The businessman behind several local pubs and the 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey sold the whiskey brand to Beam Inc., its founder says.

Kieran Folliard, the Twin Cities entrepreneur behind Kieran’s Irish Pub, The Liffey, The Local and Cooper pubs announced the deal Friday, Dec. 7.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Every drop of 2 Gingers you’ve tippled, shared or spilled into your coffee by accident has added up to this amazing opportunity,” the 2 Gingers Facebook page read.

Folliard will continue operating the 2 Gingers business from Northeast Minneapolis.

2 Gingers has sold nearly 20,000 cases 11 months into the brand’s launch, and whiskey sales will be expanded into Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, the Dakotas and Iowa, Folliard said.

Based in Deerfield, Ill., Beam Inc. generated $2.8 billion in sales in 2011, selling more than 34 million cases of liquor. Its best-known brands are Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark.

— Joseph Lindberg