It’s the first time since the end of Prohibition any bourbon has reached the 14 million barrels mark. And it occurred just two years after Beam filled its 13 millionth barrel.
The milestone barrel — a bourbon industry first — was personally filled and sealed by seventh generation master distiller Fred Noe and Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin at the company’s flagship distillery in Clermont, Ky.
The 14 millionth barrel will join the nearly two million barrels of bourbon currently aging in Jim Beam’s rackhouses across the Commonwealth. It will be stored inside the distillery’s historic rackhouse D, a nine-story warehouse re-built by Jim Beam after Prohibition on the Clermont distillery grounds. The rackhouse is open to visitors as part of the Jim Beam American Stillhouse tour.
According to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, bourbon is now a $3 billion state industry, providing more than 15,000 jobs and generating more than $166 million in tax revenues annually. Over the past five years, the bourbon industry has grown 35%.
Over the next five years, Beam Suntory plans to invest more than $1 billion to make bourbon in the Commonwealth.