Five More Four Roses Single Barrels: The OEs

Four Roses. Ten recipes. Three standard releases. Two yearly limited releases.

If you’re like me, that all adds up to a very large amount of happiness. 

I told you last time how, for Christmas, my wife and I bought each other a Private Selection Single Barrel bottle of each of the ten different recipes. and how we spent a nice Saturday tasting our way through my wife’s present: the OB line. 

Well, this past Saturday we finished our project. We tasted our way through the Christmas present my wife gave to me, spending another really nice afternoon tasting the five different OE bourbons. The results are below.

OESK

Age: 9 years, 1 month

Label details: 58.0% ABV, Warehouse KW, Barrel 89-2P

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Maple Syrup, citrus and a hint of ginger

Mouth: Thick and sweet. Honey and black pepper with a generous dose of oak, but not too much.

Finish: Bitter tannins, honey sweetness and a heat that just lasts.

Thoughts: Thick and sweet this is like drinking a spiced honey. Really tasty.

OESV

Age: 10 years, 1 month

Label details: 51.3% ABV, Warehouse ES, Barrel 78-1F

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Delicate. mint, citrus and honey. 

Mouth: Fresh and floral transitioning to bitter as it moves back in the mouth.

Finish: Warm and long. Fades to a pleasant bitterness.

Thoughts: If ever a bourbon asked for the descriptors of “crisp and refreshing,” this is it. I want a deck, a sunset and a glass of this with a little ice. Delicious.

OESF

Age: 11 years, 2 months

Label details: 57.9% ABV, Warehouse HW, Barrel 47-2H

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Sweet pears with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Mouth: Peppery. Sweet brown sugar with just a hint of fruitiness.

Finish: Very long. Warm and sweet.

Thoughts: The nose on this one is obvious in its complexity, throwing up all of it’s aromas at once. The mouth and finish are mostly sweetness and heat. The finish is so nice, I had a hard time finding flavors—I kept forgetting myself and swallowing to savor it.

OESO

Age: 10 years, 3 months

Label details: 57.5% ABV, Warehouse BN, Barrel 30-3E

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Caramel, warm earth, growing plants. Floral perfume.

Mouth: Dry with a hot peppery heat. Vanilla sugar.

Finish: There is a hint of the nose’s floral perfume that fades quickly to a slightly smokey cherry.

Thoughts: This is like a desert. Dry and hot. But somehow also sweet and comforting. It’s good, but I’d probably add a bit of water to tame it when drinking it. It also had an odd note that reminded me somewhat of a Canadian whisky I once had, though I don’t remember which one.

OESQ

Age: 9 years, 5 months

Label details: 58.5% ABV, Warehouse RN, Barrel 85-3N

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Wild and uncontrollable at first. After it settles down a bit: rose petals and warm honey with a delicate hint of ginger.

Mouth: Sweet and slightly sharp. Brown sugar and a floral waxiness.

Finish: JuicyFruit gum fading to a nice bitterness. A pleasant warmth that lasts nicely.

Thoughts: Though I notice the resemblance to the OB version of this yeast, I’m not sure its as distinctive. I might not bat an eye at it’s “interestingness” but I’d drink it all night long and be happy with the choice.

I like all of these. In fact, I might be in love with the first three. The finish of the F, the refreshingness of the V, the sweet spiced honey of the K. Delicious. I’m very happy with the decision to buy all ten. I’m not sure I could choose between them if forced to buy just one.

Five Four Roses Single Barrels: The OBs

It’s really no secret that I love Four Roses Bourbon. They initially grabbed my attention when their social media person sent a note of encouragement to my wife on her first session of chemo a few years back. It meant a lot to her and we’ve had a soft spot in our hearts for the brand ever since. The fact that they also make kick-ass whiskey doesn’t hurt either. 

Ever since we first learned about the ten Four Roses recipes, my wife and I have wanted to sit down and try them all to see how they were different from one another. Well, after thinking about it for a few years, this year we decided it would be a good idea to buy a single barrel of each recipe. For Christmas. I bought her the five OBs and she got me the five OEs.

As you can tell, deep down, we are romantics. 

Last Saturday we finally started our project. We tasted our way through my wife’s Christmas present, spending a really nice afternoon tasting the five different OB bourbons. The results are below.

OBSK

Age: 12 years, 6 months

Label details: 60.9% ABV, Warehouse VE, Barrel 5-5D

Purchased at: Four Roses Cox’s Creek Gift Shop

Nose: Alcohol, first and formost. But under it, is a sweet caramel cookie.

