Our American Whiskey's Forecast For 2026, Bourbons Next Chapter

We map how the American whiskey market cools from a frenzy to a focused, data-driven industry and why that’s a win for drinkers. More barrels, smarter releases, and price corrections point to a year of better access and stronger value.

• bourbon boom meeting reality in 2026
• production ramps, tech upgrades, and inventory management
• allocations easing and core labels returning to shelves
• drink less, drink better mindset shaping demand
• price fatigue, SRP resets, and secondary dynamics
• aging strategies, finishes, and blending creativity
• exports, tariffs, and domestic shelf competition
• what smart forecasting means for future releases
• why availability and value improve for drinkers

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Want to know if the bourbon boom is ending or just evolving? We dig into the 2026 American whiskey outlook with straight talk on supply, demand, and what really determines whether a bottle sits on the shelf or vanishes on drop day. After years of aggressive expansion, major distilleries are moving from growth-at-all-costs to smart inventory management, strategic pauses, and tech-driven consistency. That shift, paired with a more selective “drink less, drink better” audience, is reshaping pricing, releases, and how brands earn trust beyond the hype.

We break down the big forces at work: millions of barrels finally maturing into wider availability, the return of core labels to shelves, and why allocations feel different when production catches up. Expect more thoughtful age-stated expressions, creative finishes that add depth rather than noise, and fewer shortcuts as producers compete on substance. We also unpack tariffs and exports, the tug-of-war between on-premise and retail, and the real metrics distillers use—velocity, demographics, and inflation—to plan what you’ll be able to buy two, five, and ten years from now.

For drinkers, the news is encouraging. Less artificial scarcity, more stable pricing on everyday winners, and a richer lineup of older and better-crafted releases mean you can skip the frenzy and focus on flavor. Whether you chase unicorns or value sleepers, the next chapter favors curiosity, patience, and honest drinking. If you’re ready for a clear-eyed look at where bourbon goes next—and how to make the most of it—pour a glass and join us. If this breakdown helped, follow the show, leave a five-star review, and share it with a friend who still thinks the hunt is the only game in town.

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Middlewest Spirits was founded in 2008, focusing on elevating the distinct flavors of the Ohio River Valley. Their spirits honor their roots and reflect their originality as makers, their integrity as producers, and their passion for crafting spirits from grain to glass. Their Michelin reserve line reflects their story from the start to the bottle to your glass, with unique wheated and rye bourbons, and also rye and wheat whiskies, the Michelon brand is easy to sip. It might be a grain to glass experience, but I like to think of it as uncut and unfiltered from their family to yours. Straight into the heart of Kentucky bourbon culture. Let's get started. Tiny here tonight with you, and I'm here again for to go along with the podcast. It's just me tonight, me and my assistant Meta. Uh one of the cool things, can't wait to get this one going. It's I have been having a lot of fun using and utilizing the technology that is advancing today. And as we go into 2026, I hope I am I completely improve the quality of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys. Now, tonight I'm by myself. This one I didn't would have preferred not to be by myself, but Supernash is under the weather. He's kind of having to work through something, and he's not only working, but then it's just kicking his butt. So get well soon, Mr. Supernash. I kind of miss you. Pull out the big guns. All right. So we are talking about Macaulay Minton joining us on the podcast tonight. And that is one thing. That's thanks to you. Welcome, Macaulay. You need to be on our podcast coming up for sure, 100%. We need to set a date, get you on, because you're killing it with dark arts, and the whiskey that you're producing is fantastic. And you are taking on the industry at you know on a level so that you can make yourself pretty successful. Did I see somewhere you're pulling? Oh my god, that would be crazy, but that's like you know, super. But just to keep going forward tonight, we're gonna be having a podcast on the outlook of 2026. I'm just like so excited by what everything as far as running a podcast and everything that you can do in 2026, and this podcast tonight, I have way more information than I normally do. Normally I form an opinion based off of experience and talking to people within the industry, but my scope is nowhere near the scope that you're you can do now using AI searching and what's happening on the internet. So I just definitely uh am going to be going, I gotta outline everything. There's a lot of stuff. Uh you know, I'm super, super excited about what's gonna happen in 2026. I can't tell you, we'll go through this and we'll go for it. But in the meantime, check out check us out on www.scotchyburbonboys.com. For all things scotchy bourbon boys, we got Glens, we got t shirts, and we also got bourbon balls. So, you know, you buy a you you hit that website right now, buy some bourbon balls. I'm gonna get an email, we're gonna ship it to you. It's perfect time. You could ship bourbon balls in the winter, you don't gotta worry about them melting. So check out the the website, and