Today is the official grand opening of the Jim Beam American Stillhouse, the new visitors center at the Clermont, Ky., distillery. But the Stillhouse has been open for a few weeks, and I stopped by on one of my trips to and from Bardstown during the Kentucky Bourbon Festival to look around and snap a few photos.
Jim Beam is the world’s top-selling bourbon and the western gateway to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour, and now it has a visitors experience worthy of that status. The new building is a replica of a 1940s-era stillhouse and contains a staircase from Beam’s original stillhouse, as well as a giant copper column still.
The new visitors experience is more interactive and better explains the bourbon-making process. But don’t worry: You can still take a picture with the statue of Booker Noe.
The Stillhouse is open until 4:30 p.m. EST seven days a week until January, when it will close on Sundays until March. If you’ve been to Jim Beam before, take note: You now enter the property on a new road that winds back to the Stillhouse (“Almost there!” a helpful sign announces). Tours ($8) last an hour and 15 minutes; beginning Oct. 15, you can make online reservations. Click here for more information.
