Knob Creek is a small-batch brand of bourbon whiskey that was created by Jim Beam master distiller Booker Noe to embody the look, feel and taste of pre-prohibition bourbon. When prohibition was lifted in 1933, the sudden demand for bourbon presented a dilemma for whiskey-makers as they had to contend with the difficulty of starting distillations from scratch while emerging in a new, competitive market. In the midst of a industry-wide rush to sell, barrels that had hardly been aged were utilised and quality was often the casualty. A desire to recreate a style and standard of bourbon that existed prior to this state of affairs was the motivation for Noe to establish Knob Creek as a brand.
Named after Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home in Kentucky, Knob Creek is produced by Beam Suntory at the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. The primary expression of the brand is its Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, which was initially aged for nine years, but is now sold with no age statement. In 2012, the brand released a rye edition of Knob Creek.