then also make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, and TikTok, along with Patreon. Check us out on our Patreon, that's a pretty cool program. And then also make sure that uh listen to us on Apple, iHeart, Spotify, and anywhere else that podcasts are broadcast. We're there. But whether you like if whether you watch us or you listen to us, make sure that you leave us really good feedback. Go and leave us a five-star review, write a review. I would really appreciate that, especially in 2026. Get our rating further and further up. It's we get the better we're rated, the higher that people look at us and more uh ability in social media. And then also, you know, make sure that you subscribe, become members. That's another thing. Just make sure, try and become a member and support us. And then if you're on YouTube tonight, I still haven't had a super chat yet. So if you guys can do a super chat, that would be kind of cool to get my first ever super chat. A lot of people do this and they don't get, you know, you don't get the super chats, but you know, check that out. But you know, Facebook, YouTube, everything, you know, right there. Cheers. We're ready to get this party rock and roll started. I am excited about tonight's podcast. Not drinking anything specific. I basically went with uh Buffalo Trace Old Fashion, put a cube, drop a couple cherries in, and I'm right there. The the one of the better old-fashioned mixes that I've had. It's available on stores all across the country, but you can also get bottles at the distillery. That's usually where I pick up mine at any time. So that's what I'm sipping on tonight in my my favorite uh glass given to me by Super NAS. Basically congratulating on me becoming his brother. So I've got that in there. So what are y'in on? I I know there's a lot of a lot of you out there, but let me know what you're sipping on. Also, you know, on so we've got people on YouTube saying hi. We got Steve Dead. Oh no, okay. Oh, thanks. Uh, that was a cool one. Yeah, I just love I love YouTube. YouTube is just so viciously honest. That's what I would say. Viciously honest. So, anyways, so let's get to what what what the whole podcast is about. We're talking about, I would have loved to have Super Nash on so we can have a conversation about this, but if you want to chime in on the anybody on, you know, just anybody on the Facebook or the YouTube, if you have an opinion, let me know. That just made no sense, and I will definitely try and answer what's going on, okay? There's it's just so funny. Anyways, so we are talking about the outlook of America, American whiskey industry for 2026. And we might do a podcast on international whiskey, but just to start off, for the last decade, bourbon felt unstoppable, right? New distilleries popping up, allocated bottles disappearing in minutes, and warehouses filling faster than ever. But as we head into 2026, the American whiskey industry finds itself at a turning point. Is this a slowdown, a correction, or just the next phase of the bourbon? Boom. That's what it is. It's just basically overall, this is in my, you know, my opinion, the boom meeting reality. Okay. So as this little quote that came off, let's start with the elephant in the Rick House. Over the 10 past 10, 15 years, bourbon demand surged, distilleries expanded aggressively, production was ramped up based on future demand projections. And I would say in 2025, you know, what's happened was that a lot of the projections as we were going forward, you know, as we were going forward in 2025, what started to happen is that the bourbon boom, it started to come out of the bourbon boom, and it's still a bourbon, positive bourbon whiskey, American whiskey, American distillery marketplace. There's no doubt it's positive. But it really came down to for a while there, you basically could start a brand out of nothing. You could just buy a couple barrels, throw a brand up, and you basically would sell the whiskey. You have to know what you're doing to sell the whiskey. And one of the things is in this boom also was that even the base Jim Beams, Jack Daniels, you know, this American whiskey that's being made, that in itself was experiencing a market upturn of everyday rail, you know, maker's mark, what you buy at the bars, whiskey and bourbon became popular at the bars because of the fact that people were going off and searching for the bottles, but then when they went out, they would just drink the brands. I believe that in 2025, that kind of plateaued. People weren't just drinking, no longer jacked any of the base bourbons when they were at a bar. They might get a higher end pour and started to, you know, maybe going to cocktails or doing different things. There's, you know, you kind of the one thing that you do is when you're with whiskey, is as you keep going forward. I mean, initially, when you start, you get your first, you get your first EH tailor, and it took a while, five years to get it, and then all of a sudden you've got six or seven EH tailors, and EH tailor isn't as sought after. You don't need that because you become a more mature whiskey drinker, and then you start to get some of the other. So as the the evolution of the bourbon drinker is still going forward, and we'll talk about that as we go. The industry is sitting on a record level of aging inventory. Kentucky alone has well over 16 million barrels. Now, there was a shortage of whiskey as far as allocated whiskey. Let's just take Buffalo Trace, for instance. You couldn't just it some of the bottles that were now. People talk about Pappy B, I'm not talking about when Pappy was on the shelf or whatever. I'm just talking like 2019 