402: Limestone Branch’s Steve Beam Details the 2026 Yellowstone 101 and a Sharper Focus on Core Bourbons

Steve Beam of Limestone Branch Distillery sat down with Bourbon Lens to taste the newly released 2026 Yellowstone 101, a limited edition blend of 14 and 8 year old Kentucky straight bourbon double finished in Ruby and Tawny port casks, and to outline how the distillery is streamlining its lineup for 2026 and beyond.

Beam said the distillery is narrowing its focus after a period of introducing many new products. “We wanna focus on our core products, the trusted products, the ones that the consumers are really showing us that they’re embracing,” he said. Some items, he added, “may become a distillery exclusive, or very limited releases.”

The brand’s heritage remains central to that strategy. “It’s a hundred and fifty four years of continuously being on the market. We never went away. We were always sold even during prohibition,” Beam said. “I just wanna make sure that I leave the brand in better condition than I found it.”

That heritage also shaped the hand-painted Recollection Series, a bottle recreated from a late-1800s barback bottle that Beam first spotted in an eBay photo sent by a friend. “As soon as I got that bottle, I was like, we need to recreate that,” he said. The eight-year-old release will now become a regular offering.

On the 2026 Yellowstone 101, Beam described a hands-on process. He works with barrel brokers to find available stock, then buys the finishing wines and ports at a liquor store to see which pair well with the bourbon. “The notes either work or they don’t,” he said. He blends in graduated cylinders before committing barrels, and the full process typically takes 18 months to two years from idea to bottle, with finishing lasting no more than about three months. For this release, the bourbons were blended first, finished separately in Tawny and Ruby port, then blended back together.

Beam said his approach is intentionally straightforward. “I go blind, and I always tell people I make bourbon that I like to drink. And I hope other people like it as well,” he said. “I like to showcase the bourbon, add a few notes that are not maybe traditional.”

Bourbon Lens host Jake Lewellen highlighted the balance and value of the release. “There’s not many fourteen, eight year old blends that you’re getting for a hundred bucks,” he said. Lewellen’s tasting notes included cocoa nibs, stewed berries, charred oak, and corn sweetness on the nose, caramelized sugars and dark fig on the palate, and a finish he described as peanut butter and jelly.

Looking ahead, Beam said he hopes consumers will return to the brand. “I hope people kinda come home, revisit. We are really focusing on the quality of our products and really trying to narrow the scope a little bit.”

The full conversation is available now on Bourbon Lens across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and bourbonlens.com.

About Limestone Branch Distillery

Limestone Branch Distillery, based in Lebanon, Kentucky, produces Yellowstone Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Minor Case Rye, and other whiskeys, carrying forward a brand with roots in the Beam family’s bourbon-making history.