Q&A with Hall of Fame master distiller, Jerry Dalton

Over two decades in the American whiskey industry, Jerry Dalton worked at Barton 1792 Distillery as its chief chemist, and James B. Beam Distillery, from which he retired as master distiller in 2007. In 2023, he was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.

His appointment at Barton came in 1987, when distillery employees never made headlines. Back then, the venerable distillery needed help refining and standardizing its some of its processes, and after running his own independent environmental lab for years, he was a good fit for the job.

When he moved to Beam in 1996, master distiller Booker Noe was retired from production but remained as its beloved brand ambassador. His son, Fred Noe, would soon become master distiller and adjust to the evolving life of a whiskey maker cum celebrity. Beam’s second distillery, the expansive Booker Noe Plant, located in Boston, Ky., needed a distillery manager, and Dalton was happy to assume the low-profile job.