when Weller Green still was on the shelf and just starting, but then uh after a while it was disappearing as allocated. There was so many people searching for this and wanting this that they couldn't keep it on the shelf. So the people that were getting it were the people that were getting their drop day and buying it all up on drop day, either then turning around and selling it secondary or you know, letting it go. And people, whatever, you know, there's a lot of people in bourbon lines and everything. But what's been happening starting in 2025 is that this stuff this whole thing started in like 2012 and they started to ramp up production. Well, now it's 2025, so the production ramp ups are starting to hit the shelves. So it's not that you can't that that there's less that all of a sudden it's on the shelf. You see Weller Special Reserve on the shelf and Weller Red hanging around a little bit longer, and you can get it if you don't go in line. But what it's really coming down to is that they're making enough. So one of the great things is everybody's always been saying is like, well, I miss the days when I can just walk into the store and just make enough. Well, they basically have been making enough, and you're starting to see that now that there's no that some of the brands that we've always gone after and whatever, there's no shortages of that. And so because they were making, and and that this is based off of let's just say six, seven years. So if we're going six, seven years back, we're talking, it's 2026, we're talking 2018 production for this year, and it was 2017 production. They've been ramping up major production even into the 23 and 24. And so we still are gonna see a lot more bourbon. I mean, Buffalo Trace has doubled their main still. Now they got a lot of other stills there, but they've doubled it. They built the rickhouses to be able to handle it, and they're trying to match through temperature control and technology the you know, seven rick houses that match the Blanton's Rick House, you know, the tin on the angle, controlling, taking measurements of what it is in the main warehouse and then matching them in the other ones. So there's a lot of technology going on, but they're gonna be they doubled their production. So when you're gonna double production, I mean, just by your first they were upping and ramping up the still, got it to max production, and now they've doubled that. So when you're able to do that, that's gonna bring stuff to us. Now, is that a good thing for the whiskey industry? Because honestly, I'm from the generation Macaulay is not, but I'm from the generation where I want what I can't have. I mean, it's just that simple. So if we start being able to have it, are we gonna want it? Is the question. And that is a question that I mean Buffalo Trace has been trying to figure out for a while here because if you look at they put out the Traveler, and in my opinion, the Traveler whiskey was decent whiskey. But because they put out so much of it, and it was Chris Stapleton associated, and then it was on, people didn't people ripped on it. I mean, they're like, that's a in our blind of Taylor, Buffalo, Taylor Smallbatch, Buffalo Trace, Traveler, and Eagle Rare. Basically, Traveler, which I thought was Taylor, one. And I I can't, uh it's like I was blind. I I just it's just honest. Now, some people try to say that it's just because I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know how to taste, but you know, you know, whiskey is always been based off of you're trying to get the general feel for the masses, but not everybody likes the same, you know. There's so many different palettes out there, and nobody's right or wrong. You're only right for yourself. Anybody tells you you're wrong what you like. If you just like Jim Beam and you think that's good, rock on. I mean, I'm just gonna tell you, I'm not gonna judge it as a bad thing or whatever. It's what you like. So that's the kind of stuff that you gotta take in an association. That's just one thing with the podcast and the rating system. So Michael Beach just did something on rating that he doesn't like to rate because ratings mean nothing. Well, we give rating as a guide, we don't give it as Bible written in stone. I mean, if you like what I like, which a lot of people that follow this podcast do like what I like, they take in advice of what I'm saying. But, you know, even you know, we got all the different players, and you know, we all don't some of us love makersmark. There's one of us who doesn't love makers mark. I mean, there's it's just your palette's your palette, and you gotta go off of that. So, Kentucky alone has well over 16 million barrels. The great news for bourbon. So, one thing that we gotta do is the great news for bourbon, five to ten years from now. That no, okay, so 60 million barrels aging. That's great news for bourbon. Five to ten years from now, but it creates real pressure today. So major players, including Centauri Jim Bean, have publicly acknowledged this by pausing or slowing distillation, reevaluating production schedules, and focusing on inventory management instead of growth at all costs. Now, the this isn't panic, it's course correction. And that is what what I wanted to say is that how many people were laid off on this pause? Okay, so one, they said they're gonna run this the craft distillery at a at full capacity, which I don't believe. I've been there, I don't believe it's been running at full capacity ever. So, and then they're gonna shift where they just redid the Boston distillery and all their the equipment, they're gonna ship some of the production to Boston. So they are shifting and