a label-stated 10-year-old, at $50 a bottle. Soon Jim Beam will debut a label-stated 12-year-old, at $40 a bottle (and 43% ABV).

When it arrives (the exact date hasn't been announced), it also will represent the debut of the Jim Beam Signature Craft Series. As explained earlier this week by Adam Graber of Beam's Innovation Team, the 12-year-old bourbon will be a permanent part of the series, which also will feature periodic limited editions.

One such will debut along with the 12-year-old, but so far they're keeping it a secret.

Jim Beam Signature Craft 12 Years will be the oldest iteration of Beam bourbon ever released, with the exception of the Distiller's Masterpiece Series from many years ago. Jim Beam Black is 8-years-old and Knob Creek, essentially the same whiskey, is 9.

It tastes about as you'd expect, which is like an older brother to Jim Beam Black. That expression uses the claim 'double-aged,' making the 12-year-old 'triple-aged,' if they choose to say so. It's good, well balanced, and not too woody. For many, 10- to 12-years in the sweet spot for bourbons, when they still have all their character from the grains and yeast, before the wood starts to take over. This will be a very welcome addition in that range.

Jim Beam Black, by the way, is a great bargain at about $22 a bottle, and $40 is a good price for a 12-year-old in a fancy bottle. Good for Beam on both counts, for continuing to deliver excellent value.

Is White Whiskey Just About Over?

Savvy investors know that when the general pubic hears about a hot stock, that usually means it's done. Some of that is insider hubris, of course, but trends go through phases and mass popularity blunts leading edge by definition.

In one of the early reviews of Jack Daniel's new unaged rye, Kevin Gray of Cocktail Enthusiast writes that the product "helps to legitimize the unaged whiskey category." Does it? Or does it mark the beginning of the end?

Let's leave aside for a moment the absurd decision of the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to classify Jack Daniel's Tennessee Rye as a neutral spirit. We all know what it is, even if the increasingly irrelevant TTB does not.

Kevin Gray is clearly a fan of micro-producer white whiskeys, especially since he thinks the new Daniel's rye delivers "easy-drinking mellowness." Everything is relative.

Whether from micros or majors, most white whiskey is simply white dog, spirit straight from the still that's hot and harsh and badly in need of long years in wood.

Gray's analysis of the marketplace is intriguing. "For Jack to be playing in this space at all means something. It shows that the [white whiskey] category isn’t just for fringe players who cannot afford to let their whiskeys sit in barrels for upwards of four years. But a category worth the interest of the industry’s biggest brands."

As he notes, Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, and even Maker's Mark have toyed with unaged products, but this Daniel's rye and the impending Jacob's Ghost from Jim Beam take it to a different level due to the immense power of those two brands.

Gray hopes "this doesn’t hurt the micro distillers. Companies like Death’s Door, Finger Lakes and Woodinville each make a fine unaged whiskey. But with Jack Daniel’s and others on the playing field, it could raise interest and visibility of the category as a whole, thereby helping the small guys gain a better foothold."

Or not.

One white whiskey producer confided surprise at the Daniel's and Beam moves, because he is beginning to think the whole white whiskey thing is just about played out. Whether or not it is would seem to depend on how consumers respond to the Daniel's and Beam products.

Meanwhile, micro-producers might want to think about installing filtration systems. Though still extremely harsh by fully aged whiskey standards, the new Jack Daniel's Rye is certainly milder than a typical white dog due to the charcoal mellowing all Daniel's new make receives. Often described as a jump start to aging, charcoal mellowing tempers, transforms, or removes many of the harsh congeners responsible for white dog's challenging taste. Beam's Jacob's Ghost is actually one-year-old bourbon that has been extensively filtered to remove its color and harsher flavors.

Unless you prefer a spirit that takes off the top of your head, both are an improvement over the typical micro-producer white whiskey.

Does any of this bode well for micro-producers, as Gray hopes? Or is it the death knell for their white whiskeys?

It could be both. White whiskeys may need to change. Luckily, the ability to reinvent oneself quickly should be a micro-producer advantage. Instead of trying to make their products more palatable with short aging in little barrels, micro-producers might try filtration. It's a completely natural, legitimate, and historically authentic way to process whiskey, and it doesn't take years to work.

Beam's New Visitor Experience Is Officially Open

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and Beam executives officially opened the doors yesterday to a new visitor experience at Beam's flagship distillery in Clermont.

