Jim Beams opens new visitor center
The Kentucky Bourbon producer offers whiskey experience in Louisville
With a new experience visitor center in the heart of Lousiville, Kentucky, Jim Beam has opened another tourist attraction: the Jim Beam Urban Stillhouse is a visible presence of the Bourbon label outside the distillery’s area in Clermont. What tourists can see and learn in the distillery and the main visitor center “Jim Beam American Experience Stillhouse” there, they now can experience here in Louisville in miniature: history, tradition and production of Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey.
Jim Beam whiskey experience
So this is not only a pure information centre that imparts knowledge through pictures or videos. The Jim Beam Urban Stillhouse is a distillery on its own as the name promises. A small copper still makes whiskey production a real experience, enriched by various interactive displays. A tasting bar and a shop complete the whiskey event. Fred Noe, Master distiller in 7th generation of the family, opened the visitor center on 2nd October himself.
Whiskey tourism grows because of Bourbon Trails
With the opening of the new visitor center Jim Beam follows the recent boom of distillery tourism: Since there are two Bourbon trails the Kentucky distilleries have seen steadily increasing figures of visitors. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail that connects the nine big distilleries of the state attracted more than 620.000 visitors last year. This is an increase of 10% regarding the former year. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour is also dedicated to nine distilleries, but they are smaller and work as craft distilleries. They saw over 96.000 visitors in 2014, which is 56% more than in the year before.
Revival of the Louisville whiskey tradition
It’s not a coincidence that Jim Beam built his new visitor center in Louisville: the town is already part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail because of two local distilleries. Furthermore the historic Main Street which once was the heart of the Bourbon industry and was known as “The whiskey Row” sees a revival: Brown-Forman recently started to build their new Forester Distillery there as we reported.
