James B. Beam Distilling Co. – Clermont, KY
We don’t drink, but we can appreciate a fine sip occasionally, and we can certainly appreciate a beautiful piece of Kentucky. The James B. Beam Distilling Co. campus in Clermont, just off I-65 south of Louisville, is one of the prettiest stops on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail: rolling hills, white farm buildings, black rackhouses on the ridgelines, and a front gate that means business.
Even the drive in earns its own photo stops: a white barn wearing the Jim Beam logo on a hillside, and a cheerful “Almost There” sign pointing you 500 yards uphill toward tours, parking, and The Kitchen Table restaurant.
The American Outpost
The heart of the visitor experience is the American Outpost, a tall white building with rocking chairs on the porch and a column still rising straight through the shop floor inside. Out front stands a bronze of the man himself, James Beauregard “Jim” Beam, hat raised and bottle in hand, by sculptor Benjamin Bartlett. The plaque tells the short version: fourth-generation distiller in a family that’s been at it since 1795, and the one who rebuilt the distillery after Prohibition and grew it into the biggest bourbon producer in the world. The tradition continues, seven generations and counting.
Learn From Us: Book the Tour
Now the lesson we paid for so you don’t have to. Every tour was sold out when we arrived. All of them, the whole afternoon. If you want to walk the rickhouses and see the stills up close, book online before you drive out; this is apparently not a place people visit on a whim, except for us.
The consolation prize is a good one, though. The Outpost shop is free to wander, the tasting bar pours for those who partake, and the shelves carry limited batch bottles you can only buy in that store. John examined those shelves with the focus of a man who does not drink but respects a collectible when he sees one. He also spent $1,000 on gifts! Good lord…
Even without a tour, the campus itself is worth the short detour off the interstate. Walk the grounds, admire the rackhouses, meet Jim in bronze, and read the back of the front gate on your way out. It says “Come as Friends, Leave as Family,” and the place mostly earns it.
