Bourbon County Stout isn't whisky, but it's built entirely out of whisky's leftovers, and this year's official lineup, confirmed on Goose Island's own site, leans harder into that relationship than almost any before it. Six beers, all landing Black Friday, November 27, 2026 [1-6].

Original Stout anchors the set as always: an imperial stout aged roughly 13 months across a blend of freshly emptied Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses, and Wild Turkey barrels, at 14.2% ABV, with fudge, vanilla, and caramelized sugar leading the profile [1]. Sourcing across four distilleries in one blend is the kind of detail worth calling out to a whisky-literate reader: it's a house blend built from someone else's barrel program. Worth flagging for readers used to the standard 16.9-oz bottle: for the second year running, Original is packaged in single-serving 10-oz bottles rather than the traditional large format.

The dessert-driven variants stay closer to straight bourbon barrel character with adjuncts layered on top. Apple Crisp Stout (13.9% ABV) leans on cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, oats, and panela sugar for a baked-crisp effect [2]. Proprietor's Stout, this year built around a pineapple upside-down cake theme, adds pineapple and Montmorency cherry to the base [3]; as with past years, it's a Chicago-exclusive release, not available outside the city. Tiramisu Cask Finish Stout is notable for a first: Goose Island finishing its Original stout in rum casks rather than a second bourbon barrel, layering espresso, cocoa nibs, and vanilla with a sugarcane note from the rum wood [6].

The two that earn a real place in a whisky column are the barrel-forward releases:

ABV on four of the six variants was still listed as "coming soon" at the time of writing. At press time, the brand declined to release pricing ahead of the official announcement.

Every year, this is my Black Friday shopping. I go to my store, get what I can when I can. I absolutely, downright love these releases. The question could be why? I have a lot: vintages from 2014 and up.

If you've never had these but you like stouts, these are a must. If you're not a stout person and you like wine, maybe try the barleywine instead. And even if you're not sure whether you'll like them at all, I say give it a go anyway.

I turned my buddy Tim onto them, and he thoroughly enjoys them now. He even keeps a bottle around for a few days and just corks it, instead of pounding the whole thing in one night, which, these are filling and strong, so that's the smart way to do it.

Another reason I love them: there's something about it giving me a piece of Chicago, a city I really like. Maybe. I'm not entirely sure that's it, but these are seriously my favorite beers, and I try to get as many as I can every year.

Out of this year's lineup, the one I'm most excited for might surprise people: Apple Crisp. Not the barleywine, not the rye, the Apple Crisp. Believe it or not.

If you're lucky enough to try them on tap, you're in for a treat. When I was in Chicago for Windup, I got to try their 2018 Proprietor's and their recently released (but already sold out) King Henry II.

King Henry II is the barrel-aged English-style barleywine Goose Island brought back after a thirteen-year hiatus, debuting Black Friday 2025 as a Chicago-only, taproom-exclusive release [7]. It spent twelve months in barrels that had already held Bourbon County Rare, which themselves started life as 23-year Pappy Van Winkle barrels, so the beer is picking up flavor secondhand from bourbon barrels that already did a full tour of duty on another Bourbon County stout. It landed at 13.5% ABV, with notes of crème brûlée, rich malt, and toasty sweetness [7].

That barleywine was truly magical. Top five beers for me, period. Someone at the bar had ordered a full bottle, on-site consumption only, and was kind enough to pour me a taste. Seriously, I love these beers.

Not whisky either, but this one earns its place. Sam Neill, the actor best known for Jurassic Park and The Piano, died on July 13, 2026 in Sydney at age 78 [8][9]. His family described the death as sudden and unexpected, coming after he had been declared cancer-free from a rare blood cancer he'd fought since 2022 [9][10]. His agent later confirmed pneumonia as the cause [8].

What belongs in a whisky-adjacent newsletter is Two Paddocks, the organic winery Neill founded in 1993 in New Zealand's Central Otago, in the same rolling hills where he grew up going to boarding school [9]. The founding brief was refreshingly low-stakes: Neill wanted to make a pinot noir good enough that his friends and family would actually enjoy drinking it, on the logic that his friends would drink pretty much anything, so the bar wasn't especially high [9].

That modesty aside, Central Otago has become one of the more serious pinot noir regions in the world, and Two Paddocks built a real reputation within it over three decades, alongside Neill's parallel life as an environmental advocate. Earlier this year he released a short documentary opposing a proposed industrial goldmine in the same Otago hills where the winery sits [9], which gives the whole thing a nice throughline: an actor who spent his career playing other people, but built something real and rooted in one place for over thirty years. 

I have a few bottles coming in, and cannot wait to give it a try. Thanks TJ!