Mouth: Sweet spiciness. Think warm cinnamon candy and brown sugar.

Finish: Sweet and spicy, with a surprising bit of fruitiness

Thoughts: This is all about sweet spiciness. But there are enough hints of other things to keep you interested. Things like that surprise fruitiness in the finish.

OBSQ

Age: 11 years, 4 months

Label details: 56.0% ABV, Warehouse BN, Barrel 22-2H

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Caramel, cinnamon red hots, and a floral waxiness

Mouth: Floral with a hint of mint or menthol. This is spicy enough that a lovely tingle runs down your tongue as it moves back in the mouth.

Finish: Christmas cookie, menthol, hot though not burning.

Thoughts: Distinctive doesn’t begin to cover this. This is different than any bourbon I’ve had.

OBSV

Age: 10 years, 1 month

Label details: 55.1% ABV, Warehouse ME, Barrel 2-1F

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Brown sugar, honey, vanilla, baking spices

Mouth: Creamy, fruity, and sweet vanilla/caramel

Finish: Sharp with a hint of bitterness. Mouth drying

Thoughts: I get why this recipe might be used as the “regular” release of single barrel, it is the most generic bourbon flavor of the batch. A tasty, tasty, generic.

OBSF

Age: 8 years, 1 month

Label details: 52.3% ABV, Warehouse HW, Barrel 29-4E

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Bubble gum, oak, ginger

Mouth: Mint on the tip of the tongue, a sharp ginger spiciness, salty

Finish: Sharp, puckers the mouth with a warmth that settles in your chest.

Thoughts: Not sure if I cared for this one. It’s sharp and spicy. Maybe too sharp.

OBSO

Age: 10 years, 3 months

Label details: 54.9% ABV, Warehouse BN, Barrel 4-1M

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Menthol, brown sugar, and baking spices

Mouth: warm, with nice body. Spiced cirtus punch.

Finish: cooling mint remains in the mouth while a nice warmth settles in your chest

Thoughts: This is exactly what I imagine when I imagine four Roses.

There were none of these I disliked. In fact, I was prepared to say that I was a big fan of all of them until I had the OBSF. That one I will need to spend a little more time with. Luckily, there is enough left in each bottle that we’ll be able to spend some time with all of them yet. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go celebrate Christmas again.

Double Blind Review: Evan Williams Bottled in Bond vs Old Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond

Evan Williams Bottled in Bond and Old Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond

It’s sometimes hard for those who only casually know me to believe that I am a frugal person. They’ll point to the fact that I have over 50 different whiskies (just in my office closet, unopened, that I paid for), as evidence of the fact that I am, in fact, the very opposite of a frugal person. 

But truth be told, I do not like wasting money. I don’t mind spending money, if the object is worthwhile or the price is obscenely discounted. But spending money without doing your research is just foolish. You may get lucky, but more often than not money will be wasted. 

Researching value. When it comes to bourbon, it often means looking below the top shelf. It can mean finding a liter of 100 proof bourbon for less than $20. But can it mean finding one for less than $15? 

I recently bought two very similar bourbons, Evan Williams Bottled in Bond and Old Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond. Both are produced by Heaven Hill. Both are 100 proof, bottled in bond. Heck, they are both even packaged in the same style glass bottle. The only differences from the outside are the name on the label and the fact that one costs 50% more than the other. 

To avoid price influence, we tasted these in a double blind format. I poured into glasses 1 and 2 and my wife moved them to spots A and B. I knew what bourbon was which number and my wife knew which number coresponded to which letter, but neither of us knew which bourbon coresponded to which letter. Then we sat down for a nice Sunday afternoon tasting.

Bourbon A:

Nose: Shoe leather, corn, dusty oak and a hint of caramel

Taste: Caramel corn and candied ginger

Finish: Long and sweet with a bit of charred oak

Thoughts: Does it knock my socks off? No. But no matter which one this is, for under $20 per liter there is no reason to not always have this on your shelf. I like this one.

Bourbon B:

Nose: Dried corn, mint, dried grass or hay

Taste: Hot. Hot and harsh. Cinnamon red hots candy and dried corn

Finish: Long. More cinnamon candy which fades to a sour corn flavor.

Thoughts: This is really hot. Cinnamon candy is predominant with a lot of grain flavors supporting it. Kinda meh here.

