Birthday Bourbon Lands Early, Before September 2 Release

This is The Cut Weekend. I'm Franklin. No rush today, so let's look down the road and set your week before it sets itself. Grab your coffee, and let's walk through what's actually coming.

There's one date with a clock on it, and it's tonight. If you're in Ohio, the OHLQ lottery for Weller Antique 107 closes at 11:59 tonight — free to enter, no purchase required, and that bottle's floor has held up better than most of the Special Reserve tier lately. If you haven't entered yet, that's a two-minute job you can do before bed.

Past tonight, the next thing on the calendar is Wild Turkey's Master's Keep Triumph. The pre-allocation window's open now through this coming Thursday, July 30, at 11:59 p.m., through Seelbach's online portal. It's a 17-year age statement at a real, confirmed national allocation ceiling — that's the kind of bottle worth getting on a list for rather than hoping to stumble into. If Master's Keep is on your radar at all, don't wait until Thursday afternoon to sign up.

There's also a slower-moving one worth knowing about. Old Forester's Birthday Bourbon has already started landing at retail — distributor shipments are arriving now, ahead of its traditional September 2nd release date. Last year's bottle was already trading sixty to eighty-five percent over MSRP on secondary within weeks, so if you want a shot at buying it the honest way, at retail, this is the week to start checking your usual shops rather than waiting for the calendar to catch up.

Now, here's the one I actually want to tell you about, because it's a good story and not just a good number. Old Forester's Birthday Bourbon started as a family tribute — George Garvin Brown's grandson began releasing it every year to mark his birthday, and it's stayed that way for decades, a single-barrel-selected batch bottled at a stated age, released once a year like clockwork. This year's carries an eleven-year age statement, and it's already got that dense dried fig, orange peel, long cinnamon finish people wait for. What makes this one worth watching isn't just the whiskey — it's that the bottles are showing up on shelves early this year, before the traditional release date even arrives. That's your window. Most years, by the time people hear about Birthday Bourbon, it's already gone. This year, for a stretch, you might actually beat the rush.

So here's your week, distilled down to two moves. One: if you're in Ohio, enter that Weller lottery before midnight tonight — it costs you nothing. Two: if Master's Keep Triumph is on your list, get your name on that Seelbach's pre-allocation before Thursday closes it out. And keep an eye on your usual shops for Old Forester Birthday Bourbon showing up early.

That's a lot of dates to hold in your head, and honestly, you shouldn't have to. Every drop you just heard about — the closing windows, the pre-allocations, the ones still ahead — lives in the allocation calendar inside The Perfect Pour. Let the app hold the dates and nudge you before a window closes, so you're not the guy who remembers the lottery existed the morning after it shut. It's available now at theperfectpourapp.com.

That's what's on deck. If The Cut Weekend earned a few minutes of your Sunday, do me one favor — follow the show wherever you're listening, so Saturday's edition finds you on its own. The full American Whiskey Industry Brief is free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com. I'm Franklin. Pour something you like, share it with somebody worth sharing it with — and remember, your unicorn is out there.