Four Roses Experimental Series, Experiment 001, Mizunara Cask Finish

I’d like to thank Four Roses and their PR Team for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: A bottle of Four Roses Experimental Series Experiment No. 001 Mizunara Cask Finish bourbon sits on a wooden deck railing against a softly blurred green background.

Hello again folks! I sincerely hope you are ready for more Four Roses talk, because that’s what we are engaging in again tonight.

I’m on record as loving when companies experiment with their products. The very first review on the site was an experimental release from my friends over at MB Roland. The experience of tasting something super interesting, that may or may not be ready for prime time, is one of the reasons that I was big into the Craft Whiskey scene there for a long time. I’ve since gotten old and cranky, but I still enjoy seeing bourbon folks experiment now and then. And when it is coming from one of the few brands that I can honestly fanboy out over? That’s even cooler.

Tonight’s whiskey is the first in a series of experimental releases from Four Roses. And interestingly enough, it is one that embraces the Japanese ownership that Four Roses had until the recent acquisition by Gallo. Mizunara is a Japanese oak that is most well known in the whiskey world as being a wood used in the aging of some Scotch and Japanese whiskies. Even though the wood is notoriously hard to cooper (high water content leading to multiple years of drying before being made into barrels, poor water tightness once made into barrels, etc.), the flavor it provides seems to be enough for folks to keep working with it.

Here’s what Four Roses has to say about the choice:

The inaugural release, Experimental Series No. 001, is a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in rare Japanese Mizunara oak barrels. Prized in the whiskey world for its rarity and uniquely expressive flavor contribution, Mizunara oak was selected based first and foremost on flavor exploration. Throughout the finishing process, the Four Roses team monitored the barrels closely, pulling samples almost weekly to track maturation and determine the ideal balance point for each barrel individually before blending the final liquid.

Experimental Series No. 001 was developed through extensive trials across recipes, yeast strains, barrel specifications, and toast and char combinations to identify the ideal pairing for Mizunara oak’s distinctive flavor profile. Ultimately, [Master Distiller Brent] Elliott selected a six-year-old OBSK recipe for its ability to complement the oak’s layered spice characteristics while allowing its sweeter and more nuanced notes to shine through.

Let’s see how this experiment tastes.

Four Roses Experimental Series, Experiment 001, Mizunara Cask Finish

Purchase Info: This bottle was provided at no cost for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $55 for a 375 mL bottle. It was available at the Four Roses Distillery Visitor Center beginning July 30.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $7.33

Details: 6-year-old OBSK bourbon finished in Mizunara casks. 52% ABV.

Nose: Floral vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, and an herbal, almost umami spice.

Mouth: Lots of spice notes right off the bat. Think cinnamon, allspice, sandalwood, and that same herbal spice from the nose. Other notes include floral vanilla, brown sugar, and almond.

Finish: Spicy, warm, and long with lingering notes of herbal spice, sandalwood, and almond.

IMAGE: A hand-drawn smiley face that denotes I like the product.

Thoughts: If you like bourbons with tons of baking spice, this is one for you. It really is delicious. It takes the spiciness of a K yeast bourbon and layers the sandalwood and herbal spice notes of the Mizunara cask over it. Plus you get the underlying bourbon notes of vanilla and caramel/brown sugar as well. This is pretty damn good. I like it. This is one to take a good look at if you get the opportunity.

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Four Roses Anthology Series, Chapter One: Origins

I’d like to thank Four Roses and their PR Team for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: A sample bottle of Four Roses Anthology Origin Chapter 01, a 21-year-old bourbon, sits on a wooden deck railing against a softly blurred green background.

Bonus Post time! And this time we are looking at one from Four Roses that, for the first time ever, I don’t think is for you and me. Which, coming from a long-time Four Roses fanboy, hurts to say. If you are here, you are looking for the opinion of a frugal bourbon drinker. And there is no $500 release that would be appropriate for a frugal person. Hell, I don’t think there is a bourbon that, in a vacuum, is worth $150. Arguably, at least not until you take scarcity into the equation. But reasonable people can disagree on pricing and value.

Chapter One: Origins is the first in a planned lineup of 10 annual releases that, according to the press release, are aimed at “collectors and enthusiasts.” This version is a series of OBSF single-barrel bottlings that are aged 21 years and bottled at cask strength between 102.5 and 124.9 proof. There were 1,200 bottles available initially.

