Out on a limb with Four Roses Single Barrel

[Mike]

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?

[MikeK]

Mike,

Glad you scored a treasure! I love FRSB as well, there is so much going on in the nose and taste.

On a FR tour recently with Jim Rutledge he told us that he has 2 mash bills and 5 yeasts. He combines these to make up to 10 distillates for mixing the final flavor profile.

The single barrel product uses the higher rye mash bill: 60% corn, 35% rye, and 5% barley malt with a light fruity yeast to balance the high rye. It is aged for 7 to 9 years.

Cheers!
Mike

[Mike]

Thanks for the info, Mike.

I am a bit thick at times.........I guess I forgot how much I noted the fruity and floral aromas in Wild Turkey Rye. So it makes sense that FRSB would be a high rye bourbon. Add a lighter yeast to balance the bite in the rye, up the corn somewhat, throw in a little of the Master Distiller's pixie dust, put it in the right barrel, leave it the right amount of time and ...........voila.........a great bourbon.

What could be simpler? Why, me and Barleycorn could have a few barrels in our backyard in no time at all! In case it don't work out, I do hope the vehicle I have at that time can run alcohol.

I hang around here a few more years and some of these things might begin to stick.

[OscarV]

I heard that Four Roses SB is 35% rye.
Does anyone know the rye % in Wild Turkey?
Or what bourbon would have the next highest rye % ?

Oscar

[Morti]

In speaking with Jim Rutledge recently, he told me that Four Roses Singel Barrel has the highest percentage of rye for any bourbon at 35%. His closesest (unspecified) competitor uses 12%.

And all that Jazz.

-Your Sick Uncle Morti.

[Bourbon Joe]

Old Grandad also uses a high rye mashbill of >35 % rye and I think there are also several others which use > 12% (Elijah Craig, etc.).
Joe