Jim Beam shuts down iconic Kentucky distillery for at least a year amid market downturn
A whiskey sour for the distilled spirits industry. Consumers are souring on drinking alcohol.And that’s one of a host of complex reasons why Jim Beam is placing its main distillery...
By Fox News · Fox News
A whiskey sour for the distilled spirits industry. Consumers are souring on drinking alcohol. And that’s one of a host of complex reasons why Jim Beam is placing its main distillery in Clermont, Ky., on ice for at least a year. Claudia Coffey knows Kentucky bourbon country as well as anyone. She’s a podcaster and bourbon insider. TARIFFS PUSH US WINE INDUSTRY INTO UNCERTAIN TERRITORY: 'REALLY CREATES A CHALLENGE' "Bourbon is Kentucky, right? We love horse racing in Kentucky. We love bourbon in Kentucky. It's the reason that 2.7 million people come to visit the Commonwealth every single year," said Coffey. "It’s some of the biggest news to come out of Kentucky in quite some time and this is one of the most iconic brands in bourbon." Not everyone has heard of Willett or Four Roses when it comes to bourbon. But Jim Beam is Americana . Ubiquitous. Kind of like McDonald’s or Coke. Americans are imbibing less — down six percent from just two years ago. And more than 16 million barrels of Kentucky spirits — including bourbon and rye — are aging in warehouses across the state. Distillers are paying taxes on those barrels while they age. It’s an issue of supply and demand. But the problem is not exclusive to Jim Beam. "It's not a question of who's shutting down production," said Charlie Prince, who runs the Drammers Whiskey Club. "It's a question of who is admitting it." Overseas distillers like Midleton in Ireland — which makes Jameson — and Highland Park in Scotland, all reduced production recently because of a glut of bourbon, whiskey and Scotch on the market. However, observers say tariffs and the trade war with Canada hit Jim Beam especially hard. "Ten percent of Kentucky bourbon sales were going to Canada and that has dropped to almost zero," said Prince. "In Canada, that has been taken on as a kind of a national mission for Canadians, saying ‘Let's buy Canadian’ and push back against the politics they don't like coming from the US. And so you see stores just pulling…