The Cut — May 30, 2026 — One Slot Left: The Last Four Roses Reunion Session

Reading the coach structure file before composing.

Tool: Read Path: `C:\Users\johns\My Drive\Chasing the Unicorn Podcast\The Distillery V2\Library\cut_script_coach_structure.md`

Let me check the Library directory.

Tool: List Directory Path: `C:\Users\johns\My Drive\Chasing the Unicorn Podcast\The Distillery V2\Library`

Tool: PowerShell “`powershell Get-ChildItem “C:\Users\johns\My Drive\Chasing the Unicorn Podcast\The Distillery V2\Library” “`

Tool: PowerShell Command: `Get-ChildItem “C:\Users\johns\My Drive\Chasing the Unicorn Podcast\The Distillery V2\Library”`

I’ll check what’s in the V2 Library directory. <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>Get-ChildItem “C:\Users\johns\My Drive\Chasing the Unicorn Podcast\The Distillery V2\Library” -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>Get-ChildItem “C:\Users\johns\My Drive\Chasing the Unicorn Podcast\The Distillery V2\” -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>Get-ChildItem “C:\Users\johns\My Drive\Chasing the Unicorn Podcast\” -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>Get-ChildItem “C:\Users\johns\My Drive\” -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Name</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>Get-PSDrive | Where-Object { $_.Provider -like “*FileSystem*” } | Select-Object Name, Root</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>Test-Path “C:\Users\johns\My Drive\Chasing the Unicorn Podcast\The Distillery V2″</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>Get-ChildItem “C:\Users\johns\” | Select-Object Name</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>Get-ChildItem “C:\Users\johns\Google Drive” -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Name</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>Get-ChildItem “C:\Users\johns\” | Where-Object { $_.Name -like “*Drive*” -or $_.Name -like “*Google*” } | Select-Object Name, FullName</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”PowerShell”> <parameter name=”command”>$env:USERPROFILE; Get-ChildItem $env:USERPROFILE | Select-Object Name</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”Bash”> <parameter name=”command”>ls /mnt/c/Users/johns/ 2>/dev/null | head -30</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”Bash”> <parameter name=”command”>ls “/mnt/c/Users/johns/My Drive/Chasing the Unicorn Podcast/The Distillery V2/Library/” 2>/dev/null || echo “not found”</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”Bash”> <parameter name=”command”>ls “/mnt/c/Users/johns/My Drive/Chasing the Unicorn Podcast/” 2>/dev/null || echo “not found”</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”Bash”> <parameter name=”command”>ls “/mnt/c/Users/johns/” 2>/dev/null | head -20</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”Bash”> <parameter name=”command”>find “/mnt/c/Users/johns/” -maxdepth 3 -name “cut_script_coach_structure*” 2>/dev/null | head -5</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”Bash”> <parameter name=”command”>find “/mnt/c/Users/johns/” -maxdepth 5 -name “*.md” 2>/dev/null | grep -i “coach” | head -5</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”Bash”> <parameter name=”command”>find “/mnt/c/Users/johns/” -maxdepth 5 -name “Library” -type d 2>/dev/null | head -5</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls> <function_calls> <invoke name=”Bash”> <parameter name=”command”>find “/mnt/c/Users/johns/” -maxdepth 6 -name “Distillery*” -type d 2>/dev/null | head -10</parameter> </invoke> </function_calls>

The V2 directory isn’t accessible via the Bash filesystem mount. The task instructions note that `Library/cut_script_coach_structure.md` should be read first, but based on yesterday’s script it also notes “The coach structure file isn’t in the V2 directory yet.” I have all required content inline: the voice profile, cut podcast structure, the cut summary, and yesterday’s script. Composing now from those sources.

Saturday theme is Events & Auctions. The anchor bottle/story is the Four Roses “Reunion” OBSV 2026 release event with Brent Elliott’s Sunday session. The Spotlight bottle for the Chase is Castle & Key Restoration Rye Spring 2026 BiB.

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The Cut — May 30, 2026 Episode: Saturday, May 30, 2026

This is The Cut.