They also officially inaugurated Beam's new Global Innovation Center and celebrated Beam's one-year anniversary as a standalone, publically-traded company, Beam Inc. (NYSE: BEAM).

Beam predicts that the new visitor experience will more than double tourism visits to Clermont, to 200,000 annually.

This will be the first time public tours have gone inside a Beam distillery.

Yesterday's openings represent a $30 million multi-year investment by Beam.

According to family lore, patriarch Jacob Beam sold his first barrel of whiskey in Kentucky in 1795.

“Today is another great day for the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” said Governor Beshear. “The Bourbon industry plays a vital role in Kentucky’s economic success and the opening of the fantastic Jim Beam American Stillhouse means more tourism for our state and ultimately more jobs for Kentucky families.”

The new 57,000 square foot Global Innovation Center on the distillery grounds features state-of-the-art technical, R&D and design labs that will fuel the company’s aggressive new-product development initiatives for all markets around the world. “We aim to deliver 25 percent of our company’s annual sales growth from new products, and our new Global Innovation Center will help ensure our innovation capabilities remain second to none,” said Beam President and CEO Matt Shattock.

The Jim Beam American Stillhouse showcases the Jim Beam Bourbon-making process from start to finish. Guided tours start with Beam’s natural limestone water well and take guests through the mashing, distilling, barreling, storing and bottling lines. A total whiskey immersion engages the senses, while also offering guests a historical look at The First Family of Bourbon.

The Jim Beam American Stillhouse is located approximately 30 minutes southeast of Louisville and is open weekdays and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sundays from 12:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Closed on Sundays in January and February, as well as New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). For more information or to order your reservation tickets online, visit the Jim Beam American Stillhouse online at www.AmericanStillhouse.com or under the “distillery” section of www.JimBeam.com.

The Genealogy Of Beam Yeast

The post earlier this month, in which Sam Cecil briefly outlines the careers of the many Beam family distillers, raised a question about the yeast all of those Beams were using, not just at Jim Beam but at Heaven Hill, Four Roses, Yellowstone, Maker's Mark, Barton, Stitzel-Weller, Early Times, and many others.

The specific question: Jim Beam's yeast has a reputation for imparting a 'foxy' taste, a characteristic not associated with any other producer, despite having Beams in their lineage. How come?

Historically, 'yeast making' meant propagating a strain from a wild source. Although the Beams all started from the same place, with the same yeast mash recipe, and were all taught the same organoleptic standards, each distiller in each generation would have made his own subtle adaptations after years of practice, and would have passed his way of doing things on to his son.

I say 'son,' knowing that some Beam family distillers were trained by their grandfathers more than their fathers.

Either way, the genealogy of the yeasts is essentially that of the yeast makers.

David Beam (1802-1852) had three sons who became distillers. If you're a fan of Underworld, think of them as the three sons of Alexander Corvinus.

The youngest, Jack Beam, started Early Times and although his only son followed him into the business, there was no third generation. That line died out. It's unknown if that strain was preserved and passed on to the people who revived Early Times after Prohibition, but it seems unlikely.

The other two were Joseph B. Beam and David M. Beam. Those two traditions split more than 150 years ago, and there have been many other subdivisions since.

Each of them had two distiller sons. Joseph B. had Joseph L. (Joe) and Minor Case, and David M had the famous Jim Beam and his brother, Park.

We know from Booker Noe, Jim Beam's grandson, that the Jim Beam yeast was 'caught' by Jim on his back porch in Bardstown as Prohibition was ending and he prepared to build a new distillery.

When Park's son, Earl, left the Jim Beam Distillery in 1946, he took the Jim Beam yeast with him to Heaven Hill, replacing the Joe Beam yeast Joe's son Harry was then using. Under Earl Beam, Heaven Hill's bourbon had a reputation for being oily, but not 'foxy' like Beam.

I should note that, to me, the 'foxy' yeast characteristic is only noticeable in the white label Jim Beam expression.

It's hard to say what changed at Heaven Hill. It may have been the water. Yeast can change for very subtle reasons -- different water, different atmospheric conditions, different airborne microorganisms, different mash temperature, a different amount of back set, etc. The loss of the 'foxy' characteristic may have been deliberate, or an accidental by-product of different practices in a different place.

