Heaven Hill

In 1934 a group of investors approached the five Shapira brothers about starting a distillery.^1,2,3 The brothers named the firm after William Heavenhill, who once owned the land where the distillery was built.^1,2,3 The firm was set up to sell bulk whiskey to other firms on futures, and Joe and Harry Beam, of the Jim Beam family, ran the distilling.^1,2,3 The first barrels were filled on 13 December 1935.^1,2,3 While that first batch aged, the partners needed cash and asked the Shapiras to buy them out for $20,000, and the brothers did.^1,2,3 In 1939, after four years of ageing, the brothers released Old Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon, which became Kentucky's best-selling bourbon.^3,5 Bottled-in-bond whiskey comes from one distillery and one distilling season, ages at least four years and is bottled at 100 proof (50% alcohol).^3,5 Operations paused in 1942 to support the Second World War effort.¹ In 1946 Ed Shapira hired Earl Beam as master distiller, and the company added capacity and rickhouses, the warehouses where its barrels age.³

Heaven Hill launched Evan Williams bourbon in 1957.¹ In 1967 it finished a bottling plant in Bardstown, which still handles its bottling today.¹ Ed Shapira's son Max joined the family business in 1970.^1,6 In 1975 Earl Beam retired and handed the master distiller's job to his son, Parker Beam, who had joined Heaven Hill in 1960.^3,7,8 Max Shapira succeeded his father as head of the company in 1986.⁶ That year Heaven Hill launched Elijah Craig, a bourbon brand Parker Beam created.^1,

On 7 November 1996 a fire that started in an ageing warehouse destroyed the Old Heaven Hill Springs Distillery and seven rickhouses.^1,2,3 Its yeast, a proprietary recipe handed down for generations and used for the first batch in 1935, survived in a fifth-floor refrigerator.^1,2,3 For several years, neighbours such as Brown-Forman and Jim Beam made spirit for Heaven Hill.^1,3,5 In April 1999 Heaven Hill bought the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville from United Distillers, along with the Old Fitzgerald brand.^1,3,5 Distilling moved to Louisville, while ageing and bottling stayed in Bardstown.