After a new tax increase hurt liquor sales in Kentucky, those in the bourbon industry are trying something a bit different.

The world's number one producer of bourbon, Jim Beam, is coming out with a new flavor. Red Stag Black Cherry Bourbon hit Kentucky stores this week, and Fred Noe, the company's traveling brand ambassador who also happens to be the great grandson of Jim Beam, tells 27 NEWSFIRST, "It's probably gonna open up the door to people who don't like bourbon or have never experienced bourbon. Infusing the product with a natural black cherry flavor softens it up some and gives it a nice flavor on the back of the palate."

But don't get the idea that there's a hidden lab in the company's Clermont, Kentucky, plant with a bunch of mad scientists constantly experimenting with new flavors. Jim Beam is not a company known for change. In fact Red Stag is the first major addition to its product line in over a decade. Fred Noe says, "This is our first experiment with his infusion process, and we'll see what the future brings, but we certainly don't have any mad scientists running around here. This is just a spin-off of the world's number one bourbon, and there's not going to be hundreds of flavors of bourbon."

Fred is not the least bit worried about incurring the wrath of his ancestors by tinkering with the original. He says, "We wanted to try to do something a little bit different, maybe go in a slightly different direction, but Red Stag is made with straight Kentucky bourbon whiskey that's been aged for four years and naturally infused with black cherry flavor. I'm sure the founders of the company would say as long as we keep making the standard bourbon, anything we want to do in the future will be all right."