The Lost Bourbon: A Jurassic Tale of a Whiskey That Time Forgot

In the shadow of Kentucky’s rolling hills, two brothers with roots stretching deep into bourbon history set out to revive a whiskey long thought extinct. Armed with nothing but their family’s legacy and an empty jug tied to a tale of ingenuity, they embarked on a journey that defied time itself. Their quest took them from forgotten archives to cutting-edge labs, where the secret to recreating a lost recipe—a flavor that once ruled the shelves—lay hidden in the microscopic remnants of an ancient yeast.

What emerged was not just a whiskey, but a resurrection—a bourbon reborn through the fusion of science, heritage, and sheer determination. It’s the story of how a dream, nearly buried by time, was unearthed and poured into a bottle, reigniting a legacy once thought lost to history.

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Transcript

Welcome to Jurassic Park! 

(those are the famous words from the character of John Hammond in the movie Jurassic Park)

In 1990, Michael Crichton unleashed a vision few could imagine—a world where dinosaurs once again roamed the Earth. His novel transported readers back millions of years to the Jurassic era, painting scenes of primordial giants that many had only read about in textbooks. But for those unfamiliar with the book, Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster film of the same name turned Crichton’s words into a visual masterpiece. I don’t know if those of you listening were like me, but the first time I saw it in theaters, I was mesmerized. The towering brachiosaurs, the ravenous pack of Raptors, the thundering T. Rex—and other dinosaurs running wild across Isla Nublar felt so real it was hard to believe they weren’t. Even now, with modern special effects light-years ahead, Spielberg’s classic still pulls me back to that awe-filled moment I had of discovery.

Well today, I want to tell you a story that brings a similar sense of discovery and resurrection—but not in a world away, or a world that time forgot, but in the world of bourbon. It’s about a bourbon most have heard of but assume owes its fame to a popular TV show. Once upon a time, this bourbon wasn’t just popular—it was the bourbon. One out of every three bottles sold bore its name. It ruled the shelves. Then, like so many other legendary bourbons of the day, it disappeared.

Until now.

Two brothers, with a legendary name of their own, have brought this long-lost LEGEND back to life.

So in the spirit of the words by John Hammond, Welcome to my Jurassic Park story.

So whether you have a glass in hand and a cozy spot to relax as you listen or you are weaving this story into the rhythm of your busy day....Prepare for the whispers of another legend, straight from the heart of bourbon's past

Welcome to Bourbon: Legends from the Trail, where history meets flavor and every bottle has a story to tell.

Steve and Paul grew up in Lebanon, Kentucky, dreaming of success. While most kids in their small town followed the well-worn path into farming or jobs tied to the bourbon industry—whether it was down the road at the Maker’s Mark distillery just down the road or over at the Kentucky Cooperage, crafting barrels for the nation’s bourbon—Steve and Paul ...well, they had other ideas.

Steve grew up and pursued horticulture, graduating from Purdue University with a degree in landscape design. Paul’s ambitions steered him into the corporate world. Though their career paths diverged from the bourbon-soaked traditions of their hometown, the spirit of whiskey still lingered in their blood.

During college, Steve began exploring his family’s deep bourbon roots. He dreamed of one day working in the industry, but the bourbon world of the 1970s wasn’t the booming behemoth it is today. Craft distilleries didn’t exist, and the market was contracting rather than expanding. His passion was gonna have to wait.

Now we fast forward to 2008 and bourbon...well it was booming then. Steve attended the American Distilling Institute conference in Louisville and found himself surrounded by a new wave of craft distillers—entrepreneurs chasing dreams that had once seemed impossible. This was it. The moment Steve had been waiting for.

Steve teamed up with his brother Paul, and together they began turning their shared dream into a reality. They knew they wanted to honor their family’s legacy, but first, they needed to secure their distilling license and decide what kind of whiskey they would create.

Oh.....and this is where it gets interesting.

Their last name? Beam.

Yes, that Beam.

Bourbon Royalty

Steve and Paul Beam aren’t direct descendants of Jim Beam’s line, but they share blood ties to the legendary family through Jim Beam’s first cousin: Minor Case Beam. 