Let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Four Roses Anthology 21 year

Purchase Info: This sample was sent at no charge for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $500 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $33.33

Details: OBSF, 51.3% ABV, 21 years old

Nose: Almond, caramel, vanilla, red fruit, wintergreen, and oak.

Mouth: First sip is hot and full of oak. Subsequent sips bring out more depth of flavor with notes of chocolate, cinnamon, red fruit, caramel, almond, and oak.

Finish: Warm and medium length. Lingering notes of floral vanilla, nutty chocolate, cinnamon, and oak.

IMAGE: A hand-drawn smiley face that denotes I like the product.

Thoughts: As might be guessed by a 21-year age statement, this is extremely oak-forward. Both oak as a note in and of itself, but also oak-derived notes like chocolate. It's very rich and thick in the mouth. There are lovely bright notes that help balance the oaky notes as well. This is a good bourbon. My only issue with it is that after that long in the barrel, it has lost a lot of its inherent "Four-Roses-ness." If handed it blind, I probably wouldn't have guessed Four Roses as the distillery on the first couple of tries. Add to that the fact that my personal preferences are for bourbons in the six- to ten-year age range (where the mash bill- and yeast-derived flavors haven't yet been overpowered by the barrel), and personally, I’d grab one of the F yeast Red Labels over this one. But that is just my personal preference.

If you are a fan of oak-forward bourbons, though, this would have been worth a look…if it weren’t so extremely limited, presumably sold out, and, of course, if the suggested retail price wasn’t 500 dollars! In a vacuum, I like it, even if I like others of their products more. As something I’d pay my own personal money for? I’d politely scoff at anyone who suggested I do so. God bless the folks who have $500 to spend on a single bottle of bourbon, but I’m not one of them. I can get ten of the Red Labels, which I legitimately enjoy more, for that price. Yes, this is a good bourbon. No, being good doesn't make it worth five hundred bucks.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Four Roses Single Barrel Collection, 2026

I’d like to thank Four Roses and their PR team for providing this review sample with no strings attached

IMAGE: Four sample bottles of Four Roses Single Barrel bourbon recipes OBSK, OESQ, OBSV, and OESF lined up on a deck railing outdoors on a sunny morning.

In 1995, Four Roses launched Four Roses Single Barrel, OBSV, to much rejoicing from the masses (actually, as I was a freshman in college at the time, I have no idea if there was much rejoicing or just a collective shrug from the masses, but stick with me here). After 20 years of whining and complaining from people like me, they finally started to let us taste the other nine bourbons that they make, in single barrel form, by releasing the first installment of the Four Roses Single Barrel Collection. Now, these bourbons had been available as Private Barrel Picks for a long time, but those were at a higher proof and a higher price.

But until last year, they had never sold them in a package that was accessible to the average Joe or Jane—one unwilling to spend high prices and go on unicorn hunts to the stores that carried the ones they were looking for. Enter the Four Roses Single Barrel Collection. An annually rotating collection of three red-labeled recipes that are proofed and priced the same as the standard brown-labeled Four Roses Single Barrel. I was extremely excited to see last year’s release and even more excited to see it coming back again this year.

And if this sounds like I am a biased and enthusiastic fanboy for this product, I am. I’ve been a Four Roses fanboy since I was first getting into whiskey oh so many years ago. In fact, I can easily say that in 2025, I spent more money and bought more bottles of the 2025 collection than I did on all other bourbons combined. I must have purchased at least six or seven of each from my local corner liquor store. Maybe more. As long as it was on the shelf, it was my go-to pour. And I liked them all, so I’m referring to them interchangeably in this. And yes, I’m even more excited for this year.

You see, I’ve always been a huge fan of the Q yeast releases. I was chatting with Master Distiller Brent Elliott one time and mentioned that fact. He noted that I am one of the few who tell him that. I also love the F and the other yeasts too, but something about that floral Q just hits right with me. The herbal F is usually a close second, and the fruit and spice of the rest are right up there too. I just love Four Roses all around.

I was happy to see an F release last year, but I’m even more excited that this year’s release features both an F and a Q release. The 2026 releases are as follows: OESQ, which features the Q yeast and a mash bill of 75% corn, 20% rye, and 5% malted barley; OESF, which features the F yeast and the same mash bill; and OBSK, which features the spicy K yeast and the higher-rye mash bill of 60% corn, 35% rye, and 5% malted barley. They also sent a “control” sample of the standard OBSV Single Barrel. It features the fruity V yeast and the same high-rye mash bill as the OBSK. These are all bottled at 100 proof and were aged between seven and nine years. The suggested retail price is $49.99 per 750 mL bottle.