they're taking advantage of this market where it's still you still need to be making a decent amount of bourbon, but then they're going to I couldn't find when the last time they revamped the Jim Bean Claremont distillery. It's not been in the last 30 years. So they've they've updated it and modernized it when you're there on a tour. You could see they got computers, but they this this this needs it. You need to be able to take advantage of certain time periods and do this. But when they were when they they announced that they were gonna pause and then said they had no layoffs, that just in itself tells you everything you need to know. That's that's that this isn't based off of. The market's crashing or they're stopping. No, they have other ways of producing the whiskey and they're going to do it. So, why demand has softened? So, why did demand cool off? Now, if you're going to go off of what happened during COVID, everybody knows that the bourbon was in a boom and it was doing well going into COVID, but in my opinion, COVID stepped on the accelerator like massively. It was like they were thinking it was going to go on, you know, a 12-degree angle, and it went on, it was going on a 50-degree angle all of a sudden as far as demand. Now, when we got out of COVID, which we are out of COVID now, I think the demand is going back to the 12-degree angle. So obviously, when they were in the 50-degree angle, they were trying to meet the demand, what they thought, but we've cooled off to like like if you were to look at this and you there's a spike and then there's a drop. If you would eliminate COVID, I believe it would just be an upgrade as we go. Now, so what has started the cool off? Okay. One younger drinkers are consuming less alcohol overall. Last year, I believe there was a 3% drop in all alcohol consumption. So that goes across what you know what we're talking about. You know, it goes across into well, if there's 3% left overall, then 3% less in the in the bourbon market. It's not likely you're losing out into your competition. Ready to drinks. There's a lot of ready to drinks. So instead of consuming just bourbon meat, there's a lot of like they offer us ready-to-drink cocktails, which honestly, I could tell you that I've tried. So that's something that I didn't try before, but it makes sense. Then there's other lower alcohol by volume options because of the fact that you know, whiskey is a higher thing. And if you're drinking it neat, you're really talking about a high ABV. And then you're talking about drink less, drink better mindset. So one of the things I can tell you for me personally is I've been drinking as far as how much I consume. I mean, uh during COVID, I was consuming at least one pour of whiskey a night, and then the podcasts or whatnot, and I had time. And so I was always being aware that I didn't want to become, you know, an alcoholic. But now, the in between, I mean, we've gone, I'm not even participating in dry January, but I think it today is the 6th, and I've had maybe three pours, one on New Year's Eve, I had one on Christmas, and then so I'm not I'm not consuming as much, I'm enjoying higher quality whiskey. So that is one thing that I agree with. Drink less, drink better mindset. So that's how it goes. Okay, whiskey hasn't disappeared by no means, but it's not growing at the same breakneck pace. And everybody knew that that's making whiskey. Um they all know they knew it. Now, I have over a thousand bottles, so that's another reason why in 2024 I slowed down a little bit is because I have so many bottles already. I can't uh but with having the pot podcast, I have to pick up more bottles, and so that that we have stuff to talk about that's current. I'm looking forward to doing some, you know, you know, going back and revisiting some of the older bourbon that I have. I mean, the my first purchases were 2018, so I have stuff that I opened up in 2018 that's still on my, you know, so then the other aspect of one of the reasons is price fatigue. Premium bourbon prices climbed fast. Now they've come down a little bit, but consumers are now asking: is this bottle actually worth$80 or$120? And it really comes down to when you're talking about the allocated bourbons, what was happening is the the allocated bourbons were being released at a reasonable price and then bought up by the secondary market and then being sold for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars more. Now, what they were able to do is the distilleries, at least they're they raised their prices to be able to recoup some of that of what it's worth. Like if you buy a bottle that used to be$60 and now it's$120, it used to go for$60 and sell for$150, now it's selling for$120 and it'll still go for$150. So it's not like the it's like they're the distilleries are taking their actual share of this what the secondary market was showing them what it actually worth. I mean, the section secondary market handles what people will pay. It's a service to pick it up and get it for you, but then it's like, what is it worth? What's what's that worth? So brands without strong stories or quality justification are feeling the squeeze. And that's like what I said. So why they're feeling the squeeze is they have to understand that this is a business and you actually do have to sell it. You just don't make it or blend it and think it's just gonna sell. So, segment three. The inventory GLUT and what it means. Here's where it gets really interesting. Whiskey isn't beer or seltzer, you can't turn production on and off overnight. Distilleries are dealing with barrels laid down during peak optimism, whiskey that must go, must age regardless of