The Beam story begins with Jacob Beam (the patriarch), who immigrated from Germany and changed his surname from “Boehm” to blend in with his new American neighbors. In 1788, Jacob journeyed through the Cumberland Gap with his family and settled on a 100-acre tract of land in Nelson County, Kentucky—land that came from his wife’s family. Like many frontier distillers, he likely moved west to escape Alexander Hamilton’s whiskey tax. His neighbor, Basil Hayden, became an influential figure in Jacob’s distilling venture. Before long, Jacob’s whiskey had gained enough popularity for him to buy up the remaining seven parcels of his wife’s family’s land, giving him 800 acres to expand his operation.

Jacob’s son, David Beam, took over the distillery and passed it down to his son, David M. Beam. This generation marked a fork in the family tree: David M.’s brother, Joseph, was the father of Minor Case Beam.

Minor Case learned the whiskey trade under his uncle, Jack Beam, the founder of Early Times Distillery. After honing his craft, Minor Case struck out on his own, establishing the M.C. Beam Distilling Company in Gethsemane, Kentucky. His most famous whiskey? Old Trump, a powerhouse brand named after the family dog, and once competed directly with Old Tub bourbon, produced by his cousin Jim Beam. The only reason why you have heard of Jim Beam, but not Minor Case Beam, is that Minor Case passed away a little over 3 months after prohibition came to an end.

But the Beam legacy wasn’t the only bourbon dynasty shaping Steve and Paul’s heritage. On their mother’s side, they’re also descendants of another bourbon icon, J.W. Dant. Bourbon doesn’t just run in their veins—it floods both branches of their family tree. As a good friend of mine ,Stephen Fante and and the brand ambassador for Steve’s distillery puts it, Steve and Paul were not born, they were distilled.

J.W. Dant, that bourbon legend, built his empire in Dant’s Station, Kentucky. A farmer by trade, he grew his own grain, made his own yeast, and even ran his own cooperage. His whiskey, J.W. Dant Kentucky Straight Bourbon, became renowned for its quality. His first still? A hollowed-out poplar log—a frugal solution as instead of building a large still out of copper, he simply ran copper lines through the distillate.  This method, while different, was effective. His whiskey had a growing reputation and JW decided he would take it to New Orleans.  So he crafted a raft, made his way from the local creek, to the Salt River, on to the Ohio River and then the Mississippi, all the way down to New Orleans where he then sold it to the bourbon thirsty port city.  JW would then walk back to KY.  Can you imagine walking from New Orleans to a small town outside Bardstown, KY today.  Not many people would do it and JW would do it on a fairly regular basis.

J.W. Dant’s son, J. B. Dant (better known as Bernard), expanded the family business with a new operation called Cold Springs Distillery. An innovator, Bernard wanted to create his own signature bourbon, separate from what his father had been making and began experimenting with mashbills and proofs, perfecting a signature flavor that would come to define the Dant name for generations.

It was during this time that Charles Townsend, a salesman for D.H. Taylor and Co., a distributing firm that sold the Dant family’s bourbon, embarked on a journey out West. His destination? A place that had captured the nation’s imagination—a wild, untamed land filled with majestic scenery and abundant wildlife. Newspapers and magazines brimmed with tales of its breathtaking scenery, painting it as a natural wonder beyond compare. So extraordinary was this place that it earned the distinction of becoming the world’s first national park: Yellowstone.

When Townsend returned to Kentucky, his mind was brimming with inspiration. He proposed to Bernard Dant that they name the family’s bourbon after this magnificent park. Bernard, recognizing a brilliant marketing idea when he heard one, agreed wholeheartedly. And thus, Yellowstone Bourbon was born.

During Prohibition, while many distilleries shuttered their doors, Yellowstone found a lifeline. The brand continued to flow through the Brown-Forman Corporation, which held one of the coveted medicinal whiskey licenses. After the repeal of Prohibition, Yellowstone’s popularity only grew. Through acquisitions and closures, Yellowstone found its way to Glenmore Distilleries in 1944 and they decided to make it their flagship brand. Whether Bernard had created an unbelievable bourbon or he was a marketing genius—maybe  both—by the 1960s, Yellowstone Bourbon, now accounted for a staggering one in every three bottles of bourbon sold. It was even tagged with the moniker, America’s Great American Whiskey.

But like many great bourbons, Yellowstone’s reign eventually faded. As America’s taste for bourbon waned during the 70’s, the distillery closed its doors. The brand was passed from hand to hand until it eventually landed with the Don Sherman Company, later absorbed by Luxco. There the label sat, and waited.