So let’s dig in..

Four Roses Single Barrel Collection, 2026

Purchase Info: These samples were sent to me at no charge for review purposes. The suggested retail price for each bottle is $49.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.33

Details: Each recipe is aged 7 to 9 years and bottled at 50% ABV.

OBSK:

Nose: Juicy fruit gum, cinnamon candies, stone fruits, and mint.

Mouth: Cinnamon, oak, stone fruits, and mint.

Finish: Medium in warmth and length. Lingering notes of fruit, mint, cinnamon, and toffee.

OESF:

Nose: Fresh garden herbs, strong caramel, vanilla, and a hint of cinnamon.

Mouth: Herbal, with notes of caramel, oak, vanilla, and cinnamon supporting it.

Finish: Warm and on the longer side of medium length. Very herbal, with notes of cinnamon, black pepper, and oak.

OESQ:

Nose: Floral vanilla, brown sugar, and a hint of baking spices. Basically, this smells like a delicious fresh-baked sugar cookie.

Mouth: Cinnamon spice, floral vanilla, mint, and oak.

Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Notes of sugar cookie (floral vanilla, a hint of cinnamon, and brown sugar) and wintergreen.

IMAGE: A hand-drawn smiley face that denotes I like the product.

Thoughts: I'm going to guess that the folks at Four Roses were searching for the barrels that fulfilled the stereotype for each of these recipes, because what is the point of showing the differences off, if the barrel is just going to take over and obscure them? In this case, OESQ sample was very floral and the Q yeast is the floral one. Same with the herbal F and the sample of OESF: very herbal. Same with K and the spiciness. I love that. It's extremely fun to taste these side-by-side, and I hope each of you has that opportunity. If not, if I had to rank them, I'd say:

  1. OESQ

  2. OESF

  3. OBSK

  4. OBSV (the standard single barrel release)

My wife on the other hand had her ranking as:

  1. OBSK

  2. OESQ

  3. OBSV (the standard single barrel release)

  4. OESF

I'm usually a big fan of F and Q, whereas she is more of a K, O, and V girl, just so you know our biases. But all are very good, and I'm guessing that for a second year in a row I'll be spending more on these releases than all other bourbon combined. They are both delicious and relatively affordable when compared to the rest of today’s bourbon market. I really like these and cannot wait for them to hit shelves.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Oakspire Bourbon Barrel Ale from New Belgium Brewing and Four Roses

I’d like to thank Four Roses, New Belgium Brewing, and their PR teams for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Four-pack of New Belgium Oakspire Bourbon Barrel Ale, a special release collaboration with Four Roses, sitting on a wooden deck rail with green trees and a sunny backyard in the background.

I may have adopted Minnesota as my home, but my formative years were spent in Wisconsin. Home of beer, cheese, and those who consume lots of both. And let me tell you, boy, did I. Before I moved away twenty years ago, beer was the only alcohol I consumed. Occasionally, a glass of wine, but beer was my drink of choice. But then I moved, and a funny thing happened. Since, at the time, you could only buy beer in a liquor store—and liquor stores were forced to be closed on Sundays (well, if you didn’t want 3.2 beer)—I was forced to branch out. And branch out I did. There’s a straight line between Minnesota's lack of Sunday sales pre-2017 and the birth of this site.

However, even though I drank a lot less beer overall, I still really enjoyed trying new ones. If I hadn’t had it before, I wanted it. Though I’ve greatly tapered off in recent years, I still have over 1,500 unique beers checked into my Untappd profile—just over 100 new beers per year on average. Not too shabby.

Anyway, all of that was to explain why there’s a beer review on a bourbon blog. Mostly, because I like beer. And since Four Roses was nice enough to offer a sample of their recent collaboration with New Belgium, there was no way I could say no. One of my favorite bourbon makers and a brewery that I enjoy a lot of beer from. It seemed like it was made just for me. That is, if I liked barrel-aged beers… but we’ll get to that later. Here’s what the press release has to say about the process behind this beer:

  • Four Roses collects charred oak chips from inside their bourbon barrels, which contain caramelized wood sugars that add notes of brown sugar, vanilla, and toffee, and add color to the whiskey while it ages.

