Bradshaw Bourbon Cocktail Menu: Vegas, Pittsburgh, Texas Bars

LVMH's Moët Hennessy confirmed on August 10 that Beyoncé has acquired a controlling stake in SirDavis, the premium American whisky brand the two parties launched together in September 2024 (LVMH confirmation, August 10, 2026) [2].

SirDavis was developed in collaboration with Bill Lumsden, the whisky-creation director behind Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, and was inspired by the whiskey-making legacy of Beyoncé's paternal great-grandfather [2].

Terms of the deal — including the size of the stake and its financial value — were not disclosed [2].

The move shifts Beyoncé from co-founder and partner to controlling stakeholder in a brand that launched with one of the deepest-pocketed spirits conglomerates in the world backing it.

Celebrity spirits launches typically go the other direction — an independent founder sells a stake to a major conglomerate for distribution muscle, not the other way around.

A celebrity buying back control from LVMH specifically, at a moment when LVMH itself has been circling other American whiskey assets, is the kind of ownership move that raises real questions about how much creative and commercial control Beyoncé wanted that a joint-venture structure wasn't giving her.

A charity raffle benefiting the Hanger Foundation, which supports people with physical challenges, opened ticket sales for a 71-bottle prize pool headlined by three grand-prize verticals: a six-bottle Pappy Van Winkle set, a six-bottle Buffalo Trace Antique Collection set, and a six-bottle Weller "Rainbow" vertical (Hanger Foundation raffle announcement, bourbonraffles.org) [3].

Tickets run $100 each with no stated purchase limit, and 5,000 tickets are available total [3]. The full prize list beyond the three grand prizes includes additional Michter's, Blanton's, and Heaven Hill sets [3].

The drawing streams live on Give 270's YouTube channel on September 16 at 8 p.m. ET [3].

For bottles that routinely trade in four figures apiece on the secondary market, a $100 entry fee into a pool with 71 total prizes is a genuinely different math than trying to buy any single one of these bottles outright — and unlike most allocated-bottle access routes, this one doesn't require a distributor relationship, a store loyalty history, or a lottery win rate measured in fractions of a percent.

Bourbon & Beyond released its full music and culinary lineup for its September 24–27 run at the Kentucky Exposition Center, pairing a main-stage bill headlined by Foo Fighters, Mumford & Sons, Chris Stapleton, and Dave Matthews Band with a Fork & Flask culinary program built around bourbon pairings (Bourbon & Beyond lineup announcement) [4] [5].

The Fork & Flask stage features chefs including Sean Brock, Sara Bradley, Chris Santos, Amanda Freitag, and Mei Lin, paired with premium bourbon brands including Old Rip Van Winkle, Pappy Van Winkle, Angel's Envy, Woodford Reserve, Maker's Mark, Old Forester, Jefferson's, 1792, and Traveller Whiskey [4].

The Fork & Flask music slate separately includes Chris Stapleton, Derek Trucks, Lisa Loeb, and Nappy Roots [5].

Pairing a rock-and-country main stage with a chef-driven bourbon tasting program is Bourbon & Beyond's signature format, and putting Pappy Van Winkle and the Antique Collection lineup directly into a ticketed chef pairing is a rare chance to taste allocated bourbon in a curated food context rather than just neat at a bar.

One camp treats celebrity-branded whiskey as inherently suspect — a famous name attached to sourced juice, priced on recognition rather than what's in the bottle.

The other camp argues the format has matured past that criticism, pointing to brands that built real production infrastructure and used the celebrity attachment as a distribution shortcut rather than a substitute for quality, and noting that a menu tied to specific, verifiable career moments at least gives the branding some substance to argue about.

Bradshaw Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey launched a four-drink, five-venue cocktail program on August 14 across Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, and Texas, with drinks named for specific moments in Bradshaw's playing career, including the 1972 "Immaculate Reception" (Bradshaw Bourbon program launch, August 14, 2026) [6].

The same week, Beyoncé completed a buyout of LVMH's stake in SirDavis, a brand built with input from Glenmorangie and Ardbeg's whisky-creation director and marketed around a specific family whiskey-making lineage rather than the celebrity name alone (LVMH confirmation, August 10, 2026) [7].

Both camps are arguing past each other because "celebrity bourbon" isn't one category anymore. A five-venue cocktail menu built on nostalgia is marketing, full stop — nothing wrong with that, but it's not a production claim.

SirDavis's buyout, on the other hand, is a genuine ownership and craft-provenance story that happens to have a famous name attached.

The real filter for readers: does the brand's public story lean on production specifics (mash bill, distiller, provenance) or on the celebrity's biography alone. That's the tell, not the fame.

One camp calls the raffle the best access play going — a flat $100 entry fee against a 71-bottle pool that includes a six-bottle Pappy Van Winkle vertical, a six-bottle Buffalo Trace Antique Collection set, and a Weller "Rainbow" vertical is a fraction of what any single one of those bottles costs on the secondary market.

