Jim Beam will suspend bourbon production at its main distillery in Clermont, Kentucky, for the whole of 2026, as its owner Suntory Global Spirits adjusts output to market conditions and invests in site upgrades. The company stressed that the decision is linked to production planning rather than a full shutdown of its Kentucky operations.
While distillation at the Clermont flagship site will be paused from January, other activities in the state will continue. These include operations at a separate distillery, bottling and warehousing facilities, as well as the visitor centre. The group employs more than 1,000 people across Kentucky and said it is in discussions with the workers’ union to determine how staff will be deployed during the pause.
The move comes as Kentucky’s bourbon sector faces mounting pressure from swelling inventories and trade-related uncertainty. In October, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association reported that ageing bourbon stocks in the state had reached a record level of more than 16 million barrels. Because Kentucky levies taxes on ageing spirits, this inventory burden translated into around USD 75m in state taxes this year, a figure described by the association as “crushing” for distillers.
Beyond inventory challenges, US whiskey producers have been caught in ongoing trade tensions triggered by tariff policies under President Donald Trump. Retaliatory measures have affected exports, most notably in Canada, where several provinces temporarily removed American spirits from store shelves earlier in the year. Although some of those restrictions have since been eased, the episode highlighted the vulnerability of US spirits to trade disputes.
Industry representatives have warned that much of the capacity expansion over the past decade was designed to serve global growth, making stable and tariff-free trade conditions critical. Against this backdrop of high stocks, tax costs and geopolitical uncertainty, Jim Beam’s production pause underlines the broader recalibration currently under way in the US bourbon industry.