  • A barrel maker in Minnesota toasts a custom blend of oak spirals which are then soaked in Four Roses’ bourbon.

  • New Belgium's master brewing engineers spent months figuring out exactly how to construct a series of custom, stainless-steel vessels to hold the charred oak and wood spirals to infuse the beer.

  • New Belgium's high-rye base ale is circulated through these vessels during maturation, imparting the beautiful flavor notes from the charred oak and bourbon-soaked spirals.

Ok, lets pour a cold one and see how this tastes.

Oakspire Bourbon Barrel Ale

Purchase Info: This sample was provided at no cost for review purposes. It is available at my local liquor store for $13.99 for a six-pack.

Nose: Very biscuity with caramel and a faint hint of pine.

Mouth: Caramel, malty, biscuity, nutty, and you can certainly taste the bourbon and barrel influences.

IMAGE: A hand drawn smiley face which denotes that I like the product.

Thoughts: Ok, so first thing to get on the table: I don’t usually like barrel-aged beers. I find them too sweet. I like a bitter beer with only enough sweetness to balance it out a bit. My go-to pour these days is still a hazy IPA. I like that tropical flavor. That, or a sour. I love a good sour beer. They’re very refreshing. But the good news is that my wife really enjoys barrel-aged beers. So, in a break from tradition, I decided to ask her to give her thoughts:

I like it. While it’s still sweet and boozy, what I particularly enjoy about this one is that it isn’t nearly as sweet or boozy as other barrel-aged beers I’ve had. It’s got a hint of bourbon, but you can still taste the beer. Sometimes they get overwhelmed by the barrel.

There you have it. Wife approved. And I have to agree, I also like this more than other barrel-aged beers I’ve had. Especially ice-cold. Once it warms up, it gets a bit too sweet for me. I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth, though.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, 2025

I’d like to thank Four Roses and their PR team for sending this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: A sample bottle of Four Roses 2025 Limited Edition Small Batch bourbon sits on a wooden deck rail, surrounded by lush greenery in the background. Label lists four 13–19 year recipes.

It’s that time of year again when we look forward to bourbon that most of us will never taste. It’s the annual Autumn Release Season, when Kentucky distilleries put out products designed to get people talking about their brand. Though many of us have salivated at the thought of trying these releases, everyone involved knows they’re primarily marketing tools. You hear glowing reviews from folks like me, can’t find a bottle, and maybe you’ll pick up one of the brand’s standard offerings instead.

Honestly, I’m sure that’s still the rationale. But more and more, I’m hearing people scoff at the price rather than salivate over the opportunity. For example, I bought my first two bottles of the 2009 edition of Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch in 2011 for $80 each. They sat on shelves that long. In fact, the first bottle I picked up was at a bourbon tasting hosted by a local distributor trying to clear out the inventory so they could make room for that year’s release.

In the years since—and noting that $80 was the retail price in my area, which tends to be higher than MSRP due to local taxes—the price of the release has jumped an eye-popping 311%. If it had only kept pace with inflation, that $80 would be $117.35 today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator. At $249 per bottle, I can see why people are scoffing. In fact, I got this comment on last year’s review that sums up what I’ve been hearing perfectly (edited slightly for clarity):

I last purchased Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition in 2014 for $75.00. It became harder to find, and once the price exceeded 125? I tapped out. I would enter the yearly Mellow Moments Club raffles mostly for fun, and if I happened to get picked? Good excuse for a quick trip to KY LOL!! These days, the prices are so out of whack (Four Roses certainly wasn’t losing money in ‘14 @75 bucks !!), I refuse to be gouged, and that’s what these prices are. This is no longer a cool release geared toward enthusiasts, but instead a pure profit and marketing gimmick aimed at flippers. I, too, am a Four Roses fanboy, but these days I’ll stick to the standard shelf releases (all excellent IMO) while the hoards swarm to Single Barrel Barrel Proof (an absurd $100 these days when Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is $75-$80) and the Limited Edition. I lament no longer seeking Single Barrel Barrel Proof as 10.5 years old is my personal sweet spot, and several recipes are all time favorites. I sincerely hope that at some point, many of these sit on shelves and rot as consumers wake up, and perhaps producers will restore sanity to at least the Single Barrel Barrel Proof pricing. Even with inflation, the Single Barrel Barrel Proof price should not exceed the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof price level in the current inflationary market. The gouging is simply unacceptable to this long-time Four Roses consumer.

