The Four Roses Distillery actually produces ten different styles of whiskey. They have two mash bills (one with 20% rye; the other with 35% rye). They also use five different yeast strains. So, that makes ten possible combinations.
Distillery Manager Jim Rutlede talked about it here during a guest blog a while back. Jim uses these ten different styles to blend together (in combinations he feels are appropriate) to make the different bottlings of Four Roses bourbon.
Well, Jay Erisman, the Spirits Manager of The Party Source–and also the author of our Four Roses feature a while back in Malt Advocate–has convinced Four Roses to let him do something really cool. He’s going to do ten different single cask bottlings, using each posssible yeast strain and mash bill combination.
The first two of ten have already been bottled. You can find the details of Jay’s excellent adventure here on The Party Source’s blog. This should be a very interesting (and informative) project.
I spoke with Brett Pontoni at Binnys in Chicagoland. He was just in Kentucky for the bourbon festivities. Last year he brought in three casks of the Four Roses – each consisting of a separate recipe. This year he is bringing in 8 barrels, each of them are a different Four Roses recipe. I really enjoyed the differences and similarities in the three from last year, and hope to get all eight this year.
This, this looks like a lot of fun!
And I bet they aren’t all $350 a bottle, either!
Somebody should bottle a set in 50 or 100 ml bottles. Any takers?
I love this project from Four Roses. I had a similar bottling at the festival and enjoyed it very much, nearly as much as the 120th which has been my favorite so far.
I’m glad Jay and Brett are pursuing this, both good guys, all of it good bourbon.
I have long followed the Four Roses stable of fine whiskies and am lucky enough to live near The Party Source. I was excited to find these two new offerings from both Four Roses and The Party Source. Jay was nice enough to let me try samples of both and gave me the project’s background story. I was amazed at how different these two whiskies were from each other. The OESK was brilliant and just played with the palate, while the OBSK had a bit more grip and spice. Both were absolutely fantastic. I am looking forward to seeing the whole line come to fruition.
DavidG, I wasn’t aware that Binny’s was also pursuing this too. Excellent!
Four Roses rocks. I’ll admit that I haven’t loved everything of theirs I’ve tried, but I do love the way they experiment and the transparency of their recipes (even though you need a secret decoder ring…hey there’s a marketing idea…include a Four Roses decoder ring with every bottle!).
I hope I’m able to try some of these. Although the last thing I need right now is an excuse for another Binny’s order…
Park Avenue Liquor Shop is also a fan of Four Roses and will have their bottling of Four Roses Pvt Barrel Selection OBSQ warehouse BN rack 22 Tier 1 Barrel B in the shop SOON. Just awaiting delivery from our distributor. If you would like to be placed on a list (we’ll call you) – just email us at info@parkaveliquor.com or call 212-685-2442.
Jon
This is great news.. glad to see Binny’s jumping on it too. Both Party Source and Binny’s tend to be my best sources that I can get to. I would LOVE to see a series of these done in 20cl (200ml) bottles. Finding the Buffalo Trace white dog in a smaller bottle at the Party Source a few weeks ago was a nice treat!
[...] eventually becoming bourbon). Four Roses? Well, talking about innovation, they use “two mash bills (one with 20% rye; the other with 35% rye)…. [and] five different yeast strains. “. This is pretty incredible. For instance, they will combine these mash bills with [...]