Jackson Purchase Is Expanding Its Horizons Beyond Kentucky

Back in 2014, Craig Beam retired from distilling. The move seemingly was the conclusion of an impressive and lengthy career—the 7^th-generation distiller had spent over three decades at Heaven Hill, ascending from warehouse cleaner to truck driver to co-master distiller, where he worked alongside his father, the legendary master distiller Parker Beam, until 2013 (when Parker’s ALS diagnosis forced him to stop working). Craig left the business with no thought of returning, but was coaxed back in 2021 by the prospect of working at Jackson Purchase, a distillery located in the far west corner of Kentucky in the town of Hickman, not far from the borders of Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas. Jackson Purchase was new but already operational; moreover, it was ready to invest an additional $8.76 million to expand its land holdings and warehousing, and upgrade its facilities. Five years later, and alongside head distiller Terry Ballard (formerly head distiller at Willett), Beam is now bringing Jackson Purchase whiskeys beyond their Kentucky borders.

The distillery’s inaugural release, Jackson Purchase Batch No. 1 Full Proof, is a 4 year old bourbon crafted from 70% corn, 20% rye, and 10% malted barley and bottled at 58.9% ABV, with the majority of its grains coming from local farmers. The distillery’s location in the southwestern pocket of Kentucky means that the area’s temperatures climb higher than in the state’s principal distilling areas of Bardstown, Louisville, Lexington, and northern Kentucky; Beam attributes these hotter temperatures, and the No.-4 char barrels the whiskey ages in, to enhanced color and flavor in the final spirit. When Batch No. 1 debuted last September, it was a Kentucky exclusive, but the whiskey is getting a wider rollout now and is available for shipping to all but six states (Alaska, Alabama, Hawaii, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Utah).

Jackson Purchase, while new by name, isn’t a brand-new facility. Its current owners, businessmen David Salmon (a Kentucky native who previously held executive roles at at Maker’s Mark, Heaven Hill, William Grant & Sons, and Corby Distillers), Lloyd Jones (also a Kentucky native), and Van Carlisle, are the third set to operate the distillery. The site was originally built in 2008 and christened Jamieson Distillery by its first owner, but its stills would never run—nor would they operate under the guidance of its second owners, who purchased the distillery in 2018 and renamed it RH Resolute. But the vision of the original owner is still in play at the distillery today, as Jackson Purchase is focused on (and built for) fairly substantial output, with capacity to produce around 60,000 barrels a year from its 36-inch and 24-inch copper column stills. The majority of its production goes to contract distillation—the homepage of the Jackson Purchase website greets you with taglines like “Your custom Kentucky bourbon contract distiller.” Still, the Jackson Purchase label is primed for additional releases down the road, though they'll remain quite limited in nature.