The Big Man of Jim Beam: Booker Noe and the Number One Bourbon in the World by Kokoris Jim;

Author:Kokoris, Jim; [Kokoris Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119320159
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated
Published: 2016-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

The Beam Distilleries Today: Clermont and Booker Noe Plants

Jim Beam makes 115,000 gallons of whiskey a day.

Approximately 1,550 barrels go in and come out of the rack houses each day.

Jim Beam produces between 500,000 and 600,000 barrels of bourbon a year.

Jim Beam has 1.9 million barrels in inventory at any given time.

Chapter 11

Mules on the Fifth Floor

Booker drove to work one morning with mules on his mind. By God, he thought, those mules might just tell me something. Or at least confirm a hunch I have.

He called Jerry Summers, the apprentice distiller, into his office and told him to find out where the most mules in the plant were and to report right back to him.

“Mules,” Jerry repeated. Summers—young, eager, and college educated—had been hired to help modernize the plant and oversee the computerization of the distilling process. Though he had a bourbon background (his father had worked for years at the plant), he was new to the business himself, and Booker's order, brusquely issued, confused him.

“Mules,” he said again, still standing in Booker's office.

The Big Man glanced up from his paperwork. “What are you still doing here? You're not getting paid to stand. Go find them. I know they leave them on certain floors, they hide ‘em. They don't want to be caught with them. So go on now and find them. Go.”

Summers slowly turned and left the office. Standing outside by the distillery door, he scratched his head. He had been at the plant for a few months now and thought he knew it pretty well, but he hadn't seen any mules about. Chickens, hogs, pigeons, even some deer—but for the life of him, no mules.

Finally, he thought it best to ask another worker for clarification. He saw Bobby Hagen coming his way.

“Hey, Bobby. Do we have any mules here?”

“Who wants to know about mules?”

“Booker does. Wants to know where most of them can be found.”

Bobby paused. “Well, in the rack house, of course. That's where the whiskey is.”

Summers looked over at the rack houses off in the distance. “Mules get inside the rack houses?” he asked.

“Yeah, that's where we sometimes leave them. You don't want to be carrying them around, and no one wants to share one, either.”

“Share a mule,” Summers repeated.

Bobby squinted at young Jerry, assessing him and the conversation. “You don't know what a mule is, do you boy?”

“I'm starting to think I don't.”

“Guess they don't teach you the important stuff in college.” Bobby took a step close to Sommers and talked in a low, conspiratorial voice. “It's a small rubber hose, see. And people have been known to put it in the barrel when they want to take a drink or two.”

“Kind of like a thief,” Summers said, referring to the two-foot copper piping he and others used to draw whiskey from the barrel to test it.

“Let's just say it's kind of like an unofficial thief, if you get my picture. Used primarily for enjoyment and refreshment for the workers. Keeps the boys motivated. Say, how come Booker's asking about mules?”

“Hell if I know,” Summers said, walking away.

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