In an era of distillery closings, bankruptcies, and industry layoffs, continuing to price your core customers out of the market doesn’t seem like the best strategy. And I know that if the folks actually making the whiskey had their say, they’d want everyone who wanted a bottle to get one. That’s one reason why this year’s release includes over 16,500 bottles for the U.S. market alone. In fact, Four Roses Master Distiller Brent Elliott addressed this during the media call Q&A. Here’s a transcription of his answer—with bracketed text showing my best guess of some garbled audio:

I don't really ever hear criticism, but maybe [there’s] a negative outlook for the future of the category. I try to stay positive. I mean, we're still, as a brand, we're growing out of [a category that’s] facing a lot of challenges. And whether those are, you know, is it cyclical? Is it economic? Is it [a] post-COVID wake-up call because that sort of artificially inflated everything? Is it all that? Is it a little bit of all these things? I don't know. But obviously, it's a more challenging environment than it was even three years ago. So I just tell everyone, don't worry. You know, we're not going anywhere. We're still going to be [here]. We're actually probably more energized and offering more unique expressions than ever before. So, you know, speaking from Four Rose's perspective, nothing but positivity, you know, no worries here.

At a time when more consumers are turning to non-alcoholic options or increasingly legal cannabis products, raising the price from $220 last year to $249 this year feels like quite a choice. But it is what it is. And though I can’t swing $250 a bottle, I know some of you can—so I’ll stop here and get to the review. Because at the end of the day, this is delicious bourbon, and I’m lucky my wife and I each got a taste. I know that’s a privilege many folks don’t have.

Before we jump into the tasting notes, let’s look at the details from the media call. This year’s release was built around two batches of 13-year-old bourbon, both using the V yeast (one OESV, one OBSV). Master Distiller Brent Elliott wanted to capture a bit of the “classic Four Roses flavor profile.” Famously, the flagship Four Roses Single Barrel uses that V yeast (and if you want to know more about that whole Four Roses yeast bit, check out last year’s review where I focused on that exclusively). The V strain typically brings notes of apricot, pear, and sweet barrel characteristics like vanilla. Building on that, the final blend also includes a 19-year-old OESV for added oak influence and a 13-year-old OBSK to bring in spice and depth. Here’s the final blend:

  • OBSV 13 year old = 38%

  • OBSK 13 year old= 17%

  • OESV 13 year old= 35%

  • OESV 19 year old= 10%

And now, after all of that, let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, 2025

Purchase Info: This 100 mL sample was provided at no cost by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $249 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $16.60

Details: 54.5% ABV. A blend of 38% 13-year-old OBSV, 17% 13-year-old OBSK, 35% 13-year-old OESV, and 10% 19-year-old OESV.

Nose: Caramel, vanilla, stone fruit, JuicyFruit gum, herbal mint, and oak.

Mouth: Follows the nose with notes of stone fruit, herbal mint, JuicyFruit gum, cinnamon, caramel, allspice, and oak.

Finish: Medium in warmth and length. Notes of clove, allspice, cinnamon, and oak.

IMAGE: a hand-drawn smiley face that denotes I like the product.

Thoughts: I’ve already covered my feelings about the price. And I’ve mentioned how tasty this is. But let’s dig a little deeper. When I think of Four Roses, I think of stone fruit and JuicyFruit gum—the flavor it had back in the '80s and '90s when I was a kid chewing it (not really sure if that has changed in the intervening years). This was built around those flavors, and it shows. Last year, I said the bourbon was good, but I wouldn’t have identified it as Four Roses by taste alone. This year? No question. It’s Four Roses through and through. It’s a really good bourbon. But if, like me, you can’t—or won’t—pay the premium, go grab a bottle of Single Barrel or Small Batch. They’ve never let me down.

And as a final word on price, Four Roses are not the only ones that are following what seems (to this consumer) to be a strange pricing strategy for the time we are living in, they all are. I fear that the industry I love will increasingly price the people who built it out of the market and that there won’t be a following group of consumers to pick up the slack so that we still get yummy bourbons into our old age. So I feel like I should mention that Four Roses is actually putting out some special releases that are more affordable. Their 100 proof Single Barrel Collection (Red Labels) is MSRP of $50 each, if you can find it and your retailer is able to sell it for that. I bought two in July while traveling in Chicago so I know they’re out there.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.