BY MAURA DOWGIN
Staff Writer
CHRIS KELLY staff Fred Noe, Jim Beam’s great-grandson, signed bourbon bottles at a township store last week.
EDISON — In some circles, Fred B. Noe is a celebrity.
Noe, the great-grandson of Jim Beam, visited the Liquor Locker Super Saver, Oak Tree Road, to meet the customers on Saturday.
"I think it’s important to meet the people," Noe said.
The sales people, store owners and customers are what make or break a company in this business, he said.
Noe was signing bottles of his small batch bourbon, Knob Creek, and giving away key chains, blankets, and flasks to promote the product.
"I’ve got a pretty good gig here. Everybody wants me because they enjoy me coming into their markets and thanking their customers," he said.
Noe has been traveling the world for the past three years as a bourbon ambassador, he said.
He has been to almost all 50 states, Russia, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia, Germany, England and Spain, he said.
"It is important to come and meet the retailers," Noe said.
Noe also does wait-staff seminars, where he teaches waiters and bartenders the different ways of making bourbon and how the Jim Beam family of bourbons are made, he said.
Noe said he was interested in the family business from birth.
"I grew up at the distillery with my dad," he said.
There were trucks, trains and lakes to go fishing in. For a young boy growing up in Kentucky, this is almost heaven, he said.
"My dad’s rule was that I had to finish college before he’d let me work," Noe said.
Noe jumped from college to college before finally receiving a degree from Bellarmine College in Louisiana, he said.
Noe has one son who he hopes will one day take over the family business.
Bourbon is a type of whiskey that must contain 51 percent corn and be aged for at least two years, Noe said. After these basic requirements are met, different brands can add extra aging or special ingredients to make their bourbon unique.
Bourbon must be made in a new barrel, Noe explained.
The wooden barrel is charred inside. Because of the charring of the barrel, sugars form which then get picked up by the alcohol over time. The sugar and time are what give bourbon its color and flavor.
The amount of time the bourbon is aged is on the label of all small batch bourbons. Each small batch bourbon is aged in its barrel for at least six years.
Knob Creek is aged for nine years in American white oak barrels, Noe said.