The skeptical camp points out that with 5,000 tickets available and no stated purchase limit, well-resourced buyers can simply buy blocks of tickets, pushing the real odds for a casual entrant lower than the headline math suggests.

The Hanger Foundation raffle, benefiting a charity supporting people with physical challenges, is selling $100 tickets against a 71-bottle prize pool headlined by three grand-prize verticals — Pappy Van Winkle, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, and Weller "Rainbow" — with 5,000 tickets available and no purchase cap, drawn live September 16 on Give 270's YouTube channel (Hanger Foundation raffle announcement, bourbonraffles.org) [10].

The uncapped ticket structure is the real fault line here, not the entry price.

A single $100 ticket against 5,000 total entries into 71 prizes is genuinely favorable compared to secondary-market cost-per-bottle math — but the no-limit rule means the effective odds for any one entrant depend entirely on how concentrated the buying gets, information the raffle organizers haven't published.

Buy a ticket for the charity and the shot; don't calculate it like a guaranteed discount.

One camp argues a chef-paired tasting is the single best way to actually experience an allocated bottle — trained palates building a menu specifically around what a bourbon like Pappy or Angel's Envy does with food, rather than sipping it cold at a bar.

The other camp says food pairings mute a whiskey's character as often as they enhance it, and that the premium price of a ticketed culinary session is really paying for festival access, not a superior tasting experience.

Bourbon & Beyond confirmed its full Fork & Flask lineup for its September 24–27 run at the Kentucky Exposition Center, pairing chefs including Sean Brock, Sara Bradley, Chris Santos, Amanda Freitag, and Mei Lin with bourbon brands including Old Rip Van Winkle, Pappy Van Winkle, Angel's Envy, Woodford Reserve, Maker's Mark, and 1792, alongside a separate Fork & Flask music slate featuring Chris Stapleton and Derek Trucks (Bourbon & Beyond lineup announcement) [12] [13].

Both sides undersell the actual value proposition. A ticketed chef pairing isn't really competing with drinking the bottle at home — it's competing with the near-impossibility of getting an allocated pour with any context at all outside a festival setting.

Whether the food elevates or mutes the whiskey is a legitimate palate argument, but the access itself is the product being sold, and on that basis the premium is defensible.

Retail/e-commerce allocation opens today, August 14, 2026, following an August 8 distillery-only event

The remaining 2,000 bottles of the 3,000-bottle 2026 Laguna Madre run — including a new 135.4-proof Cask Strength Single Barrel exclusive to the distillery — go live to the public today after the first 1,000 bottles sold at an August 8 distillery event (Garrison Brothers release notes, August 14, 2026) [14].

Distillery release September 12, 2026 (8 a.m.); e-commerce allocation opens September 18; nationwide retail begins October 1

Garrison Brothers confirmed the full release architecture for its 12th annual Cowboy Bourbon on August 12, splitting 16,000 total bottles between a 1,000-bottle distillery-gate release, a 279-bottle online allocation, and nationwide retail (Garrison Brothers announcement, August 12, 2026) [15].

Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Distillery, plus Florida, Georgia, New York, Texas retail; limited online via Seelbachs.com

Chattanooga Whiskey debuted its eighth Barrel Finishing Series bottle on August 13, blending five malt whiskeys and one bourbon aged more than four years, including over a year finishing in ice-wine casks sourced from a winery near Moldova's Black Sea coast (Chattanooga Whiskey release announcement, August 13, 2026) [16].

Redemption Whiskey unveiled its first bottled-in-bond bourbon this week, aged a minimum of six years — two years beyond the bottled-in-bond floor — as the debut release in a relaunched premium "Higher Marques" line (Redemption Whiskey announcement, August 2026) [17] [18].

A charity raffle benefiting the Hanger Foundation is offering 71 total bottles across its prize tiers, including a six-bottle Pappy Van Winkle vertical, a six-bottle Buffalo Trace Antique Collection set, and a six-bottle Weller "Rainbow" vertical, with 5,000 tickets available at $100 each (Hanger Foundation raffle announcement, August 2026) [19].

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved 123 spirits labels during the week of August 5–12, 2026, according to Whiskey Network's weekly COLA tracking (Whiskey Network, August 12, 2026) [23]. Three approvals stand out from the volume.

Redemption Whiskey confirmed the full label spec on Single Barrel Bonded Bourbon, the debut release in a relaunched premium "Higher Marques" line, distilled at Ross & Squibb Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana (Redemption Whiskey announcement, August 2026) [26] [27].

Breckenridge Distillery confirmed the label for a new peach-flavored whiskey made with locally sourced Palisade, Colorado peaches, bottled at 36% ABV (Breckenridge Distillery announcement, August 11, 2026) [22].

Chattanooga Whiskey debuted Moldovan Ice Wine Cask Finished on August 13 at its Experimental Distillery in Tennessee, the eighth release in its Barrel Finishing Series since the program launched in 2021 (Chattanooga Whiskey release announcement, August 13, 2026) [24].

