Old Elk Released Three Bourbons in One Day to Prove a Point

Same age, same price, three different bourbons. Old Elk just released a straight bourbon, a wheated bourbon, and a straight wheat whiskey — all 10 years old, all $69.99, all on shelves today. One label just handed you the cleanest grain-recipe lesson in bourbon, no guesswork required. But that's not even the biggest thing that happened this week.

I'm John from Chasing the Unicorn Podcast. Here's what moved today. August 3, 2026.

Today's Big Move is that Old Elk release, and it's worth slowing down on. Old Elk, out of Colorado, is under new ownership — Ohio's Middle West Spirits took over last year — and this is their first big statement since the deal closed. Three 10-year whiskeys, same day, same $69.99 price tag. What changes between bottles is only the grain recipe. The straight bourbon leans on corn, malted barley, and rye. Swap the rye for wheat and you get the wheated version — softer, rounder. Push the wheat all the way to 96 percent and you get a whiskey that's barely bourbon by grain makeup at all.

Here's why that's a bigger deal than it sounds. Normally, comparing mash bills means hunting down two different distilleries, hoping the age statements are close enough to be fair, and guessing at how much of the difference is really the grain versus just a different barrel program. Old Elk removed every other variable. Same distillery, same barrels, same day off the line. The only thing left standing is the choice that actually matters — what went into the still. Buy the straight and the wheated together for $140 and you've got the cleanest side-by-side test on the market right now.

Now — today's Rickhouse. It isn't just a bottle release moving the needle this week. The distribution side of this business just took its biggest hit in years, and it happened almost quietly.

Republic National Distributing Company — one of the two largest wholesalers moving whiskey through the three-tier system — filed for Chapter 11 on July 26th. Not a restructuring. A wind-down. They're listing between one billion and ten billion dollars in liabilities against more than a hundred thousand creditors. That's the kind of number that sounds abstract until you remember RNDC sits in the middle, between the distillery and the store you actually shop at.

Here's the twist, though — and it tells you this wasn't sudden. Before the filing ever went public, RNDC carved out its biggest, most contested territories. Georgia, New Mexico, and joint ventures across six more states, including Kentucky, are excluded entirely. Only their Alaska operation is actually inside the bankruptcy. That's not a company caught off guard. That's a company that spent months quietly protecting the pieces it cared about most before letting the rest go.

And RNDC isn't the only signal this week. MGP — the Indiana company that distills a huge share of the whiskey sold under other people's labels — reported earnings the same week. Their bulk-whiskey business, the one that built the company, fell 42 percent. Meanwhile Penelope, one brand inside their portfolio, grew 13 percent on top of a 92 percent surge last year. So you've got the historic core of the business shrinking hard, propped up by one growing label that didn't exist as a major player five years ago.

Put those two stories next to each other and you get the same pressure from opposite ends of the pipeline. The wholesaler moving too much inventory through too many contracts is buckling. The supplier making the bulk whiskey for everyone else is watching demand for that bulk whiskey collapse. And right in the middle of that same week, a new bulk-barrel exchange called Chevalier Casks launched out of Kentucky — basically an online marketplace built specifically so distilleries can move surplus barrels off their books. Nobody builds that kind of infrastructure unless they expect a lot of barrels are about to need somewhere to go.

My read — this is the supply glut finally showing its bones in public. It's not just distilleries quietly trimming production anymore. It's a wholesaler collapsing and a formal exchange popping up to handle the overflow, both in the same 72 hours.

Now — today's First Sip. So here's what it is. The mash bill is the recipe of grains that goes into the still before distillation ever starts. Every bourbon needs at least 51 percent corn — the rest is where a distillery makes its choice. Rye brings spice, black pepper, a sharper finish. Wheat softens things out, rounder, easier to sip without water. A little malted barley usually rounds the whole thing out with a biscuit note underneath.

Old Elk's release is the clearest classroom example on a shelf this year, because it strips away the noise that normally makes this comparison hard. Same distillery, same age, same price — the grain is the only variable left. What this changes — next time you're standing in front of two bottles wondering why one tastes rounder and one tastes spicier, you'll know exactly where to look. If you're using the Perfect Pour app, log a pour from each Old Elk bottle in your Logbook and watch your Pour Print separate the corn, rye, and wheat notes side by side — it's available now at theperfectpourapp.com.

One to grab this week — today's the last day to enter Ohio's State Fair bottle lottery for a shot at Buffalo Trace's Stagg Single Barrel. It's free to enter at the Ohio Department of Commerce booth at the fairgrounds in Columbus, winners get announced August 8th, and pickup is available at any OHLQ location — no single-site hassle. Stagg Single Barrel routinely trades well above retail once it hits secondary channels, so a free lottery shot at standard state pricing is about as low-risk a chase as you'll find all month. If you're anywhere near Columbus today, it costs you nothing to enter.

So here's the takeaway. The industry's telling you two things at once this week, and they're not in conflict. A distributor collapsing and a bulk exchange launching means the supply side is still working through excess. But a distillery handing you three bottles built around one clean grain lesson means the shelf itself is still worth your attention and your curiosity. The plumbing behind bourbon is getting messier. What actually lands in your glass doesn't have to be.

That's The Cut. The full American Whiskey Industry Brief is free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com. I'm John Schuster. Thanks for joining me. Your unicorn is out there.