Resurrecting the Family Spirits

Steve Beam (yes, that Beam family) talks about his upcoming Traverse City tour and many whiskey-sipping events.

By Eric Cox | July 20, 2019

Steve Beam was in elementary school when he became aware of his family’s good name. But it would take several more years before he understood its value in the spirits world — not the ether, mind you, but the fiery-smooth realm of high-quality bourbon.

“Growing up with that name in Kentucky could be like growing up with the Hershey name in Pennsylvania. It was kind of hard to avoid the connections early on,” said Beam, whose resurrected Limestone Branch Distillery is the prime spirits sponsor of the upcoming Traverse City Film Festival.

Like the Hersheys and chocolate, the Beam family bears a royal name in bourbon. Steve Beam, however, descends from not one but two venerated lines: His great-grandfather on his father’s side is Minor Case Beam, the eldest son of Joseph M. Beam, of the legendary Beam family distillers that began in Kentucky with Johannes “Jacob” Beam. Jacob was a farmer who began crafting and selling his Old Jake Beam Sour Mashwhiskey, in the late 1790s, in a style that would become known as bourbon.

The brand wouldn’t become “Jim Beam” until 1935, after James Beauregard Beam had ushered the family business through Prohibition — and the burning down of the family distillery by a Prohibition mob — rebuilt the distillery, and co-founded with two partners and his son, eventual master distiller Jeremiah Beam, The James B. Beam Distilling Company.

Steve Beam’s family on his mother’s side, while perhaps lesser-known today, was no less pioneering. Her great-grandfather was Joseph Washington Dant, whose early whiskey — famously made in a still he had crafted from a hollowed-out log — enabled him to begin producing, at a large scale, his Yellowstone brand bourbon in 1850. (Interestingly, it was Minor Case Beam who helped Dant expand operations; he sold Dant his distillery.) Unfortunately, Prohibition and its aftermath wreaked havoc on the J.W. Dant companies, eventually forcing closure of the distillery that had produced Yellowstone and many changes of hands for J.W. Dant brands.

With such a pedigree, one might think Steve Beam’s involvement in the family business might be a foregone conclusion. It’s not. His father downplayed his family’s name, while his mother, Dottie, who had worked at her family’s distillery as a young girl, celebrated hers, steadfastly educating Steve and his brother, Paul, about the Dant operations and products. She took them on childhood junkets to the family’s old distillery sites and shared the family’s lore.

While Steve and Paul found the history interesting, they chose not to enter the distilling business. Unlike their Beam cousins, who continue to operate that family’s Jim Beam enterprise, Steve and Paul took different paths.

Steve’s early interest in horticulture led to a degree in landscape architecture from Purdue University. He practiced that for a spell, and later operated a restaurant in Louisville. Throughout those years, he continued to study his family’s history, gaining insights, inspiration, and, most importantly, a growing inclination to delve into distilling.

Adding to his interest was a burgeoning micro-distilling industry — one that seemed capable of sustaining a fledgling business rooted in a generations-old scorecard of success.

“As it started to become more feasible,” Beam said, “I got together with my brother and said, ‘It’s now or never. We’ll be the first generation since 1795 to have not been involved in bourbon. So we just need to do this!’”

Paul agreed, setting in motion a period of pre-launch research that culminated in the 2010 launch of Limestone Branch Distillery in Lebanon, Kentucky, a town very near the family’s original distilling sites.

In Lebanon, Limestone Branch finds itself in very good company. “Maker’s Mark is right around the corner,” Steve said. Oak barrel manufacturer Kentucky Cooperage is also a neighbor. “We’re right where we feel like we need to be,” he concluded.

Though the Beam brothers have found their home and niche, it didn’t happen with the blessing of their father, who discouraged them from entering the business.

“He had seen the industry chew up and spit out a lot of people,” Steve said. “He knew it was hard — the hard way to go. It’s not what a lot of people think of as a semi-glamorous thing, being a distiller. It’s actually a lot of hard work.”