demand, and storage insurance and capital tied up for years, in meaning in taxes. So you got to pay taxes and you gotta do all this stuff. And so basically, that's like the distilleries have to distill, and they've been dealing with these problems forever. They dealt with this, you know, they were they dealt with the taxation all along, even in World War II. They dealt with the taxation after probe prohibition. I mean, everything that they've been dealing with, they're kind of good at it now. So that's kind of, you know, the they're not they they're they're knowing what to do based off of history. So what distilleries what are distilleries doing now? Okay, so they're slowing or propusing new fills. Now, I will tell you there's a bunch of distilleries coming online last year. Potter Jane came online a couple years ago, whiskey house and whisk whiskey house of Kentucky and Middle West Spirits came online in 2024, along with the Western Kentucky Distillery in 2023 started producing. Now they've all been producing, but their stuff, you know, even Mark Carter of Old Carter, he's been producing, but they don't release stuff for seven years. So in 2023, if you started and you're not releasing anything for seven years, you're not gonna be releasing anything until 2030, and you don't even know what the market's gonna be there. Potter Jane has been releasing their white dog to get them through this time and this this distillery that they got going there. Now, they're so one of the other things they could do, they're slowing or pausing pausing new fills, they're not producing as many barrels. Now, a new distillery is probably laying down as many barrels as they possibly can. Extending aging timelines. So that's one thing that you're seeing right now. We're seeing Knob Creek 21 for the first time. The oldest expression before that was 18. So the distilleries are making aged bourbon, which isn't something that always was there. We, you know, when I got into this, 12-year-old was and you're talking about old fits at Heaven Hill. Everything's going further and further along, and they're they're aging that and selling those whiskies for a little bit more because they'll be less when you get to that point, and you've had paid more money to age them as far as taxing. All right, and then rethinking release strategies and getting creative with finishes and blends, and that is exactly it. They're the they can look at the scotch market, finishes and blends are everything, so that's something that they keep going. The whiskey exists, the question is how and when it reaches consumers, and that's the thing, they got a lot to play with. The goal is not to dump anything out, right? So the other part is export and trade pressures. Now, exports were supposed to be the pressure valve, but trade tensions, tariffs, Canadian and EU pullbacks on US spirits has affected the American whiskey market somewhat. Now, I will contend that if there's tariffs on American whiskey, and then Canada puts tariffs on Canadian whiskey, people will then, and there's a hell of a lot more people in the United States that drink whiskey, you know, people will then go to buy American because the American does not have any tariffs on it. So then your your Canadian club or your crown, which is Canadian, will be more expensive. So then you can buy bourbon for less and you could go to go and consume more bourbon. So they have to look at those, you know, that that market that you lose in Canada might mean better domestic sales. All contributed to those three things trade tensions, tariffs, Canadian and EU pulp contributed to slower international sales, more whiskey staying in the domestic market, and increased competition in on US shelves. And so there is more, and that's one of the reasons why some of the smaller brands or whatever that weren't doing it, or they would just sell, they don't. So that's something you have to have the marketing. You got to know what you're doing, boots on the ground. So the reason that it all matters because exports are a major input in distillery forecasting models. And you know, with COVID, it it really hurt exports, also. All right. What the industry uses to make decisions. This is how the industry industry actually plans for 26 and beyond. The data distillers watch closely. Here it is inventory versus projected sell through, retail velocity, how fast bottles move, on-premise versus off-premise sales, export performance by country, the demographic, consumption trends, and disposable income and inflation. In my opinion, the reason why 2026 is going to get even a little bit better than forecast because we're all going to have a little bit more disposable income. That's just my thing, and inflation is dropping. Strategic levers, premium versus value portfolio balance, limited releases versus core brands, brand storytelling and transparency, substantially sustainability and packaging innovation. So there you go. That data feeds multi-year forecasting tools because the whiskey decisions today affect the shelves years from now. Like the the shelves today have all the information. What's going on the shelves has already been done six, seven years ago. And then you're even in some cases 10, 12, 15 years ago, 21 years ago for knob creek. You know, are we gonna have a knob creek 22? That's all right there. So, anyways, all right. The is this bad news? No, that's the short answer. It's not bad news for the short answer. Is this the long answer? It just depends what and how the marketing of bourbon handles it. They have to keep being re-innovative and reinventing themselves. They have to come up with fun different things to keep this going. I mean, Maker's