In addition to training his sons Joe and Minor Case, Joseph B. Beam may also have trained Will McGill. Will was a friend of son Joe, who married Will's sister, Katherine McGill.  Will must have been a good student because he became Pappy Van Winkle's master distiller at Stitzel-Weller after Prohibition.

It is likely Joe and Will also learned from Joe's older brother, Minor Case, who was 11 years Joe's senior. Minor had his own distillery at Gethsemane, which made the brand Old Trump, and which eventually merged with the nearby Yellowstone distillery. Joe and Will worked together at many different distilleries during their early careers, including at the Tom Moore distillery, today's Barton.

So the Stitzel-Weller yeast that made its way to Maker's Mark would have originated with Joseph B. Beam and probably went through Minor Case to get to Will McGill, and from him into the hands of Elmo Beam, Joe's firstborn, who would already have been familiar with his father's version.

That Pappy gave the yeast to Bill Samuels Sr. is known, but what Elmo actually used is not, at least not by me. Sam Cecil probably knew, since he followed Elmo at Maker's Mark.

Among his many feats, Joe Beam restarted Four Roses (then in Shively) after Prohibition, and employed some of his seven distiller sons there, as well as some of their sons. Seagram's bought Four Roses during WWII and Roy's son, Charlie, spent most of his career with Seagram's, where he developed the Eagle Rare Bourbon brand before finishing his career at Four Roses in Lawrenceburg.

Minor's son, Guy, was a distiller or master distiller at several different distilleries, including Heaven Hill, Fairfield, and Cummins-Collins. During Prohibition he was a distiller in Canada. Guy had two distiller sons, Burch and Jack. A third son, Walter, who was better known as Toddy, operated a liquor store in downtown Bardstown that still bears his name.

Jack worked for Barton. The two brothers who recently started the micro distillery Limestone Springs in Lebanon are descended from Guy.

Nobody is catching wild yeast these days and if distillers want to tweak their yeast, they do it in the lab, not on a back porch as Jim Beam did.

Basil Hayden Growth Confuses Bourbon Fans.

Last Thursday, in a little news digest post, I mentioned that Beam's Basil Hayden bourbon is up 33 percent in sales this year. If you read the comments, most are about that. Many readers found that news hard to swallow. Serious bourbon enthusiasts generally dismiss Basil Hayden as too light at 40% ABV, and too expensive at about $40 a bottle.

You shouldn't take too seriously a big one-time bump in sales on a small brand such as Basil Hayden. After 20 years in the marketplace, it is still a small brand. If it sustains a 33 percent growth trend over several quarters, then something is happening. If it does that, it won't be a small brand for long.

Eagle-eyed bourbonians have noticed that Beam recently received approval for a Basil Hayden label with no age statement (NAS). Just because a label is approved, that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be used. I don't believe a NAS Basil Hayden bottle has shown up at retail yet.

The trend away from age statements has been to give producers flexibility, in this time of booming sales, to mix in some younger whiskey if it meets the brand profile. Many enthusiasts always believe the worst of the big producers, but the highest priority for most producers is to match the brand's flavor profile with each and every batch. It's not in their interest to make changes that actually change how the whiskey tastes, even if they can save a little money and put out a bit more volume by using younger spirit.

So what is moving Basil Hayden's needle? Beam seems to have had success focusing Basil Hayden on a cocktails-oriented, fashion and style-oriented consumer, something to drink while watching "Project Runway." Maybe it simply has taken 20 years for Basil Hayden to find its drinkers.

All four of the bourbons Beam calls The Small Batch Collection are very good but over-priced. The only one that seems appropriately priced for what it is is Knob Creek, which has been the most successful. There have been reports of Basil Hayden selling for closer to $30, but it's hard to know if they have permanently adjusted the price, or if they've just been dealing it a lot.

Heavy dealing can also account for a short-term 33 percent sales increase, which doesn't mean anything if they can't sustain the price point that's driving the extra sales. The idea, of course, is that deals drive sampling and usage, and the hope is that at least some of those consumers will stay with the brand after the price goes back up.

Most of the Beam bourbons are based on the Jim Beam recipe. Basil Hayden is not. It is based on the Old Grand-Dad recipe, which has about twice as much rye in the mash, and consequently less corn. It's still bourbon, not rye, but it has more rye flavor and may be enjoying some boost from the recent fascination with ryes.