Two different kinds of news out of the same corner of the watch world this month, one structural, one seasonal.

Worn & Wound has acquired Lorier. The deal closed quietly and was announced on July 20, with Lorier founders Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega staying on as partial owners, Lorenzo taking the title of Creative Director [11]. This isn't a licensing deal or a private equity rollup: Worn & Wound structured it themselves, two independent companies with no outside investment involved, and Blake Malin, Worn & Wound's CEO, was explicit that the goal was giving Lorier operational scale (fulfillment, procurement, logistics) without bending the brand's values to an outsider's [11].

It's worth noting this isn't Worn & Wound's first close relationship with Lorier. The two have collaborated on limited editions for years, going back to the 2020 Gemini chronograph LE, through the Hydra II in 2022, up through the Astra Stargazer in 2024, so this acquisition reads less like an acquisition and more like a formalization of something that was already working [12][13][14].

Practically, Worn & Wound has already hired Ilya Ryvin, the company's first-ever employee and a Grand Seiko alum, as Lorier's General Manager to run day-to-day operations [11]. Updated versions of Lorier's core line, the Hyperion, Hydra, Falcon, and Astra, are set to launch within the week of the announcement, and the company is candid that they expect the run to sell out fast given the brand's existing pent-up demand [11].

Brew's Chicago Limited Edition sold out on day one. Timed to Windup Watch Fair Chicago, Brew released the Metric Chrome Chicago Limited Edition Chronograph: a fully polished stainless steel case and bracelet with a mirror finish, meant to echo the city's reflective cloud gate, limited to 150 individually numbered pieces with a Chicago skyline engraved on the case back [15][16]. It carries the standard Metric case dimensions, 36mm by 41.5mm, 10.75mm thick, sapphire crystal, 5ATM water resistance, on the meca-quartz chronograph movement that's become the Metric's signature [15]. Available exclusively at the fair, it was gone by the end of the first day [16][17]. The line was crazy!

It's shiny, but in a good way. Not overly blingy. It can be worn dressed up or down. It's polished stainless steel, so it will scratch, but that's easy enough to polish out with some Cape Cod cloths. This is one of my favorite new releases in some time. I’m stoked to add it in, especially with my wife's favorite number, #23. #23 of a Chicago watch though… I mean Jordan! But for real, every numbered item I can get a special number, I try. So thank you John for setting this aside for me man. 

The monochrome style is a must-need for Brew's lineup. And the people went crazy for it. I should know, I worked it! I'm happy to have one in the collection, and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Same week, same industry, two cars that could not be further apart. McLaren said goodbye to a platform with the most powerful send-off of its kind, and Fiat brought the smallest, slowest new vehicle in America to market. Worth running together.

McLaren's 788HS closes out the 720S architecture that has underpinned the brand's supercars since 2017, a lineage that ran through the 720S itself, the track-focused 765LT, and the 750S [18]. The 788HS is the final and most extreme version: a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 making 788 PS (777 hp) and 800 Nm of torque, a dry weight of 1,265 kg, 0-100 km/h in 2.8 seconds, and a 330 km/h top speed [19][20]. It borrows brakes from the McLaren Senna and wears an aerodynamic package that generates 10% more downforce than the already track-focused 765LT, with an S-Duct bonnet, a raised active rear spoiler, and an F1-influenced diffuser [19][20]. Only 200 will be built, split evenly between coupe and Spider, and it debuts at the Goodwood Festival of Speed [19][20]. The HS badge itself is rare: this is only the third car in McLaren's history to wear it, after the MP4-12C HS and the MSO HS [20][21]. McLarens are a blast to drive. They feel like spaceships. This one is actually a spaceship!

At the exact opposite end of the spectrum, Fiat's Topolino landed in the US for the first time, priced from $13,995 before a $990 destination fee [22][23]. It is an 8-horsepower, two-seat electric microcar built on the Citroën Ami platform, weighing about 1,073 pounds, with a 5.4-kWh battery good for up to 46 miles of range and a five-hour charge time [23][24]. At launch it is capped at 19 mph and legally restricted to private roads: resorts, gated communities, campuses, beach towns [22][24]. Fiat says a free low-speed-vehicle conversion kit arriving by late summer 2026 will raise the top speed to 25 mph and open it up to public roads posted 35 mph or under [23][24]. It comes in two versions, a standard Topolino with a panoramic sunroof and a Dolcevita with a roll-back soft top [23].

The pairing writes itself: a 777-horsepower farewell to a decade of engineering excess, and an 8-horsepower hello that can't legally leave the neighborhood yet (unless you’re a golfcart town). Both are, in their own way, about as pure an expression of their maker's identity as currently exists on four wheels.

Poured. Worn. Driven. | Issue No. 16