Four Roses 10 Recipes—A Blind Tasting
Two mash bills. Five yeast strains. Ten recipes. Any serious bourbon fan knows what distillery I’m talking about. Four Roses, of course.
Ten different recipes to make the same product—it’s rather unique in the whiskey making world. Sure, other American whiskey makers have multiple mash bills, but most keep things a bit more simple. A traditional rye-based bourbon, a rye whiskey, perhaps a wheated bourbon, or maybe a high rye bourbon. Nobody else really comes close to having 10 different bourbon recipes (although MGP does have a bunch too).
To arrive at 10 recipes, Four Roses uses two different mash bills and five unique yeast strains. The mash bills are identified by letter—B is the “high rye” mash bill of 60% corn, 35% rye, and 5% malted barley, and E is the “low rye” mash bill of 75% corn, 20% rye, and 5% malted barley. The yeast strains are also identified by letter—F, K, O, Q, and V. All 10 recipes have a four digit identification code, where the first letter is a constant O, the second letter is the mash bill (B or E), the third letter is a constant S, and the fourth letter is the yeast strain (F, K, O, Q, or V). So a recipe labeled OBSV would be a “high rye” mash bill using the V yeast strain.
For their core range, Four Roses mixes and mingles the 10 recipes together in one way or another. The standard Yellow Label contains all 10 recipes, the Small Batch has four of them, and the Single Barrel is just one (always OBSV). If you want to try individual examples of each recipe, it’s easy enough to do so—you just have to find a store that has its own Four Roses Private Selection Single Barrel.
The Private Selection label allows stores/organizations to purchase an exclusive single barrel of Four Roses, with any of the 10 recipes as a potential choice. Many Four Roses fans, myself included, attempt to collect examples of all 10 recipes. I’ve currently got 9 out of 10 (OESO is the one that has continually eluded me—the O yeast seems to be the least common).
Last weekend my local whiskey club held its quarterly tasting event, a tasting of all 10 Four Roses recipes. And a blind tasting at that. Fun! I took tasting notes of all 10 bourbon samples, so I figured I’d share them along with a brief write up of the experience. We were all encouraged to guess which sample was which recipe, with the person who guessed the most recipes correctly receiving a lovely Four Roses decanter as a prize for winning.
Let me tell you, guessing the recipes from a blind tasting is hard. Really hard. The winner of the competition successfully guessed three of the recipes correctly. I got two right, as did several others. Even just guessing the mash bill part was not easy, as I only guessed B vs E correctly four times. A 20% success rate seems bad, but I was actually pretty happy just to get two correct.
A few disclaimers before I get into the tasting notes:
- These mini reviews were based on one tasting session, so they are not as detailed as my normal reviews. I posted a full review of an OBSV recipe back in 2017, so check that out for something more detailed.
- Although Four Roses provides standard descriptions of each of the 10 recipes, those descriptions are just general guidelines. Each of the recipes can vary in flavor profile from barrel to barrel. Just like all single barrel whiskeys, a lot of different things can affect the final product, not just the yeast and mash bill. So just because I liked a particular recipe here doesn’t mean it’s a recipe I always love (however, there are some recipes that I consistently like or dislike, as you’ll see).
- After tasting six or seven consecutive Four Roses bourbons, they all started to blend together a bit in my nose, mouth, and brain. Although they are all a bit different, when it comes down to it they are all Four Roses single barrel bourbons. With a few exceptions (the best and the worst), they aren’t really that different. To prove that point, after finishing the tasting I sampled some George T. Stagg. The Stagg was clearly more unique (and frankly, better) than any of the Roses.
- I’m not including the ages or ABVs of the bourbons in the notes. For one thing, I don’t have that information. But even if I did, the point of this exercise is to compare the 10 recipes, not age or ABV. I do know that most of these were around nine years old, which is typical of most current Four Roses Private Selection bottlings.
OK, here we go. All 10 Four Roses recipes.
Four Roses 10 Recipes Tasting Review
Sample #1
Nose: Apricot, candy corn.
Palate: Fruity, fresh, baking spices, cinnamon, youthful. Light to medium body.
Score: 7/10
Recipe guess: OESF
Actual recipe: OBSQ
Thoughts: A good Four Roses, if unspectacular. I was torn on whether this was a B or E mash bill… it seemed right in the middle ground of rye influence. I guessed incorrectly.
Sample #2
Nose: Brown sugar, burnt vanilla.
Palate: Brown sugar, cinnamon, sweet oak. Spicy and long finish.
Score: 6/10
Recipe guess: OESQ
Actual recipe: OESQ
Thoughts: Whoa, I nailed the recipe on this one. Of the ten samples, it seemed most obviously an E mash bill. I’ve had quite a few different Q recipes over the last few years, and this just spoke of Q to me (although not one of the better examples—OESQ is often my favorite of the 10 recipes).
Sample #3
Nose: Damp oak, brown sugar, vanilla.
Palate: Cinnamon, vanilla, fruity, floral. Mature, with a full body. Cherry cola and caramel linger on the finish.
Score: 7/10
Recipe guess: OBSQ
Actual recipe: OBSF
Thoughts: Again, Q recipes are often amongst my favorite, and that led me to guess OBSQ here incorrectly. This one turned out to be probably my second favorite of the night.
Sample #4
Nose: Mint, rye.
