Kentucky bourbon maker Jim Beam says it won’t distill bourbon at its main plant in Clermont, Kentucky, for all of 2026 because of economics and changing consumer tastes.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Jim Beam is scaling back. Starting today and for the rest of the year, it’s pausing production at its flagship distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. That’s where the first barrel of its bourbon was sold in 1795.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Jim Beam, which is now owned by the Japanese company Suntory Global Spirits, says it will invest in site enhancements there. It will continue to distill bourbon at two other sites in Kentucky.
SIERRA ENLOW: It means jobs and stability for our communities.
MARTÍNEZ: Sierra Enlow is a Kentucky-based economic development consultant. She says bourbon is ingrained in Kentucky’s identity.
ENLOW: We’ve seen a lot of distilleries stall production for intermittent pieces of time over the last couple of months, just because of the uncertainty of where production needs to go and the uncertainty of what that global market looks like for bourbon.
MARTIN: Industry analysts say tariffs and a change in drinking tastes likely also play a role in Jim Beam pausing production, which Enlow says will have a broad effect on the local community.
ENLOW: There are going to be indirect positions with the trucking companies, farmers that are bringing grain to be processed at the Beam facility. There’s going to be, you know, a cutback in bottling facilities.
MARTÍNEZ: Jerry Summers is the judge/executive of Bullitt County, which is home to the Clermont facility. He worked at Jim Beam for 39 years and he’s in the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame. And he says he’s not worried.
JERRY SUMMERS: It’s one heck of an industry. We’ve seen these swings. We’ve seen the ups and downs. So we know it’s just a blip in the road, that the industry will bounce back.
MARTÍNEZ: After all, Summers says, Jim Beam isn’t going anywhere.
MARTIN: And in the meantime, bourbon drinkers do not need to worry about their tap running low. The Kentucky Distillers’ Association says more than 16 million barrels of bourbon are aging in Kentucky warehouses. That is an all-time high.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JIM BEAM”)
JACKSON TAYLOR AND THE SINNERS: (Singing) Jim Beam.
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