Jim Beam Is Up 11%, Single Oak Project Has 6th Release, And The KDA Has New Digs.

Here's a little news round-up from Bourbon Country.

Beam Inc. has reported its second quarter results. Sales are up and bourbon is why. In worldwide sales, Jim Beam itself is up 11 percent for the year, Knob Creek is up 9 percent, and Maker's Mark is up 29 percent. That's pretty incredible, but there is another Beam bourbon that is doing even better: Basil Hayden, up 33 percent.

Almost everything in Beam's portfolio is up. Effen Vodka is one notable exception. When Beam bought Effen Vodka from Sazerac three years ago, I said it was a mistake. Sure enough, Effen sales are down 14 percent, probably because Beam has lost interest in it since Beam now has Pinnacle Vodka, a much bigger brand and one that is not based on a vulgarity.

This month, Sazerac's Buffalo Trace Distillery will releases the sixth round of Single Oak Project bourbons. Twelve of these experimental bourbons are released each quarter. With release six, therefore, the score is 72 released, 120 to go.

Each release has a theme. This time, all twelve bourbons in the set are from Warehouse L, a masonry warehouse with concrete floors that many Tracians consider their best. The other common feature is low barrel entry proof (52.5% ABV). Since most bourbons go into the barrel at close to the legal maximum of 62.5% ABV, low entry proof is of great interest to distillers and aficionados.

The Kentucky Distiller's Association (KDA), of which Sazerac is not a member, is 132 years old but never has had a physical home. It now occupies a portion of Frankfort Barracks, a 141-year-old building that housed federal troops stationed in Frankfort between 1871 and 1876. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The address is 614 Shelby Street, Frankfort, KY 40601.

In addition to offices for KDA's staff, which has ballooned to three people, it will also serve as information center and gift shop for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour.

Barton v Beam: Too Close To Call.

If you saw these two bottles next to each other on a shelf, what would you think?

They're both handsome bottles, but what else? Are they the same product in two different bottles? Two different products from the same maker?

You probably would not think that, although both bottles contain bourbon whiskey, they have no other relationship to each other. The typefaces in which the numbers are set, while not identical, are very similar, as are the numbers themselves. Too similar, perhaps?

On the left is a bottle of Ridgemont Reserve 1792, a Sazerac product, made at the Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. It is widely distributed throughout the U.S. It is an 8-year-old straight bourbon, bottled at 46.85% ABV. It costs about $30 a bottle at retail.

The number 1792 refers to the year Kentucky became a state.

On the right is a bottle of Jim Beam. According to the UNCRATE web site, it is an eight-year-old, 47.5% ABV straight bourbon. Limited to 200 bottles, it is available only in the Heinemann Duty Free store in the T1B Schengen lounge in Frankfurt, Germany. The price is €140 ($178).

A different source says it is also being sold in Australia, for about $190.

1795 is the year, according to Beam family tradition, that family patriarch Jacob Beam sold his first barrel of whiskey in Kentucky.

The similarity is all the more interesting considering Ridgemont Reserve's history. It was originally called Ridgewood Reserve 1792, a fact that rubbed Brown-Forman's Woodford Reserve the wrong way. They sued for trademark infringement and won.

In response to inquiries, Sazerac said it does not comment on matters subject to pending litigation.

Flavored Whiskey Leads Spirits Growth.

Shanken is reporting today that flavored whiskeys were the fastest-growing spirits type in the U.S. market in the first quarter of 2012—rising 154.8% to 94,000 cases.

The category is defined as flavored whiskeys and whiskey-based liqueurs. They were already doing pretty well. For 2011, its introductory year, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey sold 320,000 cases. In its second year, Jim Beam Red Stag sold 300,000 cases. Veteran Wild Turkey American Honey sold 230,000 cases.

The original two Evan Williams-based liqueurs, Honey Reserve and Cherry Reserve, sold about 100,000 cases combined. The honey and cherry expressions of Seagrams 7 Crown sold about 80,000 cases combined.

If you're reading this, these products are not intended for you, but they may be intended for someone close to you. They're for people who want to belong to a particular brand family but who don't like straight whiskey.

The guys are drinking Jack and Coke, and the girls are drinking Jack Honey and Coke.

We're told these products are good because they introduce new consumers to the whiskey category, though it's more likely that most of these consumers have already rejected whiskey and this is their alternative.