One slot left. Two PM Sunday. Brent Elliott has been on the Four Roses production floor all weekend walking groups through the exact V-yeast maturation arc that sits behind his eleven-year hold decision. Sunday’s 2 PM session — $65, four comparative pours, the master distiller explaining each one — is the last open slot before the context for “Reunion” OBSV 2026 closes permanently.

I’m John from Chasing the Unicorn Podcast. Here’s what we’re going after today. May 30, 2026.

Here’s where we want to end up. Sunday’s 2 PM session at Four Roses in Lawrenceburg — sixty-five dollars, four pours, the decision that drove an eleven-year hold explained glass by glass. If that window closes, you still have the bottle at $99.99. But the session is the part that doesn’t come back.

Here’s what makes it tricky. Release-weekend events like this one don’t follow the secondary-market playbook. No lottery, no pre-allocation, no waitlist — just a ticket booking that filled from the outside in. Saturday gone. Sunday 10 AM gone. One slot remains, and it’s not going to appear in the usual hunting channels before it disappears.

Here’s the move. Go to the Four Roses website right now and book Sunday’s 2 PM session in Lawrenceburg. If it’s gone by the time you’re listening, walk in for the bottle at $99.99 at your nearest specialty account — “Reunion” OBSV 2026 is already at retail.

Brent Elliott named this release “Reunion” because of what happens to V-yeast character through an extended maturation arc. V yeast is one of Five Four Roses strains. It generates delicate fruit — light cherry, dried apricot, citrus peel — and it’s the most fragile of the five. It builds. It flattens. In the right barrels, it comes back. The conventional release window for OBSV is seven to nine years. Elliott held this one eleven years and three months. The sessions this weekend are built around showing you that decision in four glasses — OBSV at seven years, at nine years, and then “Reunion” at eleven plus. What a four-year hold past convention produces. In the glass, not in a tasting note.

Saturday is also the day Castle & Key opened their release-weekend event for something worth a separate trip to Frankfort. Let’s start there.

Castle & Key Restoration Rye Spring 2026 Bottled-in-Bond — under $80 tier, own-distilled rye, Frankfort, Kentucky. Rye spice forward: black pepper and fresh herb on the nose, cinnamon and grain mid-palate, dry finish with oak integration. Four years old, 100 proof, federally certified under DSP-KY-20020. The event runs today and tomorrow at the Glenn’s Creek campus — the restored grounds of the original Old Taylor Distillery, built 1887. No lottery, no reservation required. Two-bottle limit at $54.99 per bottle, and walk-in retail distribution follows in two to three weeks. The BiB credential is the same one the $18 bottles carry. The access event and the address are not. This is worth the chase.

New Riff Harvest Select 2026 Cask Strength at $79.99 to $94.99 — high-rye, Northern Kentucky provenance, pre-allocation window open now through a 40-account ceiling, no calendar close date. And Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Triumph 2026 at $249.99 — reserve lists are live, but hold the call until first reviews land before the June 15 ship. Full read on all three is in today’s Cut Daily on our website. Free.

A word of caution on event-window purchases. The urgency is real — Sunday’s session ends Sunday. But the bottle doesn’t. “Reunion” OBSV 2026 is at retail now, and Castle & Key’s walk-in distribution follows in a couple of weeks. The event access is the time-sensitive variable; the whiskey isn’t going anywhere. If you make the session, you earn the context. If you miss it, you still have the bottle. The price of being wrong on the session is missing an experience. The price of being wrong on the bottle is not what it is on a lottery release — there’s no secondary markup pressure here at this stage. Know which decision you’re actually making before the clock runs it for you.

Today’s full American Whiskey Industry Brief on Patreon has the complete Flight — Four Roses “Reunion” OBSV 2026 against Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Triumph 2026, full spec comparison, nose-to-finish tasting notes, and the editorial verdict on which bottle earns the chase at its MSRP for three distinct use cases. Also in today’s Brief — Unicorn Auctions closes 47 BTAC 2025 lots tonight at 10 PM CT, and the Hunt section has the pre-close lot tracking and the MSRP-to-secondary gap math on every BTAC expression in the session.

That’s The Cut. The full American Whiskey Industry Brief is at patreon.com/ChasingTheUnicornPodcast. I’m John Schuster. Thanks for joining me. Your unicorn is out there.