Early Times was founded in Shively, Kentucky in 1860 by Jack Beam, uncle of Jim. The distillery's core product was a bourbon up until 1983, when they decided to age the whisky in seasoned barrels instead of new charred oak, thus changing the label requirement to "Kentucky Whisky." Fun fact: Early Times owns it own cooperage, so they have full control over the quality of the barrels used to age their whisky. Though there is no age statement on the bottle, this is aged a minimum of 3 years.