Mark, if you look at what they're primary, you know, at one point they only made Maker's Mark. Then they started doing Maker's Mark 46, then there was cast strength. I mean, they've you gotta keep reinventing yourself to keep the people occupied and get the younger generation to start participating as the older generation is is diminishing from you. So right now, us that you know, over the past 10 years that started in our 40s, and so I would say the 40-year-olds are still on board right now. But when you're talking about 20 and 30-year-olds, it they they have a whole different outlook, outlook right now on life. But as they mature further, are they going to go to you know the bourbon aspect of bourbon is the lifestyle of not overindulgence, relaxation, working hard and relaxing. That generation, we don't know what that's gonna be. Our generation, my generation, always wants to work hard. Their generation is different. Not that they're they're any better or worse, it's just they've had to grow up in a time period and deal with things that our generation never had to deal with. So it just depends on what how that keeps going. Short term, 2025-26. There's a little bit slower growth right now. Production is being paused or slowed down. I mean, for instance, um Heaven Hill just opened up and built their distillery in Bardstown for the first time since the fire. And so now they've got the Louis, they've got a distillery there. Now, they didn't lay anybody off, but they started up that distillery and they're running it with the people that they have. So it's kind of cool. Inventory management is very important, and more competition for shelf space. So they have to come up with cool things like different types for the brands, birthday brands, your your celebrations. I mean, it just keep coming up with what you can do and the different types of finishes, you know. So there's a lot of innovation that can keep happening, and but there is more competition for shelf space, that's for sure. Now, mid to long term, bourbon still has global appeal. Premium premiumization isn't dead, it's just more selective, and merging markets show still show po emerging markets still show promise. Quality producers will stand out. So you need more long term, you're gonna have to do your quality, make sure you're distilling high quality, no shortcuts, brand transparency, and then you know, the different markets, you know. Right now, bourbon isn't out there, and they keep trying to go out, but they they want bourbon in Australia, they want bourbon in Japan. So, you know, taking those markets a little bit further is very important. This feels less like the end of the bourbon boom and more like bourbon growing up, and that's what I'm gonna say. It's not like that that that it's not going in the right direction, it's just not going there as fast. And everybody knew that there was going to be a place where it was it had to slow down, it was just going too fast. There's just not that many people. All right, what this means for drinkers. Now, we just talked about what this means for distillers and companies making the bourbon. What does this mean for you? It's the silver lining for us. It's just like that's what it is. We're gonna have more availability because maybe there's not as many people drinking it, but us who love it, there's gonna be more bottles for us to get. All right, less artificial scarcity. So, in other words, there will be more of a desire to get it to us because we're so they need to sell it. They can't artificial scarcity is based off of keep it from us because we want it, because we can't get it, but they're gonna have to put it out there. It'd be nice to one day be able to get a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle. That wouldn't that would be great. 10 year, 12 year, 15 year. That's that that and I see that happening eventually. Potential price stabilization. The price for some things have been going up, but I've been seeing it drop back down. We talked about this, for instance, it was rare breed. I saw it peak at 49, I picked it up for 42 the other day. I've even seen it as low as 38 at Costco, I believe, or something like that online. Older and more interesting releases. They're gonna have more stuff to age and play with. Before they didn't have as much, I think it's gonna get better because they're gonna have more of a barrel selection going forward. It's gonna be the distilleries are going to have to be tasting and and picking barrels and making really, really good decisions on their aging inventory. And then innovation driven by necessity. They're gonna have to get more in more, keep being as innovative as they have been. Get those special releases to us, and then you know, those distillery releases make us still want. To stand in line. You didn't, the lines were the same as they were as always while I was out in 2025, and I don't see that changing for 2026. The whiskey didn't disappear, it's just aging. Remember that. So the American industry whiskey industry in 2026 isn't collapsing, it's recalibrating. The brands that understand their drinkers, respect their liquid, and plan beyond hype will be the ones standing strong when the next upswing comes. I believe people like Macaulay Minton, I don't, I think that there's still people who excel in what they're doing, like Macaulay has, and bring excitement to a brand and do all the new things and redefine how he looks at everything based off of what he learned in the industry. He's still that's still a boom. So that's kind of cool. So then that's our take on the outlook for American Whiskey in 2026. If you enjoyed this breakdown, make sure you like