Bourbon A was my favorite and after the reveal, I learned that it was the Evan Williams Bottled in Bond. In this case, price really does make a difference. Though I was kind of hoping that the lower priced underdog would somehow pull it out, and that the extra 50% higehr price was just spent on all the marketing that the Evan Williams brand receives, I wasn’t really surprised. It does make it a little more palatable to know that that 50% works out to just around six bucks. 

For me, Evan Williams Bottled in Bond beat Old Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond hands down.

5 Bourbon Barrel Aged Stouts That Will Warm You Up

It’s February in Minnesota. It’s cold. It’s snowy. I had the feeling today as I drove to the dog park that I was driving through the photos you see of Northern Canada or Alaska. The ones where you are so far north the trees no longer grow and the towns are just a collection of buildings. The only colors are blue sky and white snow. There’s snow on the road, snow on the buildings, snow on the few plants you can still see peeking out. Six foot piles along the sides of every driveway. The debris from too few snow plows lining roads that are becoming increasingly narrow.

I guess they don’t call it Minnesnowta for nothing.

But there is good news. There is a cure for the deep-set chill of a Minnesota winter. Beer. Strong, dark beer. Beer that is chocolatey or wine-like. Beer so thick you might be forgiven for thinking that you are actually drinking bread. 

But, you might be asking yourself, this is a bourbon blog? Well, don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. The result of a barrel only being able to be used once to make bourbon is a lot of used barrels. Just because many of them go to Scotland or Canada to age their fine whiskies, doesn’t mean that all of them leave the country. There is a demand among small brewers for bourbon barrels to help age their beers as well. What follows are five beers that have been aged in bourbon barrels. And because it is the dead of winter, and we all need it, each of them are sweet, strong stouts. 

Each of these were poured in identical tulip shaped glasses and tasted one at a time over the course of a single day. I’m rating them with the 1-5 style rating I used in Untappd when I checked them in.

Brewers Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout

Style: American Imperial Stout

Brewery: Central Waters Brewing Company. Amherst, WI

Purchase Info: Purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN  

ABV: 9.5%

Initial Thoughts: Pours with a thick milk chocolate colored head.

Nose: Dark and fruity with wine-like qualities. After a bit that fades to be replaced with chocolatey cereal notes.

Mouth: Moderately thick mouthfeel with a good bit of carbonation. Fruity and sweet with a big hit of alcohol flavor. 

Final Thoughts: I could taste that this was a high ABV beer before I looked at it. The alcohol flavor was that strong. The more I tasted of this, the less I liked it. I don’t know that I would want more than one of these in a session. 

Rating: 3/5

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Stout

Style: American Stout

Brewery: Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company, Lexington, KY

Purchase Info: Purchased at Liquor Barn, Lexington, KY  

ABV: 8%

Nose: Sour. Cooked cereal. Corn chips.

Mouth: Thin in the mouth. Nice carbonation. Nicely balanced sweetness and bitterness with hints of coffee and chocolate.

Final Thoughts: Balanced. Not heavy. Unlike many stouts, I could drink more than one of these in a session. Being a higher ABV beer, this is dangerously drinkable. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout

Style: Oatmeal Stout

Brewery: Anderson Valley Brewing Company, Booneville, CA

Purchase Info: Purchased at Casanova Liquors, Hudson, WI  

ABV: 6.9%

Initial Thoughts: Pours with a nice thick head.

Nose: Dark and fruity. Red wine. Then malty cereals

Mouth: Acidic. It bubbles and froths in the mouth as if it’s making more head on your tongue. finishes with acid bitterness and malt.

Final Thoughts: This barrel-aged stout is more acidic than most, almost a sour. I think this would be more refreshing on a hot summer day than most stouts due to that. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Bourbon Sidamo

Style: American Imperial Stout

Brewery: Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Richmond, VA

Purchase Info: Purchased at Total Wine and More, Richmond, VA  

ABV: 10.3%

Initial Thoughts: Looks thick on pouring.

Nose: Sweet maltiness that fades quickly. Chocolate.

Mouth: Thick. Initially chocolatey. Finishes wine-like with an alcohol sharpness.

Final Thoughts: This proves that aging doesn’t always work . This doesn’t taste aged, it tastes old. I’d like to try the non-barrel aged version of this to see how it compares. 

Rating: 2.5/5

Dark Hollow

Style: American Imperial Stout

Brewery: Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, VA

Purchase Info: Purchased at Corks & Kegs, Richmond, VA  

ABV: 10%

Initial Thoughts: Pours with zero head.

