Spirit of the Month - October 2009 - Four Roses Straight Kentucky Bourbon

[castlecraver]

Welcome to the B&B Speakeasy Spirit of the Month!

Our selection for October 2009 will be Four Roses Straight Kentucky Bourbon

[imga=left]http://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/media/18486/full[/imga]
Four Roses is an eminently regarded bourbon, especially in international circles. This is perhaps in part due to the fact that it is currently owned by the Kirin Brewing Company of Japan. However, this more likely due to past owners' decisions to only continue sales of straight bourbon overseas after World War II and restrict US sales to blended whiskey. Before this time, Four Roses was the top-selling bourbon in the US dating back to prohibition. The distillery has been located in Lawrenceburg Kentucky since 1888, and it's present Spanish-mission style distillery building since 1910. The "Four Roses" moniker stems from a legend involving the distillery's founder, Paul Jones Jr, and his fiancee's signal of accepting his marriage proposal with four roses. Currently headed by one of the foremost masters of American whiskey, Jim Rutledge, Four Roses distills at least 10 bourbon expressions per year, varying mash recipes and proprietary yeast strains. A blend of the ten is made to fill the standard "yellow label" bottles. Single-barrel offerings are sometimes available as well, although Four Roses is particularly known for their occasional limited-edition blends, highly soughtafter by bourbon connoisseurs.

Because Four Roses is still a bit scarce in certain markets, and because there are a great variety of lauded expressions that've been recently released, we're going to open this month's discussion up to any bottle you can get your hands on from the distillery. Our bourbon discussions are often the most spirited, and I'm excited to hear what your opinions are of Four Roses when you've been able to find it. A fifth of the yellow label will run $25-30, the small-batch in the $35-40 range (and up from there for some of the higher-ends...). But whatever you're sipping this month, be sure to stop by and tell us about your taste for Four Roses.

Cheers!



(and as usual, you can check back on all of our past SotM discussions by looking here)

 

[castlecraver]

Oh, and although it's been awhile since it was suggested, but this one was hand-picked from the suggestion thread.

(and you guys think I don't read that...pshaw)

 

[letterk]

I will be picking up the Four Roses Single Barrel. It's been on my list to try for a while, so good timing!

 

[Laz]

I tried to pick up a bottle of the Four Roses Single Barrel last week at BevMo. They were out, but said that more would arrive soon. It is the only Four Roses that I have tried and is probably my favorite bourbon. I will keep my eyes open for a bottle of anything Four Roses and look forward to the discussion.

 

[Rughi]

I'm eagerly waiting for our barrel of Four Roses Barrel Strength to show up!

It was on the loading dock, just a few miles away, at the distributor's just yesterday - so I'm hoping to have it tomorrow or Friday.

Roger

 

[Brodirt]

I am confused? I never knew of or heard of Four Roses being held in even a modicum of esteem! I once won a 1.75 liter bottle in a raffle and kept it in the trunk of my car for years in the event that I ever ran out of gas. For greater perspective this was while I was in college and I might have considered drinking the gas if someone told me I would get a good buzz.

 

[TimmyBoston]

I am confused? I never new of or heard of Four Roses being held in even a modicum of esteem! I once won a 1.75 liter bottle in a raffle and kept it in the trunk of my car for years in the event that I ever ran out of gas. For greater perspective this was while I was in college and I might have considered drinking the gas if someone told me I would get a good buzz.

I'm not crazy about Four Roses myself, but Four Roses Single Barrel and Barrel Strength are quality products.

 

[castlecraver]

I am confused? I never new of or heard of Four Roses being held in even a modicum of esteem!

Look no further than this very board, my friend! Four Roses gets brought up enthusiastically in just about every bourbon thread. Or you could read the very positive reviews (even for the "old label" version, which some think is inferior to the newer yellow label formulation) on Bourbon Enthusiast or Whiskey Mag.

I've had a lot of my liquor stereotypes smashed by simply cracking a bottle with an open mind. You should give it a try. (It makes a smooth-as-hell bourbon Manhattan)

 

[Scotto]

I am confused? I never knew of or heard of Four Roses being held in even a modicum of esteem! I once won a 1.75 liter bottle in a raffle and kept it in the trunk of my car for years in the event that I ever ran out of gas. For greater perspective this was while I was in college and I might have considered drinking the gas if someone told me I would get a good buzz.

Maybe it is a New Yawk thing, because this was my experience. Four Roses used to be the butt of many jokes when I was growing up. Go figure!

 

[Not A Nice Person]

I hadn't seen this thread yet, but serendipitously enough, my local liquor store finally was able to get Four Roses in . . . they had the standard yellow label at $22, the small batch at $33, and the single barrel at $44. I've heard wonderful things about the Small Batch from friends online, so that's what I went with.

