Jim Beam, Fortune's biggest spirits brand (others include Maker's Mark and Old Crow), would allow Diageo to compete more effectively with Brown-Forman, the owner of Jack Daniels, in the lucrative market for bourbon, an American style of whisky.

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Two years ago Labrot and Graham's Woodford Reserve was introduced, costing more than Maker's Mark and most other premium brands.

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The majority of Kentucky's 120 counties are still dry or partially dry, despite the state being home to some of the world's best-known liquor brands, such as Jim Beam and Maker's Mark bourbon.

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That famous red B looked as if it was made out of hand-dipped Maker's Mark wax.

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Inspired by a family remedy, this frozen dessert contains cayenne pepper, ginger, Maker's Mark bourbon, honey and other herbal ingredients aimed at treating those aches and pains of sickness.

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The guides, like those at Maker's Mark, stress the use of traditional methods: the slow fermentation of sour mash in vats made of cypress, the distillation in copper-pot stills (Labrot and Graham use three instead of the usual two), the regular sampling of barrels by discriminating imbibers with decades of experience, to achieve just the right taste.

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This technology will be available soon, making its grand entrance as a National Football League field in the U.S. Mark Nicholls, the founder and chief executive of Sportexe, the number two maker of artificial turf in the NFL, has patented the process of "tufting" fiber optics with blades of plastic grass.

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