Four Roses Single Barrel

Four Roses Single Barrel

OBSV OESO OBSF OESK

ABC - $XX.xx $49.99 $49.99 $49.99 

TW - $51.99 $XX.xx $89.99 $89.99

Class VI - The BX has everything - except Four Roses Bourbon

ABV - 50% 50% 50% 50%

Age - 7-9 years

Mashbill - It’s complicated…

8 Jun 25

Is the mashbill the ‘recipe’ of the bourbon?  I’ve explained it that way, but that I was wrong.  The mashbill is only part of the recipe.  We’ll learn about the other parts down below.

From the Four Roses website:  Only Four Roses combines two mash bills with five proprietary yeast strains to create ten distinct bourbon recipes. Each recipe brings something different to the batch – and carefully mingling them allows us to achieve an endless range of flavor profiles to please any bourbon lover.

The different whiskies are ‘mingled’, not ‘blended’.  So?  What’s the difference?!  Well, in the whisk(e)y world, ‘blending’ has a specific meaning.  More often than not, it means that straight whiskey (bourbon, Canadian, Irish, or scotch) has been blended with neutral grain spirits.  This does at least two important things:  The neutral, tasteless whiskey is blended with the harsher (flavorful) whisk(e)y which smooths-out any rough edges and second, it creates more juice - a lot more!  Using scotch as an example, blenders will take barrels from one or several different single malt distillers and blend those barrels with the neutral distillate until the blender gets the flavor profile that she wants (many blenders are women).  And that’s typically why blended whiskies are cheaper, the distiller is able to make more of it.

The blenders of blended scotches are looking for consistency.  They want consistency not only across years, but across generations as well.  When you order their whisky, you know what you’re getting.  So if you’re an international traveler going to Buenos Aires, Sydney,  Hong Kong, and Madrid, when you order a Johnny Black, you know what it will taste like and you won’t have a bad experience.  That’s not necessarily the case for single malts or bourbon.  While the master distillers of each company tries to make a consistent, single malt product, there may be variations that enthusiasts can differentiate (I probably can’t).    

Many bourbon distilleries will blend - there I go again - mix the same whiskies from different years to get that consistency.  They’ll taste the six-year-old and think that’s okay, but then add some twelve-year-old to get the flavor profile that they want.  Of course, when you do that, by law, you don’t have a twelve-year-old bourbon, you have to sell it as a six-year-old whiskey.  The label must show the youngest whiskey in the bottle.  

Back to Four Roses - From their website, “We use two unique grain recipes, one with 60% corn, and the other with 75% corn.”  They label their mashbills, ‘Mashbill B’ (60% corn, 35% rye, 5% barley) and ‘Mashbill E’ (75% corn, 20% rye, 5% barley).  From those two mashbills, they use five yeast strains:  “Only Four Roses uses 5 original and proprietary yeast strains — each producing uniquely different, rich flavors. With the combination of 2 mash bills and 5 proprietary yeasts, ten uniquely different Bourbon recipes are made.”

Those yeast strains are labeled “V, K, O, Q, and F”.  I’ve listed some of the Four Roses Single Barrel options above, ‘OBSV, OESO, OBSF, and OESK’.  What’s up with all those letters?!  Well, you can get a full understanding at the Four Roses website that explains it.  It’s really very simple.  

‘O’ - The first letter is always O, designating the distillation at Four Roses Distillery

‘E’ - This letter designates the mash bill.

‘S’ - The third letter is always S, designating it as straight whiskey

‘V’ - This letter identifies the proprietary yeast strain. Each creates unique flavors

You better believe that Four Roses enthusiasts know what they’re drinking when they look at the Four Roses label.  ‘OBSV’ is known for a delicate fruit and rye flavor.

‘OBSF is known for delicate rye and mint flavors’.  And, again, no flavoring is actually added.  We know that because they’re listed as ‘straight’ whiskies.  Those are the natural flavor profiles you’ll get from that particular mashbill and yeast combination.  

While some distilleries try to keep most information from their consumers, Four Roses really leans into it and gives their enthusiasts as much information as they want - including which rick house and what floor the single barrels were aged.  It’s really remarkable.  More distilleries are following Four Roses’ lead and I think that’s for the better. 

Four Roses straight bourbon is a solid, mid-range pour.  Their single barrel selections are really special.  Not a bad idea to get a bottle of both and compare the two.  به سلامتی!

PINEAPPLE BOURBON ICED TEA

With notes of fresh fruit, caramel and spice, Four Roses Bourbon pairs well with both the tropical flavors of pineapple, and the rich aromatics and flavors of malt in black iced tea.

Ingredients

1 ½ oz. Four Roses Bourbon

¾ oz. Four Roses honey

¾ oz. Fresh lemon juice

2 oz. Iced tea

3-4 pieces Pineapple pieces

Garnish Pineapple

DIRECTIONS

Muddle pineapple in a mixing tin. Combine all ingredients (except iced tea) in the mixing tin. Add ice and shake for fifteen seconds, or until cocktail is properly diluted and well chilled. Add iced tea. Double strain into a glass over fresh ice. Garnish.