Hanger Foundation Raffle: $100 Tickets, No Cap

This is The Cut Weekend. I'm Franklin. Sunday's for setting the week, so pour something easy and let's see what's coming. Not a loud week ahead, just a handful of dates worth circling before Monday gets busy.

Start with the one that actually has a clock on it. The Hanger Foundation's charity raffle draws live on September 16 — a hundred dollars a ticket, seventy-one allocated bottles in the pool, and no cap on how many tickets one person can buy. Hold onto that last detail, because it matters more than it sounds like it should.

Two other dates are worth knowing, and since we've already spent time on both this week, I'll keep them short. Hard Truth's Dark Roast Rye gets a couple of preview pours before its September release — August 21 in Nashville, Indiana, and August 28 in Indianapolis, if you're anywhere near either one. And Garrison Brothers' Cowboy Bourbon opens its distillery walk-up on September 12 in Hye, Texas, with the online round following on September 18 — you know where to find the rest of that if you need it.

Here's the one I want to sit with a minute — that Hanger Foundation raffle. Seventy-one bottles is not a normal prize pool. A full Pappy Van Winkle vertical, a Buffalo Trace Antique Collection set, and a Weller Rainbow set, all in the same drawing, for a hundred dollars a ticket. Five thousand tickets total, drawn live on September 16, money going to the foundation's cause.

Now the honest math, because I'd rather you hear it from me than get surprised. A Pappy vertical by itself has sold for eight to twelve thousand dollars at auction, so a hundred-dollar ticket against that kind of upside looks like a steal on paper. But there's no limit on how many tickets any one buyer can grab, which means somebody with deep pockets can quietly load up and bend the real odds for everybody else standing at the table. That doesn't make it a bad idea. It makes it a raffle, not a discount. Buy a ticket because you like your shot and you want to back the cause behind it. Don't buy five because you ran the numbers and think you found a guaranteed payout — that math isn't there. Enjoy the long shot for what it is.

So here's your week, distilled down to two moves. If that raffle appeals to you, get your ticket in before September 16. And if Hye, Texas or either of those Hard Truth preview stops are within driving distance, those are your other two windows.

Three dates, three different states — that's exactly what the allocation calendar inside The Perfect Pour is built for. It holds the dates for you and nudges you before a window closes, so you're not the one checking your phone the morning after wondering what you missed. 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.