On my recent trip to the coal mining areas of KY and WV, I was able to get several bourbons I have been wanting to try for a long time. I was also able to satisfy a long standing wish to meet and talk to the marvelously strong and resilient people of this area. I did some hard and dirty work in my youth, but seeing what the coal miners go through humbles me. And, old Sid Hatfield, the sheriff in Matewan WV, who took the miner's side in a gunfight against the company's hired guns around 1920, is one of my heroes. I'll take the underdog's side every goddamn time! Lots of us old southerners take that attitude, we can't hep it! (Sorry for that, I ought to know better than to get self-righteous like that by now, but shit, you just become more of what you are as you get older!)
One of those sought after bourbons is the FRSB. I found it to be everything I hoped for and more. In my opinion, it is a first class bourbon, somewhat different from other bourbons in its fruity and floral qualities.
Having made a few homebrews in my time and knowing the effect that yeast has on the flavor of beer, I suspect that the fruity and floral elements so apparent to me in FRSB are due to the yeasts Mr Rutledge uses. He says that they produce ten different distillate flavors each year.
Do you suppose he uses ten different yeasts as well as possibly ten different mash bills?
Am I stating the trivially true here, is this a well known fact among knowledgeable bourbon folks? If I am right (even if trivially), are there other bourbons out there where the yeast figures in the taste so prominentlly?