Another rationale is that anything which causes more whiskey to be produced and consumed is good. That's better. It's a testament to how popular whiskey has become that so many people want to launch new, arguably non-whiskey products using a whiskey platform.

Honey is the most popular flavor, with cherry second. Several brands are launching hot cinnamon versions. Can whipped cream be far behind?

It's hard to experiment with whiskey when the aging cycle is involved. Flavored products avoid that problem so they are relatively low risk. It remains to be seen if flavored whiskey will have any real staying power.

Kimberley Bennett Named Director, Jim Beam Heritage Center.

Jim Beam has named Kimberley Bennett as Director of the Jim Beam Heritage Center, the new visitors' experience at Beam's Clermont, Kentucky, distillery that is slated to open this fall.

Bennett will be responsible for the ramp-up plans, training, and ultimate day-to-day operation of the new facility, a multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art visitors’ experience. The Center will offer a complete bourbon experience, from the illustrious seven-generation history of the Beam family, to the art of bourbon-making.

Bennett has spent her career leading hospitality programs for well-known organizations, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and as Director of Hospitality Programs for The World Equestrian Games.

“The new Jim Beam Heritage Center will showcase our past, present and future,” said Jeff Conder, Vice President, North American Operations, Beam Inc. “With her unique skill set in consumer experiences, hospitality and events, Kim will be the perfect leader for our new Center as she ensures that everyone who visits Jim Beam comes as friends, but leaves as family.”

According to Conder, the new Jim Beam Heritage Center is part of a significant tourism project that will allow the distillery to host more than 200,000 guests a year – more than double the previous number of guests it has been able to accommodate – and be a key stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

In addition to naming Bennett to the Director post, Beam also named long-time employees Linda Hayes, as the Center’s Trade and Hospitality Manager, and Debbie Faust as Still House and Outpost Manager. Hayes, a Beam veteran with more than 30 years at the company, will oversee the overall visitor experiences for special guests. Faust, who started as the Beam Outpost Manager in 2006, will oversee the Center’s retail operation.

”Linda and Debbie are vital members of the distillery experience,” said Conder. “Together with Kim Bennett, they will make a wonderful team.”

The Rye Renaissance Is Finally Real.

The 'rye renaissance' has been a popular topic in the media for several years, but even though it was getting a lot of ink, producers weren't inking a lot of additional sales. (See, "The Rye Revival Is A Mirage," here.)

That's starting to change. Many brands, such as Sazerac Rye (i.e., 'Baby Saz') and Rittenhouse Rye Bottled in Bond are on allocation and shoppers sometimes find empty shelves. Templeton Rye has struggled to get enough whiskey from its distiller in Indiana to meet demand. Now add Wild Turkey to the list.

As Wild Turkey introduces a new Wild Turkey Rye at 40.5% ABV (81° proof), it is letting people know that the 50.5% ABV (101° proof) version will be in short supply for the forseeable future. Wild Turkey also makes Russell's Reserve Rye.

Jim Beam, which produces more rye than anyone else, doesn't seem too stressed. It's even bringing out a new one, under the Knob Creek name.

Another brand that seems to have plenty is Bulleit Rye, which just launched a few months ago. It's the same Lawrenceburg, Indiana-made rye as Templeton and several other brands. You have to believe drinks giant Diageo, which owns Bulleit, has a priority claim on any whiskey Lawrenceburg has ready, but even mighty Diageo can't make fully-aged rye whiskey out of thin air.

You can bet the new owner of Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana, MGPI, is turning the dial on the rye machine there up to 10. This is why the aging cyle makes whiskey production planners prematurely gray. A few years ago, producers were wondering if the rye boom was real. Now they're wondering if it's here to stay.

Beam Announces Two New Red Stag Flavors.

The original black cherry flavor Red Stag by Jim Beam was just named to Shanken's 'Hot Prospects' list — the U.S. market’s most promising wine and spirits growth brands. Winners (announced in Shanken's Impact Newsletter) must have annual depletions of at least 50,000 cases and no more than 200,000 cases, while having achieved at least 15% growth in 2010 and solid progress in the two years prior to that.

A total of 72 brands are on this year’s list, 28 of which sold more than 100,000 cases. Several are likely to pass the 200,000-case threshold and enter Impact “Hot Brand” territory by year-end—including Red Stag,

So, naturally, having proved flavored bourbon is a viable segment, Beam is preparing to release two new flavors. Here's what Rob Mason, Director, U.S. Bourbons, Beam, had to say in an email received yesterday.