When Steve and Paul Beam set out to build their own distillery, they faced two critical decisions: what to name the distillery and what bourbon they would produce.

The name came easily enough. They drew inspiration from the limestone-rich waters that flow through Kentucky, a natural resource that plays a crucial role in the state’s dominance over the bourbon world. More than 95% of the world’s bourbon is made in Kentucky, thanks to these mineral-rich waters. And so, Limestone Branch Distillery was born.

But what about the bourbon?

This is where the story takes on a life of its own.

The brothers wanted their whiskey to honor both sides of their remarkable heritage. From the Dant lineage, they dreamed of reviving the Yellowstone brand. Tracking down the rights to the label, however, was another matter. They discovered it was owned by Luxco. Determined to reclaim this piece of their family’s legacy, they entered into a partnership. Luxco retained ownership of the brand name, but Steve Beam would be the one responsible for crafting the bourbon inside the bottle.

For the bourbon itself, the brothers turned to their Beam ancestry. Minor Case Beam had been renowned for his Old Trump whiskey, and he had left behind meticulous records—so detailed that they knew his exact mashbill, the types of corn, rye, and barley he used, the proof of his distillate, the stills he operated, the storage methods, and even the specifications for his barrels.

There was just one problem.

The most critical ingredient in any bourbon’s flavor profile—the yeast—was gone. The yeast strain Minor Case used had died out long ago.

But Steve Beam had a hunch.

In Bardstown, Kentucky, the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History housed a relic from his family’s past: Minor Case’s yeast jug, also called a donor jug. This wasn’t just any jug. Minor Case had carried it everywhere, tied to his belt loop like a prized talisman. You see, distillers know that their yeast is the key to their flavor profile so they keep it very protected.  Though the jug was empty, To many, this would have marked the end of reproducing their great-grandfather’s bourbon, but Steve had an idea. His degree in horticulture gave him a unique advantage.

About 30 miles away in Danville, Kentucky, a company called Ferm Solutions specialized in yeast research. They maintained a vast catalog of over a thousand yeast strains, many used by breweries and distilleries worldwide. Steve brought Minor Case’s jug to their lab, where Ferm Solutions chemists carefully scraped its interior. Against all odds, they managed to extract the DNA from Minor Case’s yeast. Even more remarkably, they matched it with a 100% match to a living yeast strain preserved in their cryogenic freezer.

With the yeast revived, Steve and Paul Beam could now recreate the exact whiskey their great-grandfather had distilled. The legacy of Minor Case Beam lived again—bottled under the Yellowstone Select label, the very name inspired by Bernard Dant’s partnership with Charles Townsend so many years before.

And there you have it,  the Jurassic Park Story of bourbon—Yellowstone Select—a resurrection of a whiskey thought lost to time, brought back by science, family heritage, and sheer determination.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Steve Beam continued honoring his ancestors. He created a rye whiskey named after his great-grandfather: Minor Case Rye. And as a nod to his grandmothers, he crafted a gin created with 19 different botanicals and bearing their maiden names: Bowling & Birch. If you ever want to know what it is like to drink a flower, grab a beautiful bottle of Bowling & Birch.

From limestone waters to resurrected yeast, from forgotten labels to flourishing dreams, the Beam brothers have not just redefined their family’s bourbon legacy, they have revived a LEGEND.

Thanks for tuning into today's episode...I hope you enjoyed the journey. And if you haven't already, don't forget to hit that subscribe or follow button.

Cheers to the stories behind the spirit.....I am your host, writer, and producer.....Travis Hounshell.

If you enjoyed this week's episode, please help the show grow by sharing it with friends and leaving a rating or review on apple podcasts, spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And feel free to mention a story you would like to hear in the future.

1. Limestone Branch Distillery Website:
     https://limestonebranch.com/
2. Whiskey University: David Beam
     https://www.whiskeyuniv.com/david-beam
3. The Dant and Yellowstone History with Stephen Beam of Limestone Branch Distillery, Bourbon Pursuit-episode 281, Nov. 26, 2020
4. J.W. Dant: Family Tradition to Log Still Distillery, The ABV Network by Wes Hardin, May 28, 2020.
5. Resurrecting the Family Spirits by Eric Cox, July 20, 2019. Northern Express