to tolerate, something to get through until the next thing.
Fortunately, he did have sports. Most of the other boys were from the Bardstown area, but a fair number were from around the country: a handful even hailing from faraway New York City. Almost all were good athletes. As a result, St. Joe's fielded powerhouse teams, especially in football. Booker, because of his size and quickness, excelled and played both as a punishing defensive end and as an impenetrable guard on offense. No one in Central Kentucky wanted to line up against Hard Times, a nickname given to Booker because of his birth date of December 7, by then a day of infamy, and the fact that he was born in 1929, on the cusp of the Depression.
On holidays or when school was not in session Booker would spend time at his granddaddy's house on North Third Street, a few minutes from school. In addition to enjoying home-cooked meals (a needed respite from the dreary food at St. Joe's), Booker would occasionally join Jim on trips to the distillery. They traveled down the two-lane highway in Jim's Cadillac: Granddaddy talking bourbon and Booker listening. Booker wasn't particularly interested in the mechanics of the bourbon-making process – he was only a teenager and the chemistry was beyond him (what exactly is fermentation again?) – but he made an effort to pick up what he could and asked questions when appropriate. He held his reserved grandfather in high regard: Jim Beam was one of the few people who intimidated Booker, and he showed as much respect as he could whenever he was around him.
On their trips Jim emphasized the importance of yeast and Kentucky's fabled limestone-filtered water, two ingredients that made the family's whiskey special. Jim held Kentucky water in such high regard that he would sometimes stop on the way to the distillery and march off into the woods until he found a clear stream where he could fill a jug or two for drinking later. This water is as good as it gets, he told Booker.
These occasional visits to the distillery were the first real exposures Booker had to the family business, and when he got there he liked what he saw. Majestic black-roofed rack houses rising in the early morning mist, trucks full of grain, hard-working Kentucky men talking sports and women, bubbling yeast mats, and, of course, the still blowing off steam. Standing on the front porch of the distiller's house up on the hill where his older cousin Carl and his family lived, he could pretty much take in the whole distillery and see the various parts working together all at once. It seemed pretty interesting to young Booker Noe.
What the boy couldn't accurately see from that porch was the state of the family business. It was the 1940s, and while the U.S. economy was on the verge of the great post-war expansion, the Beam business, like most bourbon makers, was still shaking and sputtering like an old pickup going uphill. The popularity of and demand for Scotch and Canadian whiskey, along with gin, was showing no sign of slowing. As a result the bourbon industry was contracting, with once-prosperous distilleries, such as George T. Stagg and James E. Pepper, selling out to larger enterprises. The future of bourbon didn't look all that promising.
While Beam's main products at the time, Old Tub and Colonel James B. Beam, were fairly well established and gaining awareness nationwide, the business needed an infusion of cash, so the distillery was sold to the Blums, a family from Chicago. Harry Blum had already been a significant shareholder, but his family now owned the whole enterprise: the Beams had relinquished control after close to 150 years. Rather than feeling defeated, the family felt liberated. The business end of things had never appealed all that much to the Beams and the sale freed the family up to do what they did best: make bourbon whiskey. Booker's chance, though it was still a while off, was coming.
Kentucky Limestone Water
The water that Jim Beam liked to fill his jugs with is different, special because it is filtered through an underground shelf of limestone that can be found throughout Kentucky. This limestone water has a high pH, which promotes fermentation. It also adds minerals, such as calcium, and filters out impurities, such as iron. The abundance of this unique water was critical to the pioneer distillers who recognized its value early on and used it to perfect their whiskey.
On the surface, Booker and his grandfather, James Beauregard Beam, shared few personality traits. While Booker was outgoing, the proverbial life of the party who was comfortable in work pants and a cowboy hat, by most accounts Beam was coat-and-tie reserved; a man who saw things in black and white and was a quiet and steady presence at the distillery and family gatherings. In addition to a bloodline, they did share two traits, though: a talent for making bourbon whiskey and a willingness to experiment and innovate.
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