Overview
- Jim Beam has halted new bourbon production at its flagship Clermont, Kentucky distillery for most of 2026, while bottling, warehousing and visitor operations continue and its Fred B. Noe and Boston, Kentucky sites keep distilling.
- Kentucky producers are sitting on a record roughly 16.1 million barrels, adding tax and storage costs that are encouraging production cuts.
- Export demand weakened after Trump‑era tariffs, with multiple reports showing Canadian purchases of American whiskey plunging by as much as about 85 percent.
- U.S. alcohol consumption hit a 90‑year low in 2025, with younger consumers drinking less and weight‑loss drugs cited by analysts as an added drag on spirits demand.
- Financial stress is mounting through bankruptcies and layoffs across the sector, and Beam Suntory is in talks with the UFCW on the pause’s impact on roughly 1,000 Kentucky employees.