Nose: Cereal maltiness initially. After sitting a bit: dark fruit.

Mouth:Nice and thick with very little carbonation. Sweet fruit balances bitterness with a hint of smoke.

Final Thoughts: Everything is working here. The fruity flavors balance the bitterness with just the right hint of smoke. High ABV but drinkable, with no alcohol flavor. As I initially stated when I first tasted it: “This might be the best beer I’ve ever had. It’s at least in the conversation.”

Rating: 5/5

Beer is an amazingly adaptable drink. It is highly influenced by your glassware and what you serve it with. Wine flavors when imbibed on its own might give way to chocolate flavors when served with food. The Central Waters one did that with pizza after the tasting was done. If you just take a sip, you might like it better than if you are spending time with it. The Hardywood did that for me as I tried to finalize my rankings. Ultimately what you like is highly influenced by how, where and with whom you drink it. On a cold, snowy night in Minnesota, all of these are good enough to warm you up.

A Review of Two Different Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage, 2003

There are a ton of bourbon brands on the market. But as we know, unless you are dealing with a craft distiller (that actually distills their own product) almost all of those brands are created by just a handful of distilleries in Kentucky and Indiana. Most of them with just a couple of mashbills or recipes each. 

So how is it that they all end up tasting so different? How does Knob Creek taste so much different than Jim Beam Black? How is it that Evan Williams Bottled in Bond is easy drinking and Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond is so hot? One answer? Barrel selection. Sometimes a barrel tastes like Henry McKenna and sometimes it’s Evan Williams. 

Bourbon is a natural product. It’s affected by it’s environment. Where was the warehouse it was aged in? What side was it on? North? South? Was it high up in the warehouse where the temperature swings are greater? Did we have a spell of really hot summers or really cold winters? The list can, and does, go on and on. 

But these are big brands. Your average consumer doesn’t want to know that the Evan Williams comes from this barrel or that. They just want to know that it tastes like the last bottle of Evan Williams that they bought. Because they like it. Thank goodness for what Four Roses calls “mingling.” You see if you want the next batch of bourbon to taste as much like that last one as possible, you just dump in enough barrels until it all averages out and pretty much does.

But what if you want something just a little different than last time? Or what if you are just curious what different barrels taste like, one to the next? Well, then you pick up a single barrel product. If you want to make it more interesting, pick up two. Preferably from different barrels. Because a single barrel bourbon is just what it says: the product of one barrel. Theoretically, they all taste slightly different. 

I’ve bought a lot of single barrel products in the past. But until now, I’ve never had two of the same open at the same time. Last Saturday I was having lunch and doing a sample swap with a friend, DP. He’d done a review of the Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 2003 over at his blog, Whiskey Detectives, and didn’t care for it. I mentioned that I normally like those, so he was nice enough to throw the rest of the bottle into the swap. So that left me with two open bottles of this bourbon from two different barrels. What is a guy to do, but to taste them side by side to see just how different they are?

I’m reviewing barrel number 16 (barreled on 9-8-03 and bottled on 12-12-12) and barrel number 642 (barreled on 2-11-03 and bottled on 7-30-13).

Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 2003

Nose: 

642: This starts floral, but after a bit of time in the glass it transitions to a strong cherry and chocolate scent, like the cheap chocolate covered cherry cordials you find at christmas.

16: This starts remarkably similar to the other bottle. After a bit of time though this is still very floral with only hints of the chocolate and cherries of 642.

Mouth: 

642: Sharp and vegetal at first. After a bit it settles down though and brings out more of a traditional sweet vanilla/caramel/spice bourbon flavor. 

16: This also starts vegetal, but somewhere along the way, it turns itself into a florist’s shop. It’s almost perfume-like. 

Finish:

642: Decent length heat that fades to a nice bitterness

16: Still floral. Still perfumey. Not as hot as 642.

Thoughts: In my opinion, neither of these are as good as I remember previous releases to be. They both hit me with a sharpness I didn’t expect and that I found it hard to get past. Barrel 16, which I bought as a birthday present to myself was like drinking perfume. I just couldn’t get behind it. Barrel 642 from my friend DP was better. It was sweeter and had a nicer finish. All that said, if you handed me one without the other, they are similar enough that I wouldn’t know which you had handed me. And in my opinion, that’s not a good thing. I wanted to like these. I thought I would, but I don’t.