Smooooooth. Very good bourbon indeed.

NANP™

 

[Rughi]

My group's barrel arrived this last week, and it's a tasty, tasty creature. Four Roses is unique in the bourbon world in that they maintain and use 5 different yeasts and two different mashbills for 10 combinations. Most distilleries use one yeast and either one or two mashbills to coax out the different flavor profiles of their products. It's amazing how much difference the yeast imparts to whiskey, but the main character generator for bourbons is definitely the barrels.

The concept of the barrel strength program is to bottle it the way it was in the barrel: no added water, no chill filtering to weaken and remove the flavors. Our barrel was the "OBSK" formula, which means a high rye mashbill and the "spicy" yeast.

I think our barrel came out quite good, and it was well received Friday night at the SF Whiskyfest.

Anyway, below is a photo of the native habitat of the Four Roses Barrel Strength bottling and a photo of it in its glassed captivity.

Roger

 

[Laz]

My group's barrel arrived this last week, and it's a tasty, tasty creature. Four Roses is unique in the bourbon world in that they maintain and use 5 different yeasts and two different mashbills for 10 combinations. Most distilleries use one yeast and either one or two mashbills to coax out the different flavor profiles of their products. It's amazing how much difference the yeast imparts to whiskey, but the main character generator for bourbons is definitely the barrels.

The concept of the barrel strength program is to bottle it the way it was in the barrel: no added water, no chill filtering to weaken and remove the flavors. Our barrel was the "OBSK" formula, which means a high rye mashbill and the "spicy" yeast.

I think our barrel came out quite good, and it was well received Friday night at the SF Whiskyfest.

Anyway, below is a photo of the native habitat of the Four Roses Barrel Strength bottling and a photo of it in its glassed captivity.

Roger

Very nice! If you don't mind me asking, what does a barrel run?

 

[Rughi]

Very nice! If you don't mind me asking, what does a barrel run?

Well, there was a fairly small yield of 131 bottles out of this one (notice the black on the barrel, where whiskey has leaked out and left caramelized deposits) and the portion of the barrel that's being sold at Ledgers in Berkeley retails for $65 per bottle. My group took a little less than half of the bottles and got a discount from the retail price.

I wrote about the process we use of teaming with a liquor store here .

Roger

 

[BigRich]

You really can't go wrong with anything in the Four Roses line up. In Atlanta you can get yellow label for less than $20 so it's my new standard mixer. The small batch, single barrel, limited edition single barrel, and Mariage releases are all quality stuff.

And if you ever get the chance to visit the distillery it's really great. Personally, I think it's the best standard tour available in Kentucky right now. Although I am a little biased because it was the only one that let us taste the mash, the low wine, and the high wine not to mention their full standard line of products.

 

[Rughi]

...visit the distillery...it was the only one that let us taste the mash, the low wine, and the high wine not to mention their full standard line of products.

Four Roses is different than other Kentucky distilleries in that they really want you to get the full breadth of different flavors their 10 recipes can yield. The Yellow Label and Small Batch each have a different combination of the 10 recipes.

As an example, with the newly popular category of single barrel bottlings, most distilleries try to only allow a very narrow flavor profile to be represented out of the choices. Buffalo Trace, especially, does this to the extent that they will vat many barrels together and then refill the barrels with the mingled batch. A few days or weeks later, they will roll several barrels out for a liquor store, restaurant buyer or enthusiast to sample from and choose a "single barrel." Every barrel in a warehouse has a large and unique variation from its brethren, much more so than you're likely to taste in most "single barrels." (Even Four Roses standard issue Single Barrel).

When you do a Four Roses Barrel Strength selection, they pull out barrels from their 10 different recipes that are meant to be quite different than each other, and it's an exciting time to choose the barrel!

Roger

 

[OneRand]

I have heard great thinsg about single barrel and millenium bottlings. Small batch is pretty good, but like regular yellow label 4-roses, quite light, a good, easy bourbon.

 

[Laz]

I hope to try the Small Batch, but everytime I spot the Single Barrel I pick it instead. For those who have tried both, How would you compare to the two?

 

[DogHair]

I agree with all everyone on the Single Barrel. Outstanding. I'm currently nursing a bottle from the 2008 Mariage Collection. Bottle 1252/3492. Very smooth for barrel strength.

 

[blade08]

I almost finished my first ever bottle of Four Roses yellow label. In my opinion it's a great Bourbon, much better than the bottle of Jim Beam white label I finished not so long ago (also my first ever). Since it's fairly cheap and readily available where I live, I guess this could well become my 'go-to' Bourbon.

 

[letterk]

I'm late, but grabbed the Four Roses Single Barrel today. Will report back tonight.