Jim Beam Pausing Manufacturing at Its Iconic Kentucky Bourbon Distillery

It has been a tricky time for distilled spirits.

Jim Beam, a model almost 230 years previous, confirmed to Enterprise Insider on Monday that it’ll halt bourbon manufacturing in its flagship distillery situated in Clermont, Kentucky, for a yr.

“We’re all the time assessing manufacturing ranges to finest meet client demand and not too long ago met with our group to debate our volumes for 2026,” a spokesperson of Suntory International Spirits, mum or dad firm of Jim Beam, advised Enterprise Insider in an announcement.

The spokesperson didn’t deal with whether or not the change is because of tariffs or counter-tariffs. The corporate stated a separate distillery in Boston, Kentucky, will proceed to function and that the corporate is in communication with the union.

In accordance with the Jim Beam web site, a couple of fan favorites are produced on the Clermont distillery, together with the Knob Creek and the Previous Overholt Rye Whiskey.

A troublesome time for the business

The suspension of distilling at the historic web site comes at a tricky time for the distilled spirits business, because of declining demand each abroad and within the US.

Between 2003 and 2023, American whiskey gross sales within the US alone reached 31 million nine-liter instances, up about 132 % since 2003, based on the Distilled Spirits Council of america.

Ranging from 2024, gross sales started to slide. DISCUS attributed the 1.1% decline to excessive costs and client pressure in a February press launch, and headwinds solely grew stronger in 2025.

Brown-Forman, which owns Jack Daniel’s, one other prime American whiskey model, stated in a December report that within the six months main as much as the top of October, web gross sales in Canada declined 62%, pushed by “volumetric declines” within the firm’s American whiskey portfolio.

In accordance with DISCUS, the EU, Canada, the UK, and Japan accounted for 70% of spirits exports in 2024, however all of those markets have carried out poorly in 2025. Total, in Q2, exports had been down 9%.

Other than an off-the-cliff decline in Canada, which halted imports of US booze amid commerce tensions with the Trump administration in March, the Council’s mid-year report reveals that spirits exports to the UK and Japan additionally declined by greater than 23%, whereas exports to the EU had been down 12%. The development contributed to double-digit losses in exports throughout classes, together with brandy, American Whiskey, vodka, and cordials.

The Council didn’t publish figures on how a lot the business depends on exports, however stated in its mid-year report that the worldwide market “is particularly crucial for American Whiskey producers, who’re going through stagnating home gross sales and record-high stock ranges.”

“There is a rising concern that our worldwide customers are more and more choosing domestically produced spirits or imports from international locations aside from the US, signaling a shift away from our nice American spirits manufacturers,” stated Chris Swonge, CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council, in an October assertion.

So as to add to the woes of distilled spirits, a sophisticated set of things is altering the best way individuals drink throughout the US. Other than ready-to-drink drinks, demand for many alcoholic merchandise has been on a downward development over the previous few years. There may be rising curiosity in sobriety, and the rise of different merchandise, reminiscent of using leisure hashish and weight reduction medicine, may very well be eclipsing the will to drink.

A Gallup survey in August discovered that 53% of People imagine that ingesting moderately, as in “one or two drinks a day,” is dangerous for well being. The identical ballot additionally displays a declining development in self-reported ingesting, from 62% in 2023 to 58% in 2024, earlier than reaching 54% in 2025.