The Big Man of Jim Beam

Prologue: Booker Noe: The Big Man of Bourbon

When I-65 South hits Lebanon Junction, it's pretty much a straight shot west to the distillery. A few miles past open fields and woods, and you're there. While other distilleries have enjoyed a renewal in appearance and upkeep, fueled by a relentless bourbon boom, this plant, smack dab in the middle of nowhere, is nondescript, plain. No trolleys, restaurants, gift shops, or historical recreations drawing tourist attention and dollars. Just a handful of gray rack houses and low-slung, cinder-brick buildings set back from the road with a solitary sign marking its presence. If you aren't looking for the place, you could miss it, a dusty and remote outpost, there and gone.

There's little to indicate that this distillery, located on the outskirts of tiny Boston, Kentucky, about an hour south of Louisville, was ground zero for the great renaissance the bourbon industry is enjoying now. But it was. A lot took place here a long time ago, because a long time ago Booker Noe worked here.

Faraway from the inquisitive eyes of marketing executives and tourists, this sixth-generation Beam, a giant of a man both literally and figuratively, was free to ruminate, experiment, concoct, and create. What he ended up eventually doing here changed not only the trajectory of his family's centuries-old company, but the future of the entire bourbon industry as well.

Nowadays the distillery is as busy as ever, pushing out close to 70,000 gallons a day, six days ...