{"id":78860,"date":"2025-12-23T06:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/78860\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T06:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:24:08","slug":"jim-beam-closing-kentucky-distillery-for-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/78860\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Beam closing Kentucky distillery for a year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bourbon maker Jim Beam is halting production at one of its distilleries in Kentucky for at least a year as the whiskey industry navigates\u00a0tariffs\u00a0from the Trump administration and slumping demand for a product that needs years of aging before it is ready.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Beam said the decision to pause\u00a0bourbon making\u00a0at its Clermont location in 2026 will give the company time to invest in improvements at the distillery. <\/p>\n<p>The bottling and warehouse at the site will remain open, along with the James B. Beam Distilling Co. visitors center and restaurant.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.33333333;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37999879\" width=\"787\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/jim-beam-visitors-center-central-117754263.jpg\" alt=\"The Jim Beam visitors center at its central distillery in Clermont, Ky.\" class=\"wp-image-37999879\"  \/>The Jim Beam visitors center at its central distillery in Clermont, Ky. AP<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s larger distillery in Boston, Kentucky, will continue to operate, the company said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are always assessing production levels to best meet consumer demand,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Employees at the distillery are being reassigned within the company and right now Jim Beam plans no layoffs, according to the local United Food and Commercial Workers International Union chapter that represents the workers.<\/p>\n<p>Bourbon makers have\u00a0to gamble\u00a0well into the future. Jim Beam\u2019s flagship bourbon requires at least four years of aging in barrels before being bottled.<\/p>\n<p>Whiskey makers are dealing with back-and-forth arguments over tariffs in Europe and\u00a0in Canada, where a boycott started after the Trump administration suggested annexing the country into the US.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37999878\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/shelves-display-bottles-bourbons-sale-117754264.jpg\" alt=\"Shelves display bottles of bourbons for sale at a Pennsylvania fine wine and spirits store\" class=\"wp-image-37999878\"  \/>Shelves display bottles of bourbon for sale at a Pennsylvania fine wine and spirits store. AP<\/p>\n<p>Overall exports\u00a0of American spirits fell 9% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to a year ago, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. <\/p>\n<p>The most dramatic decrease came in US spirits exports to Canada, which fell 85% in the April-through-June quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Bourbon production has\u00a0grown significantly in recent years. As of January, there were about 16 million barrels of bourbon aging in Kentucky warehouses \u2014 more than triple the amount held 15 years ago, according to the Kentucky Distillers\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n<p>But sales figures and polling show Americans are\u00a0drinking less\u00a0than they have in decades.<\/p>\n<p>About 95% of all bourbon made in the US comes\u00a0from Kentucky. The trade group estimated the industry brings more than 23,000 jobs and $2.2 billion to the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bourbon maker Jim Beam is halting production at one of its distilleries in Kentucky for at least a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8110,153,39183,17877,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-78860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-alcohol","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-jim-beam","11":"tag-kentucky","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}