Since when has he Beam family have been involved in whiskey production for the company that also sells a low-priced brand of Kentucky-made straight bourbon whiskey?
Jim Beam Jim Beam is a brand of bourbon whiskey produced in Clermont, Kentucky, by Beam Suntory, a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings of Osaka, Japan. It is one of the best selling brands of bourbon in the world. Since 1795 (interrupted by Prohibition), seven generations of the Beam family have been involved in whiskey production for the company that produces the brand, which was given the name "Jim Beam" in 1933 in honor of James B. Beam, who rebuilt the business after Prohibition ended. Previously produced by the Beam family and later owned by the Fortune Brands holding company, the brand was purchased by Suntory Holdings in 2014.
Heaven Hill Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. is an American, private family-owned and operated distillery company headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky that produces and markets the Heaven Hill brand of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a variety of other distilled spirits. Its current distillery facility, called the Heaven Hill Bernheim distillery, is in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the seventh-largest alcohol supplier in the United States, the second-largest holder of bourbon whiskey inventory in the world, the largest independent family-owned and operated producer and marketer of distilled spirits in the United States, and the only large family-owned distillery company headquartered in Kentucky (not counting the Brown-Forman Corporation, which is publicly traded but more than two-thirds family-controlled, or the Sazerac Company, which is family-owned but headquartered in Louisiana).