it, subscribe, pour yourself something worthy of the conversation. Until next time, keep it neat, keep it honest, and we'll see you on the next episode of the Skatchy Bourbon Boys. I'm not going anywhere yet. But that's it. That was my outline for today. No, not really. I will not be on mute, that's for sure. Uh, you guys, I'm in that group. So the glasses are there because Meta has been talking to me the whole time and helping me with this podcast. So there's still new distilleries opening up all the time and getting up their branding up. Now I'm going to be with Ryan Lang, owner of a Middle West Spirits real soon. He has a really good outtake on everything. He better because when you just open up a 72,000 square foot distillery, you have to have a good outlook of what you're making and understanding of what's going on. Look forward to that podcast coming up in hopefully and somewhere in sometime in January. Let's see. We got Thomas Anderson. Thanks for doing it. He's been sipping on bourbon for over 50 years and still drinking it. So that's kind of cool. I want to thank everybody tonight for coming on once again. I'm on I'm on by myself, which is completely and totally, completely and totally fine. Had myself a nice old fashioned. Anybody have any? Oh. So yeah. Maybe I can. Well, if you all stay on a little bit after the podcast tonight, I'll do it, and we'll just keep this conversation going. But what I gotta say is my outlook is, you know, personally, for an extension, everybody. Or a really good chariot. Everybody. When you see that Jim Bean pause, and you read what USA Today is writing, and what they say about tariffs and all this stuff, it's the job of the company to turn and pivot to the marketplaces. Now, it's always changing. The only thing I gotta say is I'm in the recycling industry. There was the motor, there was an electric battery plant up by us that we did a lot of business, and they are turning and pivoting at the moment. But there were 850 layoffs out of the 1200 employees that they had employed at this battery plant. And yes, the market changed and they have to pivot, but there was no layoffs at the Jim Bean plant. That means they are moving production someplace else, redefining what people are doing to get them through till they open up their newly more. I'm sure it's going to be. I mean, if you're at Jim Beam and you see what they're producing and you see what their system is, and then you go to Bardstown Bourbon Company and you see their system, it is the what the difference is is unbelievable. Now, Jim Beam makes Jim Beam at that Clearmont plant. They're just making full out Jim Beam. They they make the same match bell consistently, but the controls that you can have of the stills and everything to make sure everything is being produced consistently, the newer technology just keeps you right there. It's like anything else. The people who are good at doing what they do, people always say, technology's not great, uh, it computerizes this and that's that. And it's like, but a true artist or a true technician will take the technology and use it to better their ability to do what they're already doing. And that's where we're going with technology. And so I just have to say, hats off to Jim Beam for not having any layoffs, the pause. You're repositioning people at different places, plus, you know, the whole it's a year. I mean, how fast we're gonna be talking about 2027. I remember to doing this podcast in 2025. A year isn't that long, especially when you're talking about production of bourbon. They can absorb that easily by holding back some of last year's. If they produce whatever, it there this is a perfect time to do the revamping of the distillery. So, you know, it just seems like this whole what's happening as far as the slow up, as this far as slow up as far as growth, is really giving the industry time to catch up and just keep producing fantastic whiskey. So I have, I don't see any slow up in allocated people are gonna be in line this year. I don't see it wasn't like they were closing the plant. The the the whole all the tours are still gonna be available and open at Jim Beam. You can, I mean, the the amount of different places. I mean, if you guys can go to Dark Arts and see Macaulay, they are in the complex in Lexington, which has, I believe, James E. Pepper and the Barrel House Distillery Distilling Company. So, you know, that is something to check out. The dark arts, I mean, it's still fantastic. So let's see. Okay. So John tries is saying that the demand is somewhat down because he's been in a on a roll getting banger bottles the last two months that didn't happen a year or more ago. But I'm not gonna tell you, John, the demand is not down. What what you're seeing is Buffalo Trace meeting when you're getting those George T. Sags and those Thomas Haynes, there's more of them. There's not less people wanting them. There's just more bottles to get. So they are meeting the demand that's there. But it's not like the demand's slowing down for those bottles. There's just more of those bottles, so more people are getting them. That's that's what I've always been, that's what I've been saying. I don't want to drink these toothpicks. I'll put that off to the side. And so that is something that's very kind of cool. That's you can't mistake the distilleries on the bourbon boom upping production and starting to meet the demand so that more people can get it. So that E.H. Taylor Small Batch can be back on the shelf. E.H. Taylor Small Batch hasn't been on the shelf since 2016, but it's been out and they I've gotten a lot more waiting in line. But I'm waiting for the day when I walk back into the liquor