"Red Stag Black Cherry by Jim Beam has been one of our greatest success stories in years, and it helped us pioneer a new segment in the category. Now we’re adding two new members to the herd! Coming in early 2012, we’re extremely excited to announce the launch of not one, but TWO new Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskeys infused with natural flavors: Red Stag Honey Tea and Red Stag Spiced."

This also marks a new policy by Beam. Last year it got silly when they fully announced Knob Creek Single Barrel to the trade but wouldn't confirm it for the consumer press. These days you just can't keep something like that bottled up, and Beam seems to have figured that out. Good for them. Smart companies learn from their mistakes. (Hear that, Diageo?)

Beam Unveils New Logo And Names New Bourbons Boss.

Yesterday was a big news day at Beam Global. They unveiled a new corporate logo (above) and named Christopher G. Bauder as the Bourbon Category Business Team (CBT) General Manager.

Bourbon whiskey is Beam’s largest and best-performing category. Beam is the world’s largest producer of bourbon. The company’s flagship brand, Jim Beam, sells six-million cases a year. Maker’s Mark sells more than one million.

In the past two years, Beam has also innovated within the Bourbon category by introducing new products such as Red Stag by Jim Beam, Maker’s 46, Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve and, most recently, Jim Beam Devil’s Cut.

“With his extensive global brand building and sales experience, Chris Bauder is positioned to take our Bourbon portfolio to the next level,” said Bill Newlands, Beam president, North America. “Bourbon is our number one, single largest category at Beam, and I’m confident that with Chris’ leadership we’ll continue to revolutionize within our portfolio and drive other industry trends.”

Before joining Beam, Bauder served as S.C. Johnson’s Vice President Marketing, International Markets. He was 17 years at Johnson. Bauder has a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science from Duke University and a Master of Business Administration from Marquette University.

While I’m disappointed that such an important position is going to someone with no bourbon experience, that’s pretty typical of the way Beam hires and promotes. Beam is now the world’s fourth-largest premium spirits company, with 10 of the world’s top-100 premium spirits brands in its portfolio. The fact that it is primarily an American whiskey company is good for American whiskey enthusiasts.

The new logo reflects this. It also reflects the fact that people have always called the company “Beam” regardless of its actual name. The new name and logo will take effect as soon as the separation from Fortune Brands is complete, sometime in the new few months.

The new corporate logo is based on Jim Beam’s actual signature. This has more historic significance than the company may even know. Late in the 19th century, when brands were first becoming important in the American whiskey business, legal protection for trademarks was very weak. Legal protection against forgery was much stronger. Starting with Hiram Walker, many producers reproduced their personal signatures prominently on their labels, and encouraged their customers to look for the signature to ensure authenticity.

Producers who followed Walker’s lead included George Garvin Brown, E. H. Taylor and James E. Pepper. Unscrupulous producers could copy a name or label with impunity, but not a signature.

The Beam family has no significant ownership stake in the company and there are no Beam family members in senior management. “Our new corporate identity is simple, authentic, memorable and is the perfect reflection of our commitment to the Beam family’s pioneering vision established more than 216 years ago,” said Matt Shattock, Beam president and CEO.

Old Overholt. Rye Whiskey's Grand Old Man.

You’ve probably heard about the rye whiskey revival. It’s real, just still very small.

There are several new brands out there, and some old brands have been revived, but there is one — seldom mentioned by many of rye’s new fans and misunderstood by many others — that is the granddaddy of them all:

Old Overholt.

In about 1810, Abraham Overholt (1784-1870) and his brother shifted their family enterprise from general farming, in which making whiskey was a sideline, to making whiskey as a primary occupation. Their farm was about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The business thrived and Abraham brought his sons and then his grandsons into it. The A. Overholt Distilling Company continued to be owned and run by his descendants until it was closed by Prohibition.

Better known than Abraham Overholt or his whiskey is his grandson, Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), one of the great turn-of-the-century American industrialists sometimes known as ‘robber barons.’ Overholt gave Frick his first job.

With his share of the family’s whiskey fortune, Frick began to invest in coal mines. Then he manufactured coke, which is essential for steel production.

