Stephen Beam, Yellowstone Bourbon’s grasp distiller, addresses the ‘softening’ of the class within the US and why the model has launched a line of bottled cocktails.
In September 2025, Yellowstone Bourbon made its ready-to-drink debut with a trio of 750ml bottled cocktails.
The Kentucky model couldn’t ignore progress of the RTD market, grasp distiller Stephen Beam tells The Spirits Enterprise. “It’s the class inside brown spirits within the US that’s truly rising at a big quantity,” he says. “So we needed to place our foot within the ring, so to talk.”
IWSR predicts a compound annual progress fee (CAGR) of 6% within the US from 2023 to 2028 for spirits-based RTDs. Within the US off-premise, the section is now price US$2.7 billion in response to NIQ information.
A need for bar-quality serves – or a “true cocktail expertise” – is the place Beam sees a chance for Bourbon: “I needed to carry my experience and our Bourbon to it, and a top quality that I assumed was missing,” he says. “It’s a good way to showcase our Bourbon and likewise be Bourbon-forward, the place we’re excessive power [25-35% ABV] and it may possibly actually shine via within the cocktails.”
He believes bottled cocktails can open doorways for individuals who may not be eager on attempting Bourbon by itself, however a ‘bar-quality’ Outdated Original, as Yellowstone now provides, might be their manner of being launched to it.
“It goes with the patron, simply the tempo that individuals are doing issues, and the fast-paced lives that we stay,” he says. “It’s simpler, particularly you probably have a cocktail that tastes as you’ll anticipate to get at a bar, and we’re all programmed for comfort and prompt gratification now.”
Pure transfer
Yellowstone’s beginning pack includes Gold Rush, Outdated Original, and Espresso, that are described as trendy twists on classics.
Beam says that whereas there are extra flavours within the works, these gained’t seem till round autumn. Though a Paper Aircraft is certainly one of his favorite cocktails, he wasn’t certain if it was recognisable sufficient. “We needed to begin with three acquainted cocktails that the typical client would instantly know once they see the identify of what it’s,” he provides.
Noting the analysis and growth, he says it takes some time to develop what he likes, after which what he feels customers will like: “I’ve by no means been one to launch one thing broad that may please everyone, as a result of I feel while you try this you find yourself with one thing that’s mediocre. Once I’m mixing Bourbon I combine to the usual that I like, however we’ve got a tasting panel too.”
Beam and the staff labored with Valentina Witkowski, analysis and growth coordinator at Luxco, on growing the vary. “I’m not a cocktail specialist, so I get it to the bottle and hand it off to the professionals,” he quips, including: “I knew what I needed and he or she was in a position to put all of it collectively – bringing that bar high quality was of the utmost significance, we don’t not wish to are available in with lower than that.”
The Espresso serve pertains to the Espresso Martini, which Beam says at its launch was the primary bottled Espresso Martini based mostly with Bourbon. He additionally highlights Bourbon’s complementary nature with espresso. “My buddy is a superb espresso roaster and we’ve achieved occasions the place we do espresso and the cuppings of espresso, and the way in which they do their tastings, I really feel there’s a whole lot of similarities,” he says.
“We use cold-pressed, chilly brew espresso, so the recipe will not be coffee-flavoured, it’s flavoured with espresso.”
Boasting clear ties to nature having taken its identify from the US’s first nationwide park, Beam notes how comfort codecs are a pure match for Yellowstone.
“It performs into our help of nationwide parks the place we’ve donated over US$1 million to the Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation (NPCA) [since 2018],” he says . “I feel we couldn’t try this with out the help of our prospects, after all, nevertheless it reveals our dedication to the surroundings and the pure space.”
The bottle – gentle, spill-proof, totally recyclable, reusable, shareable, and produced from aluminium – has been designed to embrace outside events. “You need one thing that isn’t going to interrupt, which you can recycle and reuse once more, and you should use these as a water container as nicely. I really like Bourbon neat, however you don’t essentially wish to take a bottle of it when going mountain climbing,” he says.
A really perfect consumption situation for Beam can be having a break within the night round a campfire someplace, including that “one of many nice issues about Bourbon is having the ability to share it with individuals after which tales that include that.”
He relays a narrative of his personal when he was in Africa final 12 months. “We have been on a safari and a bar cart was introduced out the place an entire bar was set out, cocktails have been made and all the pieces else. Not everyone can try this while you’re out within the bush, so that is the following smartest thing.”
Bourbon drinkers scaling again
Though American whiskey has softened over latest years – emphasised most just lately by the primary Jim Beam distillery pausing manufacturing till the top of 2026 – Beam feels this doesn’t imply individuals are shifting away from Bourbon.
He explains: “I’ve talked to lots of people about the entire ‘Bourbon is softening’ factor, and individuals are nonetheless consuming Bourbon, they’re consuming about the identical quantity they’ve all the time drank – they’re simply not out amassing.”
Beam feels customers are extra discerning now on the subject of buying Bourbon. “They scaled again from the place they used to go in and possibly purchase three or 4 totally different bottles to have on the shelf, however now they’re shopping for what they drink and possibly a particular bottle right here and there,” he says.
So as to add to that, Beam touches on the Bourbon societies he visits: “I simply did two totally different occasions, one in Missouri after which one in Charlotte, two totally different areas of the nation with two totally different Bourbon teams, and everyone is simply as enthusiastic about Bourbon now as they have been earlier than. They’re simply not trophy searching, essentially. And naturally, you all the time have the individuals who shift to the most recent factor, they migrate out and in.”
Beam additionally notes that whereas Yellowstone has a standing as a conventional methodist model, with a heritage mentioned thus far again to 1872, he’s not afraid to get out of the standard Bourbon field. The road of ready-to-serve cocktails is simply the most recent innovation the model has unveiled.
In 2016, Yellowstone launched a restricted version toasted barrel end, which Beam says on the time nearly nobody else had achieved earlier than. “Once I first acquired within the enterprise, ending Bourbon was taboo. On the time of the toasted barrel end, individuals have been like ‘you don’t mess with Bourbon. You don’t end it. You don’t do something’. Scotch has been ending the whiskies in several casks, so why shouldn’t we try this with Bourbon?”
Beam is all the time wanting to attract new drinkers into the American whiskey class. The model has since launched its Particular Finishes Assortment, which has up to now seen Bourbon completed for 9 weeks in Cuban rum casks.
“I all the time wish to push the envelope a little bit bit,” he provides. “I inform individuals on the distillery, daily, we attempt to make all the pieces precisely the identical as a result of we wish the Yellowstone Bourbon that goes within the bottle in the present day to be the identical as you bought two years in the past, or that you just’re going to get.
We try to maintain that sameness, which is nice, and it turns into routine and fairly straightforward to do, however it may possibly additionally turn into [a bit] boring for me typically, so I like to achieve out and take a look at various things like these cocktails as nicely. They’re nice as a result of we’ll have the mainstays, however then we could also be doing a little seasonal rotations out and in too.”
The cocktails are the main focus for the foreseeable future, Beam says, however there are different issues the model has deliberate, equivalent to a 2026 restricted version launch and the Recollection collection – a throwback to previous barback bottles of the late 1800s that launched as a distillery-exclusive final 12 months, “however could also be heading out into the market a little bit bit extra this 12 months,” he teases.
“We simply attempt to keep contemporary and present with out having a flavour of the day, with out turning into an excessive amount of,” he concludes.
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