Jim Beam

The Beam family has made whiskey in Kentucky for generations, and the present distillery at Clermont, south of Louisville, was built by James B. Beam after Prohibition ended in 1933. Today it belongs to Suntory Global Spirits, formerly Beam Suntory, and it is one of the largest bourbon distilleries in the world.

Like all bourbon, the spirit is made mostly from corn, with rye and malted barley, and aged in new charred oak barrels. The Beam style is mellow and approachable, with vanilla and caramel from the oak, and the same family of spirit underpins several other brands.

The range a buyer meets most often is White Label, the standard four-year-old straight bourbon, with Double Oaked giving it a second spell in fresh charred barrels. There is a large line of flavoured whiskeys and liqueurs such as Honey, Apple, Peach, Pineapple, Black Cherry and Red Stag, which are sweeter and lower in strength than straight bourbon. Older releases such as Lineage sit at the other end of the range.

Booker's, a barrel-strength bourbon named after Booker Noe, and Basil Hayden, a lighter high-rye bourbon, also come from the Beam distilleries in Kentucky. Laphroaig appears here because it belongs to the same group, but it is distilled on Islay in Scotland, not in Kentucky. Jim Beam whiskey is almost always bottled by the company itself rather than by independent bottlers.