Frick’s extraordinary wealth came primarily from steel and railroads, but he got a little of it from whiskey. Under his ownership, Old Overholt became the best selling brand of rye whiskey in the country.

When Prohibition began, the Overholt company obtained a medicinal whiskey license, which made it attractive to Seton Porter when he began to accumulate medicinal permits, whiskey, distilleries, and brands in about 1927 for what became the National Distillers Products Corporation.

After Prohibition, Old Overholt took its place in the National portfolio as their primary rye. Since National was one of the ‘big four’ companies that dominated the post-Prohibition industry, that automatically made it once again the top selling rye whiskey in the country.

But rye whiskey never recovered the share of market it had enjoyed before 1920. The ratio of bourbon-to-rye sales kept shifting in bourbon’s favor until rye was almost extinct. National Distillers eventually closed all of its Pennsylvania distilleries and shifted Old Overholt production to Kentucky, to the Forks of Elkhorn distillery outside of Frankfort where it also made Old Grand-Dad bourbon.

Jim Beam inherited Old Overholt when it merged with National Distillers in 1987. Beam immediately stopped distilling at Forks. When the rye whiskey made there ran out, Beam simply used the rye whiskey it was already making for Jim Beam Rye. Beam has done little with the brand except continue to make and distribute it.

You would expect Old Overholt to taste like Jim Beam Rye and it does. It tastes like it may be selected for more tannic barrel notes, because it has a bit more bite.

Rye production in Kentucky didn’t begin in the 1980s, when the last of the Eastern rye distilleries shut down. Even before Prohibition, Kentucky distilleries like the ones operated by Beam family members routinely made both bourbon and rye, so the Beam rye recipe probably has an old pedigree within the family. The whiskey has its detractors, but it is a legitimate style.

I’ve never had a problem finishing a bottle of it.

What a Difference 24 Years Makes.

Twenty-four years ago, American Brands, Inc., through its subsidiary Jim Beam Brands Co. acquired National Distillers. National was the bigger company and it was billed as a merger, but it was Beam's deal all the way.

At that time, "Jim Beam Brands Co." was a misnomer, suggesting as it did that the company had brands other than Jim Beam Bourbon.

It didn't.

Their #2 brand was Kamora Coffee Liqueur.

In the deal, Beam grudgingly accepted National's bourbons, the biggest of which were Old Grand-Dad, Old Taylor and Old Crow. Beam bought National to get the DeKuyper cordials and schnapps line, in particular DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps, which at the time was bigger than Kahlua and selling more than 1,000,000 cases a year.

Whiskey was a dead category. Schnapps, now that's where the action was.

Yesterday, Fortune Brands announced that when it spins off its home/security and golf businesses to become a pure-play spirits company later this year, the new corporate name will be Beam Inc.

The name of an American straight whiskey brand will be the corporate name of the world's fourth largest spirits company. Maybe that means nothing, the even larger Pernod is named after a tiny brand, after all.

More significant than the name is this. The largest American-owned distilled spirits company (and #4 worldwide) will have an American straight whiskey as its flagship product and an American straight whiskey portfolio as its key portfolio, much as Diageo's key portfolio is its scotch whiskeys.

It's a good day for whiskey when the largest spirits company in the world and the largest American-owned spirits company are both whiskey companies.

Fortune Brands to Become Beam Inc.

At the Fortune Brands (NYSE: FO) annual meeting of shareholders today, chairman and chief executive officer Bruce Carbonari gave a status report on the company’s plan to become a pure-play spirits business. He also announced that, assuming completion of the separation, Fortune Brands will operate under a new name: Beam Inc. The name is derived from the current name of the spirits unit, Beam Global Spirits & Wine, and its flagship Jim Beam brand.

The plan to break-up Fortune was announced back in December. I wrote about it here.

Since then, most Wall Street commentators have assumed that the pure-play spirits company will be quickly acquired by Diageo or one of the other bigger players. When the separation is complete, Beam Inc. will be the world’s fourth-largest premium spirits business and the largest U.S.-based spirits company.

Beam's portfolio includes Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Sauza, Courvoisier, Canadian Club and Teacher’s. As previously announced, Matt Shattock will continue to lead Beam as president and chief executive officer of the company.

They still expect the separation to be completed in the second half of 2011.

Assuming completion of the spin-off, the Fortune Brands Home & Security unit will retain its name and be the only company associated with the Fortune Brands name once it is spun off and becomes an independent publicly-traded company.