Palate: Baking spices, apricot. Hot and astringent. Rye spice. Dill. A lot of mint, which lingered on the finish.
Score: 3/10
Recipe guess: OBSO
Actual recipe: OBSO
Thoughts: This particular bourbon was the most divisive of the night, based on a few conversations I had. People either loved it and thought it was one of the best of the 10 samples or hated it and ranked it last. I was in the hate camp. I correctly guessed this was an OBSO based on past experiences with OBSO… which have not been pleasant. This pretty much confirmed to me that OBSO is my least favorite Four Roses recipe (although again, the recipes can be very different from barrel to barrel, and I’m sure there are good OBSO examples out there). Tasted like some young and particularly bad MGP rye mixed with a generic, tasteless bourbon.
Sample #5
Nose: Oak, nutty, fruits, graham crackers.
Palate: Big bodied, creamy, and savory. Oak, vanilla, spices, apple pie, caramel. Apple pie and rye spice lingered on the finish.
Score: 8/10
Recipe guess: OBSV
Actual recipe: OESF
Thoughts: Easily my favorite of the night. The rye spice on the finish led me to guess this was a B mash bill, although in hindsight, the palate wasn’t all that rye heavy. Well balanced overall. I’ve had good experiences with OESF in the past, so this didn’t come as a huge surprise, even though I guessed incorrectly.
Sample #6
Nose: Rye.
(I’m sure there was more than just rye, but that’s all I wrote down—at this point, my nose was getting a little burnt out.)
Palate: Creamy. Caramel, fruity, apricot, iced coffee with milk and sugar. Sweet mint, with floral, vanilla, and caramel lingering on the finish. Some nice notes, but light overall.
Score: 6/10
Recipe guess: OESK
Actual recipe: OESO
Thoughts: OESO was the one Four Roses recipe I had never tried before the tasting. Given my experiences with OBSO, I was a little surprised I liked this all that much. That said, it wasn’t one of my favorites, as it came off as too light.
Sample #7
Nose: Floral, apricot, rye.
Palate: Rich chocolate, floral, spices, herbal. Medium body.
Score: 7/10
Recipe guess: OBSF
Actual recipe: OESV
Thoughts: The recipe reveal on this one was one of the bigger surprises of the night for me—I was quite certain this was a high rye mash bill. I was wrong. Regardless, this was one of the better samples of the evening.
Sample #8
Nose: Baking spices, vanilla.
Palate: Lightly fruity, hot and spicy. Young, perhaps too immature.
Score: 5/10
Recipe guess: OESO
Actual recipe: OBSV
Thoughts: I’ve had good OBSV recipes in the past, but this was not a very good example. This bourbon should have stayed in the barrel for another year or two.
Sample #9
Nose: Astringent oak, brown sugar.
Palate: Mint chocolate, floral, medium bodied. The mint and florals continued on the finish.
Score: 6/10
Recipe guess: OBSK
Actual recipe: OESK
Thoughts: This was another one where I was very confident it was a high rye B mash bill, but was wrong. At least I got the yeast correct.
Sample #10
Nose: Caramel, vanilla, fruity.
Palate: Vanilla, malty, creamy.
Score: 6/10
Recipe guess: OESV
Actual recipe: OBSK
Thoughts: Malty? Perhaps my palate was shot at this point, but I do remember a distinct maltiness in this particular dram. Not so much malted barley, but more like a malted vanilla milkshake. Not a note I find often in Four Roses.
Final Thoughts
What to make of this tasting? Well, I clearly don’t care for the OBSO recipe, although I’d still like to try more examples. The O yeast is usually the hardest one to find in single barrel store picks, so I may be jumping too hastily to a conclusion without enough experience. Still… it reeked of O to me, which is not a good thing to my palate.
I’m not too surprised that an OESF was my favorite of the night, although I was expecting going in that I’d pick a Q recipe as my favorite based on several excellent recent Q examples I’ve had. The Qs here were solid, but unspectacular. The OESF happened to come from one of my favorite stores here in Middle Tennessee—Elixir Spirits in Spring Hill. That is not surprising at all, as Tarak (the store’s owner) is well known for picking excellent barrels. (I know, I mention Elixir a lot in my bourbon reviews… I swear to god he’s not paying me or giving me free whiskey. I wish he would though. ?)
The real conclusion here, if there is one, is that the 10 recipes result in some similar, but distinctly different bourbons. The Four Roses character pretty much always comes through (except for that OBSO), but with different notes of emphasis, different peaks and valleys.
After all was said and done, what was left of the 10 sample bottles was poured together into a decanter to create a unique “small batch” Four Roses bourbon. The result of that was… well, I didn’t try it. But word from those that did was, uh, not good. Whiskey blending is an art, they say. Perhaps they’re right.
It was a fun night for certain, and if you’re a Four Roses fan I’d encourage you to jump at the chance to do a similar 10 recipe tasting, whether it’s with your local whiskey club or in the leisurely confines of your own living room.
EDIT: I completely forgot to mention the most important part of the event. The proceeds from the evening went to a great cause—a fundraiser for a little boy in Cincinnati named JonJon who has been dealing with some serious health issues. If you’re interested, click here to learn more.
Questions about my scoring system? Refer to the Review Method & Scoring Scale page.
For more reviews, check out the Whisky Review Archive.
