Here's how the world's top-selling Kentucky Straight Bourbon is made
The Jim Beam Stillhouse — or distillery — is located in the town of Clermont, Kentucky.
The current building is a replica of the 1940s stillhouse, and still features that building's original staircase (pictured on the left side of the building).
Over the last 200 years, Jim Beam has seen seven generations of master distillers.
Corn is an essential ingredient in the Jim Beam bourbon recipe. It makes up at least 51% of the mash bill — a mixture that starts the distillation process.
Besides corn, the mash bill consists of rye and barley malt.
The mash bill is poured into a 10,000-gallon fermenter, where it's mixed with limestone filtered Kentucky water and "set back:" up to 40% of leftover mash from the last distillation.
The grains of the mash bill are then cooked, which helps to get the best flavor out of each grain.
Next, yeast is added to the mix, which transforms the mash into what's known as "distiller's beer." The yeast comes from a 75-year old strain that Jim Beam has cultivated.
Here are the containers where the fermentation process takes place.
After fermentation, the beer makes its way into a column where it's heated to 200 degrees. The temperature is enough to turn the liquid into a vapor, but not boil it. The vapor then transforms back into liquid form; this liquid is known as "low wine."
The low wine — which is 125 proof and 62.5% alcohol — flows into a doubler for another distillation.
This distillation condenses the vapor into "high wine," which is less than 160 proof and 67.5% alcohol.
The high wine is then aged for four years in new charred oak barrels.
Some variants are aged for more than four years — Jim Beam doubles the aging time that the law requires for Kentucky straight bourbon.
Here, barrels of bourbon ready to be aged are loaded onto a truck that will take them to one of the over 70 rackhouses Jim Beam owns.
About 20,000 barrels can be stored in each of Jim Beam's rackhouses in Kentucky.
Kentucky provides an ideal climate for aging.
Jim Beam has sold a lot of bourbon over the last 220 years — millions of barrels. The barrel heads pictured here commemorate some of the distillery's biggest milestones.
It's worth the wait of four years to get good quality bourbon at the end.
Once it's been bottled, the bourbon is ready to be sent out into the world. Jim Beam is sold in over 120 countries worldwide.
Besides taking a tour, visitors to the distillery can also stop by the tasting room to sample some of the many types of Jim Beam bourbons.
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