The Bourbon Trail. . . Jim Beam Outpost

My girls are following in their parents footsteps. They are quickly becoming fanatics of American History. Hence, most family trips and vacations involve at least one stop at a historical destination. So, it should be of no surprise that my husband wanted to follow the Bourbon Trail this morning. And, in the spirit of American History, I am going to explore the history of Jim Beam.

The Beam Family
The patriarch of the Beam family was Johannes Reginald Boehm. Upon his immigration to the United States from Germany, the family surname was changed to Beam. The Beam family began to distill bourbon whiskey in the 1790s. And, in 1795, Johannes' son, Jacob Beam began to sell barrels of this bourbon. The first Beam bourbon was called Old Jake Beam. And, the original distillery was called Old Tub.

The next generation was represented by David Beam. His son, David M. Beam, relocated the distillery to Nelson County to take advantage of the easy access to easy railroad transportation. Colonel James Beauregard Beam, son of David M. Beam, was the next member of the Beam family to run the distilling business. He ran the company before Prohibition. And, in 1920, he sold the family's distillery. He rebuilt the distillery in Clermont, Kentucky after Prohibition was repealed.

In 1946, Jeremiah Beam, son of Jim Beam, took over the distillery. Under his leadership, a second distillery was opened at Boston, Kentucky in 1954. Frederick "Booker" Noe, II, a grandson of Jim Beam, became the Master Distiller at the Boston Distillery in 1960. Noe was the sixth generation of the Beam family involved in the distilling of bourbon.

Frederick Booker Noe, III, also known as Fred, became the seventh generation of the Beam family to distill bourbon in 2007. The company remains in Clermont, Kentucky to this day.