The ambassador from Beam country
Fred Noe’s lifelong devotion to community, craftsmanship and storytelling earns him the co-ops’ highest honor
After thousands of interviews, speeches, presentations and public appearances, Fred Noe, seventh generation master distiller at James B. Beam Distilling Company, is seldom at a loss for words.
But when Kentucky Electric Cooperatives President and CEO Chris Perry encouraged Fred to say a few words after receiving the Distinguished Rural Kentuckian award at the co-op’s annual meeting banquet last August, Fred had to take a moment to collect himself.
Placing the engraved silver platter on a table near the lectern, he pulled off his glasses to “clean my eyes out” after watching a video tribute and said, “I’ll try.”
Distinguished Rural Kentuckian is the highest honor bestowed by the commonwealth’s electric co-ops, recognizing outstanding individuals who have devoted their lives to Kentucky in a way that matches the co-op mission of enhancing the quality of life here.
Leaders at Salt River Electric, the cooperative that serves the landmark Jim Beam property in Clermont, about 30 miles south of Louisville, nominated Fred citing his lifetime of contributions to Kentucky economic development and tourism.
“Fred was hosting travelers, travel writers and bourbon afficionados 30 years ago, before that was really a big thing in the bourbon industry,” says Nicky Rapier, a longtime friend and economic development leader at Salt River Electric. “He’s just always been genuine and very nice.”
As a global ambassador for Jim Beam brands, Fred tells his family’s distilling story dating back to Jacob Beam settling in Nelson County in 1788, James B. Beam rebuilding the Clermont distillery after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, and the pioneering products and visitor experiences up to the present day.
“I think Fred Noe is one of the biggest ambassadors for Kentucky overall. Not just from a bourbon standpoint, not just from a tourism standpoint,” says Kentucky Tourism Commissioner Mike Mangeot.
Fred is the 41st Distinguished Rural Kentuckian. Since 1982, the association has honored recipients from the arts, politics, journalism, business, education, religion, athletics and agriculture. Previous business leaders who have received the award include Smith D. Broadbent (1987), W.T. Young (2001), Jim Host (2004) and Ervin Houchens (2010).
Eight generations have led the James B. Beam Distilling Company. Photo: Wade Harris
Humble beginning
“As Jim Beam’s great-grandson, my dad taught me the business from the ground up—it wasn’t handed to me,” Fred says. “A big part of that was learning how to connect with the community, get involved and share the stories behind our bourbons, which are all about community and family.”
When Fred graduated from a Tennessee military academy in 1975, the bourbon industry faced an uncertain future.
“Dad said, ‘You’re going to have to go to college because this deal might not be here,’” Fred recalls. “Bourbon was on the decline in the ’70s.”
During Fred’s college years, his father, legendary Master Distiller Booker Noe, asked him to come home and help care for his beloved Great Aunt Mimi—who had doted on Fred throughout his childhood. Fred moved in, did her chores, drove her around town, heard stories about her father—Jim Beam—listened to her advice, and was holding her hand when she died in 1983.
Fred worked six nights a week while completing his business administration degree from Bellarmine College, then hit the road as a “jack of all trades” with Hank Willams Jr. and his band.
A job offer to become road manager for the band prompted Fred to call his dad, who encouraged him to return home and consider a future at the distillery. It didn’t take long for Fred to choose his family’s legacy. His first job was on the night shift bottling line where Fred made friends “once the employees figured out I wasn’t a spy.”
“I learned from the folks that had been here for decades before me,” Fred says. “And they learned that I was just here to get the job done like they were.”
“I think that’s what makes him grounded,” says DeeAnn Hogan, ground and facilities manager at the Clermont plant. “He appreciates everything. Nothing was handed to him. And the employees respect him for that.”
Meanwhile, Fred was also learning the distilling craft from his father. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Booker Noe developed the small batch bourbons that would revolutionize and reinvigorate the industry.
“And that was when bourbon kind of got its … I guess you’d say, renaissance,” Fred says.
Despite that progress, by 1999 the overall production of Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries was at its lowest point since prohibition.
Freddie Noe, left, and Fred Noe stand beside a statue of Booker Noe. Photo: Wade Harris
Global ambassador
Booker’s health was declining, and his barnstorming promotional tours slowed. The spotlight shifted to Fred.
“This was one of the most critical times in the history of Kentucky bourbon,” emphasizes Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers Association.
“I hadn’t been much out of Kentucky and Tennessee my entire life except for a few family vacations,” Fred says. “You start getting on planes and flying around the world and all of a sudden you’re landing in places like Russia and Australia, and you’re there to talk about the products, which was a great experience for me.”
Gregory says Fred “becomes one of the most significant and beloved bourbon ambassadors this state has ever seen,” at every stop, inviting bourbon fans to Kentucky.
“We get up in front of crowds and just tell the stories of Kentucky, growing up here,” Fred says. “We were just being ourselves.”
“It’s authentic,” says Mangeot, also a former executive director of the Bardstown Nelson County Tourism Commission. “That’s what people look for.”
“We couldn’t ask for a better representative from Kentucky than Fred,” says former Governor Steve Beshear. “That’s the picture we want people to have of us.”
Kentucky Electric Cooperatives President and CEO Chris Perry presents Fred Noe with the Distinguished Rural Kentuckian award. Photo: Tim Webb
Boosting Kentucky
Fred credits Beshear with helping boost bourbon tourism by changing state laws to allow distillery tastings.
“He said we can use these distilleries and do the same thing in Kentucky that they’ve done with Napa Valley in California,” Fred recalls.
In 2000, Kentucky counted bourbon tourists in the tens of thousands. By 2019, bourbon tourism surpassed two million annual visitors.
“Fred Noe was a big part of that from the very beginning,” Beshear says. “He’s a celebrity now, but he’s never lost that down home touch.”
Economic development leader Kim Huston calls him her “secret weapon.” When traveling to recruit companies, she says, “I bring Fred Noe with me and it’s always standing room only.”
“He was born and raised in the industry and has just devoted a lifetime in it,” says Bardstown Mayor Dick Heaton. “And that has really helped define bourbon here in Bardstown and Nelson County and helped put us on the map.”
“It’s just like the slogan for Jim Beam,” says longtime colleague Linda Hayes. “‘You come as friends, you leave as family.’ You meet Fred, you’re automatically friends. He’s just a good person at heart.”
At the end of a long interview on the porch of the historic Baker Beam home in Clermont, Fred tilts back in a rocking chair.
“You don’t realize how beautiful this state is till you come back when you’ve been gone for a while, when you’ve been in another part of the world or another part of the United States. The friendliness of the folks who live here, I mean everybody will help you out. We are one big community here. It’s kind of rural, and especially right in here if you need something, everybody steps up.”