The company is also exploring the potential sale or spin-off of its Acushnet Company golf business.

The 'What Happened To Old Crow" Story.

One of the most unusual stories I heard when I was working on the documentary "Made and Bottled in Kentucky (1991-92) was told by a man who identified himself as the last master distiller at Old Crow and who was by then a Beam employee working at Forks of Elkorn (formerly Old Grand-Dad and now Beam's Frankfort maturation and bottling facility), which is where Beam stuck all of the National production people it retained.

They had permission to show me around Old Taylor and Old Crow, then in ruins but still owned by Jim Beam as a result of the 1987 acquisition of National Distillers. It was just me and a couple of these old National guys. I wasn't shooting, just researching. There was no one with us from Beam PR.

This gentleman told me that in the 1960s, National enlarged the Old Crow plant and accidentally altered the percentage of setback they were using to condition their mash. He said this completely screwed up the flavor of the whiskey. Everyone, including he and the distillery tasting panel, told management it tasted wrong, but at that point they were making it as fast as they could and selling all they could make, so nothing was ever done to fix it.

A few years later, when the bottom fell out of the bourbon business, it was worse for Crow than any other major brand; double-digit share and sales losses every year. He said they finally figured out what the problem was and fixed it a couple of years before Beam bought the place, so for the last few years of production the whiskey from that plant was good.

I've never found another source who could either confirm or dispute that story.

More On Beam's Devil's Cut.

I asked Fred Noe if he could tell me a little bit more about how Jim Beam Devil's Cut (coming in May) is made and he confirmed that their process is based on 'barrel sweating,' as I described yesterday.

Here's what Fred said: "The bourbon base is Jim Beam aged for 6 years. You are exactly correct in your thinking regarding the water, heat, and motion. The whole idea came from the 'sweating' of barrels and the bourbon left behind after dumping. Pulling more out of the wood is the key to this product and time will tell if the customers enjoy it. I am sure there will be some folks that really like it and maybe a few that do not like the flavor."

Beam Puts Dregs To Good Use With New Devil's Cut.

The dictionary defines ‘dregs’ in part as, "the last remaining, and often least attractive part of something.’ That definition may need to be revised in light of a new product coming in May from Jim Beam.

It’s called Jim Beam Devil’s Cut. The name is a play on the expression ‘angel’s share,’ what distillers call whiskey that evaporates during aging. ‘Devil’s Cut’ is Beam’s trademarked term for whiskey that is still "trapped within the wood" after dumping. In other words, the dregs.

Whiskey-makers typically rinse their freshly-dumped barrels with water to extract some of this remainder. A few years ago, Jack Daniel’s started a program where they fill the emptied barrels about 1/3 with water and let them sit that way, on end, for several weeks. They estimate this recovers about five times more whiskey, measured by alcohol content, than rinsing alone.

All Beam will say about its process is this: "Through a unique, proprietary process, we extract this formerly lost liquid from deep inside the barrel wood and put it back into our special Bourbon. The resulting liquid is deep in color, aroma and character with robust notes of wood and vanilla."

I predict the enthusiast community will be enthusiastic about Jim Beam Devil’s Cut. This is exactly the kind of experimentation we’ve been urging Beam to do, and it follows on the heals of products such as Jim Beam Signature, Old Crow Reserve, and Knob Creek Single Barrel.

Fred Noe grew up in Bardstown, Kentucky, and participated no doubt in the local rite of passage known as 'sweating a barrel.' Kids would ‘liberate’ a freshly-dumped barrel from one of the local distilleries, put a few gallons of water in it, plug up the bung hole, and roll the barrel around in the hot sun until they got bored. The resulting liquid usually contained enough alcohol to deliver a light buzz.

How does Jim Beam Devil’s Cut taste? Exactly as I would have expected. Mixing these dregs (what else do you want to call them?) with the regular juice in some proportion gives the illusion of much greater age because it's so loaded with tannin, char and other wood flavors.

There is no age statement on the bottle so presumably Devil’s Cut is based on 4-year-old Jim Beam White Label, but the flavor is very different. Retail price will be in the neighborhood of $24 for a 750/ml bottle.

In the course of about a year, Beam Global has gone from the least innovative company in the industry to arguably the most innovative, and their willingness to bet the flagship brand on these escapades makes it even more impressive.