On Monday, Jim Beam Bourbon celebrated a milestone as the company filled its 14 millionth barrel of bourbon since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, a first for the bourbon industry. The milestone comes two years after the company marked the filling of its 13 millionth barrel.
The 14 millionth barrel will join the nearly two million barrels of bourbon currently aging in Jim Beam’s rackhouses across Kentucky. According to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, bourbon is now a $3 billion state industry, providing more than 15,000 jobs and generating more than $166 million in tax revenues annually. Over the past five years, the bourbon industry has grown 35 percent.