That didn’t deter the Beams, who in 2015 partnered with premium spirits supplier Luxco in re-launching three small-batch brands: Yellowstone Whiskey, Yellowstone Select Whiskey, and Minor Case Straight Rye Whiskey.

Luxco, a family-owned bottling house in St. Louis, had owned the three brands from the time its original distillery closed in 1993 all the way to 2015, when the Beam brothers, via their Luxco partnership, began distilling the three varieties.

Aside from Luxco’s powerful distribution and marketing platforms, Beam credits electronic communication for making small-batch distilling feasible. “Social media and the internet enable us to get the word out on a large scale,” he said. “Prior to that, it would’ve cost a small fortune to publicize new brands.”

But Yellowstone Whiskey isn’t exactly a new brand; it’s simply a revitalized one. Once J.W. Dant’s flagship brand, Yellowstone Whiskey is named after the Wyoming park, America’s first national park, founded in 1872.

Like the park, its namesake bourbon brand outlived Prohibition — if only for a while. According to Beam, Yellowstone Whiskey became a medicinal alcohol, available only through a doctor’s prescription. In fact, today’s Limestone Branch Distillery displays some of those Yellowstone-branded prescription bottles. While Prohibition deep-sixed scores of small distilleries, Yellowstone carried on as a legitimate treatment.

Though modern Yellowstone doesn’t carry a doctor’s recommendation, Steve Beam maintains that it’s still a very approachable straight bourbon whiskey. “Yellowstone Select is a blend of the pot-still portion — a full-bodied whiskey, mixed with other bourbon stocks — all Kentucky straight bourbons. This produces a classic Kentucky bourbon profile,” he said. “Most Kentucky straight bourbons use column stills. But we use a pot still for individual distillation. So, it’s small batch. For us, it’s 600 gallons at a time, which is extremely small, compared to our Beam cousins.”

To the Beam brothers, that discrepancy equates to a uniqueness that can only be achieved through small-batch distilling. “Yellowstone is something that a novice bourbon drinker can enjoy,” he said. “But it also has enough complexity to satisfy a connoisseur as well.”

All in all, things are going very well for the Beam brothers and Limestone Branch Distillery. Their brands are taking off, and they’re engaged in a high-profile partnership with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a hat-tip based on their flagship Yellowstone Whiskey. As such, through Aug. 31, the distillery is donating $1 (up to $30,000) from each bottle of Yellowstone sold to the NPCA.
 
MEET THE MAN
Want a taste of whiskey history from a man whose got bourbon in his blood? Steve Beam will be in town July 24–26, meeting the public at several Traverse City venues in honor of Limestone Branch Distillery’s prime spirits sponsorship of the upcoming Traverse City Film Festival. Here’s where he’ll be:

Wednesday, July 24
4pm–5pm at Apache Trout Grill, 13671 S W. Bay Shore Dr.
Beam will host an open-to-the-public meet-and-greet happy hour event. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the National Park Conversation Association, representatives from which will be in attendance.

6pm–8pm at Nolan’s Tobacco and Cigar Bar, 336 E. Front St.
Beam will host a ticketed educational cigar-and-whiskey pairing seminar. A limited number of tickets are available through Nolan’s. www.nolanstobacco.com

Thursday, July 25
4pm–8pm at Meijer, 3955 US-31.
Beam will host Yellowstone Select and Minor Case Rye sampling, bottle signing, and a meet and greet. This event is open to public.

Friday, July 26
1pm–3pm at Olsen’s Farm Fresh Market, 1100 E. Hammond Rd.
The public is invited to a release party of Olsen’s hand-selected single barrel of Yellowstone Select. This public event will also feature sampling of Yellowstone Select and Minor Case Rye, as well as a bottle signing and a meet and greet with Beam.

3:30pm–5:30pm at Olsen’s Farm Fresh Market, 3850 N. Long Lake Rd.
Beam will host another release party for Olsen’s hand-selected single barrel of Yellowstone Select. This public event will also feature sampling of Yellowstone Select and Minor Case Rye, as well as a bottle signing and a meet and greet with Beam.
 
6pm–7 pm at Low Bar, 128 S. Union St. 
Beam will host a public meet and greet during happy hour.