Limestone Branch Distillery

Limestone Branch Distillery is a family-run craft distillery in Lebanon, Kentucky, best known for reviving Yellowstone Bourbon, a brand first produced in 1872. It is run by the Beam family, whose distilling roots reach back generations before the modern Kentucky bourbon industry took its current shape.

History & Heritage

Brothers Stephen Beam and Paul Beam formed Limestone Branch Distillery in October 2010 and opened it to the public in 2011. Stephen Beam is a seventh-generation distiller. His lineage runs through two of Kentucky's foundational whiskey families: his great-great-grandfather was Joseph Washington Dant, and his great-grandfather was Minor Case Beam. That heritage is the reason the distillery exists. Yellowstone Bourbon was introduced in 1872 by the J. B. Dant Distillery, taking its name from the national park established the same year, and it grew into a well-known Kentucky brand before the name passed out of family hands over the decades that followed. Reclaiming it was Stephen Beam's long-stated goal, and Limestone Branch was built to pursue it.

The brand returned to the family through a joint venture. In 2015 the Beams partnered with Luxco, the St. Louis spirits company, which took a 50 percent equity interest in Limestone Branch and transferred the Yellowstone brand into the venture to resume production. Luxco was acquired by MGP Ingredients effective April 1, 2021. As of July 2026, MGP Ingredients holds that joint-venture interest in Limestone Branch through the former Luxco portfolio, and Stephen Beam remains master distiller. On April 7, 2026, MGP announced it would temporarily idle distilling at Limestone Branch and its Lux Row Distillers effective May 1, 2026, citing elevated whiskey inventory, while warehousing, bottling, barrel programs, and the visitor center continue to operate.

The Whiskey

Yellowstone is distilled at Limestone Branch in Lebanon, and the distillery also produces Minor Case Straight Rye Whiskey, finished in cream sherry casks, and Bowling & Burch Gin. The Yellowstone line has grown into a family of expressions. The Sentinel Room carries five of them in its Reserve Whiskey Library: Yellowstone American Single Malt, a 100 percent malted barley whiskey aged four years and bottled at 108 proof, introduced in 2023; Yellowstone Select, the everyday Kentucky straight bourbon blending four- and seven-year stock at 93 proof; Yellowstone Hand Picked Single Barrel, the single-barrel offering; Yellowstone Special Finishes Toasted, the toasted-stave release that opened the Special Finishes Collection in 2023; and Yellowstone Special Finishes Rum Cask, a straight bourbon aged four years then finished for roughly nine weeks in casks that previously held molasses-based rum, bottled at 100 proof. The Special Finishes releases and the American Single Malt have drawn category recognition, including a Double Gold for Yellowstone Special Finishes Toasted at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Why It Matters

Limestone Branch sits at an unusual intersection of old and new. It is a small craft operation, yet it carries a brand with a documented 1872 origin and a distiller who can trace his family's work back through the Dant and Beam names. For a whiskey library, that combination is useful. The Yellowstone expressions span a range that lets a taster move from a classic bourbon profile in Select to the finished-cask departures of Toasted and Rum Cask, and then to a wholly different grain bill in the American Single Malt, all from the same house.

Visiting the Distillery

Limestone Branch offers scheduled tours and walk-in service at its Lebanon site, at 1280 Veterans Memorial Highway. The distillery is open Tuesday through Saturday, and the visitor center remains open under MGP even as distilling is temporarily idled as of July 2026.