store and there's one there on the shelf. That's the way it should be. That's how distilleries make money by having stuff there. So everybody who wants one gets one. If you got it on the shelf, that means everybody's getting some. Now, there's not going to be any Thomas Handy's or George T. Staggs on the shelf. I mean, you're that you're in the line and you're getting it, but the reason why you're getting it is instead of them getting three cases or two cases, they're getting six cases. I've seen this happen up here with Buffalo Trace as far as the Weller brand that's up here in Ohio. It's like initially we would have six bottles. Now, when they do the releases, every single liquor store that participates has 36 bottles. There's only one reason for that. It's because the demand is being met, and that's what we want, because that is very beneficial. One, if the demand's being met, they won't be, they're gonna have to, and and all the brands are competing, they're gonna have to lower prices to compete because you're gonna then buy that third foolproof, and you got two foolproofs, and then you got a dark arts, and you got two foolproofs, and you're thinking that third proof foolproof you don't need, you're gonna buy the dark arts, but and then Buffalo Trace lowers the price$12. And now you might be like, I gotta get a foolproof for$39.99 or whatever. So that's kind of how that's going. Now, Ricky said, Do you see if barrels are going to become an issue in and on with the most of our American slings? Uh so I've been hearing Ricky all about the barrel, whatever. I don't think that barrels will ever become an issue if new oak if new oak barrels ever do become an issue, which I've heard about it for years, and ever since I've been in, I've been hearing this argument not only from you and Greg Schneider, but from other distillers, that they can't, and there's in 2012 they had a shortage. There might be a short-term shortage at one point based off. I mean, there for a while that you couldn't get people to work and get it, get the wood was there, but you couldn't get it out of the out of the forest. But I will tell you this that if it becomes a problem for New Oak, and those that I I don't really think it will, because that means the cooperages are gonna start losing out because American whiskey has nowhere near as much rules as bourbon. And if all of a sudden they don't got enough barrels, they'll just start reusing them and calling it American whiskey. And I will give you an example already of Micters using used barrels to age some of their bourbon, and they make and that makes some spectacular American whiskey. Same thing with I believe Bullet makes American whiskey. I mean, so using the used barrels is something that hasn't been, that market has not been tapped at all. And so if there is a barrel shortage, I really believe, then the used barrel market will be tapped and American whiskey will take off like crazy because it'll still, it'll just be bourbon being aged in used bourbon barrels. I mean, I how is that gonna make it taste any worse? So that's right there. So Matt says Booker's and the Jack Heritage had six cases plus plus per store. First the bottle come readily available, then the price war starts lowering. Yeah, because Bookers had peaked out at one, I at 115 at the distillery, which was I saw it like 106, and now it's back under 100. It I think some of the bourbon, some of the bookers this year was$89.99. So yes, you're you're right. They're starting the the supply aspect. You should be able, why, why the hell can you can you not walk into a you should be able to walk into a liquor store and buy a bottle of baker's or a bottle of bookers when you want to. And I think they'll get to that point. And so this is just gonna be what's happening. And I hope everybody had a great time tonight. I'm gonna end up the podcast because it's right on time for that. And remember, everybody on YouTube and on Facebook, stick around because I will be inviting people from Facebook and we'll keep the podcast going a little bit longer. Let me get everything set up here. I had it earlier, but I do not see anything like it at the moment. Uh let's see, right here. Yeah, that's not okay. There it is. I see it. All right, I'm ready. Thank you, everybody, tonight. Hang around if you're on Facebook or YouTube. Make sure if you're on Facebook, join us in the conversation because I will be sending the link out real soon. But great podcast tonight. Thanks everybody for chiming in. It was great to see everybody and look forward to Thursday night and get back into the swing of you know, of everything. Holidays are over, happy new year to everybody. This should be a great year, and cheers. Remember, we are the Scotchy Bourbon Boys, www.scotchy bourbon boys for all things, scotchy bourbon boys, scotchy bourbon boys t-shirts, glens, bourbon balls, check us out. Remember to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X and Oh my god, Facebook, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X, and TikTok, along with Apple, iHeart, and Spotify. But just remember, I had to close my eyes to remember that one. Just remember, if you listen to us or like us, listen to us or watch us, make sure that you like, listen, subscribe, leave good comment, and leave good feedback. Become a member, uh, support us. I still haven't gotten my first super chat. I don't know how you do it. I'm waiting to see that first super chat come across. But with that, remember good bourbon equals good times and good friends. Make sure that you drink responsibly. Don't drink and drive, and live your life uncut and unfiltered. And our theme song will take us out.