Garrison Brothers Distillery locked the complete label and release spec for its 12th annual Cowboy Bourbon on August 12 (Garrison Brothers press release, August 12, 2026) [25].

($650 − $410) ÷ $650 × 100 = 36.9% erosion

Garrison Brothers' confirmed 12th annual Cowboy Bourbon release, with a clear three-stage access roadmap, gives collectors an easy replacement path for the 2026 vintage — that's likely accelerating the 2019 bottle's slide off its 2023 peak rather than propping it up.

LINEAGE_NOTE: Cowboy Bourbon has run annually since 2013, and the 2019 vintage predates Garrison Brothers' current three-tier release architecture; it was distillery-only at launch, aged in the same Hill Country heat-cycled rickhouses the brand still uses today, giving it a straightforward aging-cohort comparison against the newly announced 2026 batch.

($260 − $195) ÷ $260 × 100 = 25.0% erosion

Old Elk's nationwide 10-Year trio launch under Middle West Spirits ownership is expanding shelf-level access to the brand generally, and secondary buyers appear to be discounting the older Cask Strength Reserve batch as fresher, more available expressions land at retail.

LINEAGE_NOTE: Old Elk was founded in Fort Collins, Colorado before Middle West Spirits' May 2025 acquisition; the Cask Strength Reserve predates the acquisition and represents the last major batch bottled under the distillery's prior independent ownership.

($340 − $310) ÷ $340 × 100 = 8.8% price appreciation, not erosion — the bottle is trading above its prior tracked peak

Copper & Kings just opened nationwide direct-to-consumer shipping for the first time, putting the 147.6-proof Hazmat Apple Brandy in front of buyers who previously needed a distillery visit — that access shift appears to be pulling secondary demand up rather than down, an unusual move against the broader 2026 correction trend.

LINEAGE_NOTE: Hazmat Apple Brandy is one of Copper & Kings' distillery-exclusive high-proof American brandies, built from the Louisville house's pot-still tradition; it had never shipped outside Kentucky until the brand's August 11, 2026 nationwide DTC launch, making pre-launch secondary sales the only route collectors outside the state previously had.

Circle City Whiskey Co., an independent bottler based in Indianapolis, confirmed it is expanding its "50/50 Club" program into Wisconsin and Illinois, adding to its existing Indiana footprint, and reported more than 100% year-over-year growth for 2026 (Circle City Whiskey Co. expansion announcement, August 12, 2026) [29].

Beyoncé has acquired LVMH's Moët Hennessy stake in SirDavis Whisky, with the deal confirmed by LVMH on Monday, August 10, 2026 (LVMH confirmation, August 10, 2026) [28].

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved 123 spirits labels during the week of August 5-12, 2026, according to Whiskey Network's weekly COLA tracking (Whiskey Network tracking, week of August 5-12, 2026) [31].

Redemption Whiskey unveiled Single Barrel Bonded Bourbon, the debut release in a relaunched premium "Higher Marques" line, produced at Ross & Squibb Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana (Redemption Whiskey release announcement, August 12, 2026) [34] [35].

Garrison Brothers Distillery confirmed the complete release calendar for its 141-proof, cask-strength Cowboy Bourbon on August 12, setting a distillery-gate release for Saturday, September 12, in Hye, Texas (Garrison Brothers press release, August 12, 2026) [33].

The remaining 2,000 bottles of Garrison Brothers' 2026 Laguna Madre release, including a new 135.4-proof Cask Strength Single Barrel variant, became available through the distillery's e-commerce site and select retail accounts on Friday, August 14, following a distillery-only event on August 8 that sold the first 1,000 bottles (Garrison Brothers Laguna Madre release notes, August 14, 2026) [36].

Garrison Brothers' confirmed eight-year minimum age for its 2026 Cowboy Bourbon, detailed in the Rickhouse Report above, stands as one of the longest sustained cask-strength holds in Texas whiskey — a state where most producers release well under six years to avoid over-extraction from accelerated barrel cycling (Garrison Brothers press release, August 12, 2026) [33].

Redemption's Single Barrel Bonded Bourbon, distilled at Ross & Squibb Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, gives the state's contract-distilling backbone a rare premium-tier showcase under its own brand story rather than as an anonymous sourcing credit (Redemption Whiskey release announcement, August 12, 2026) [34] [35].

Texas and Indiana are pulling in opposite directions on the same lever — extended aging.

Garrison Brothers is stacking two simultaneous cask-strength, extended-hold releases to prove Texas heat-cycling can sustain eight years without falling apart, while Redemption is using Indiana's largest contract distillery to prove a sourced-whiskey brand can hold six years past the bottled-in-bond floor and still price under $50.

Both bets point the same direction: regional producers outside Kentucky are increasingly competing on demonstrated patience, not just proof or mash-bill novelty.