Revenge of the Roses Part 2

Revenge of the Roses Part 2

Yesterday began our newest craziness, Revenge of the Roses!  We broke down the two different mashbills that make up Four Roses' ten different recipes.  Today we're zooming in a bit further into the insane whiskey geekery and digging into the five different yeasts that flavor these beasts.

Today we're going to look at five recipes, all with the high-rye "OB" mashbill, and with each different yeast: F, K, O, Q, and V.

OBSF (11 Years 8 Months, 59.1%)

Hot and cracking spice with big grassy mint and fresh farm spices like tarragon, basil, and honeysuckle.

OBSK (12 Years, 53.7%)

This one's kind of a straight spice kick with a laid back body and a base of sort of olive oil / butter base to it.

OBSO (10 Years 4 Months, 55.3%)

This is a doughy baking spice flavor with cinnamon, flour, brown butter, and some garden/floral stuff going on in the background.

OBSQ (10 Years 4 Months 58.8%)

Very nice and spicy with an overripe honeydew melon edge to it.  Sweetness in the nose, moving to a nice bold spice in the palate and finish.

OBSV (11 Years 3 Months 54.2%)

Definitely the most mellow and rounded of the B-series.  This one has just an edge of spice with a very earthy herbal character and moving into that creamy cake icing taste.  Very smooth with the shortest finish of all the "B"s!

Phew

Ok that was a lot of tasting.  So obviously the high-rye "B" mashbill bottles were all in the spicy and hot category.  The OBSV was the most mellow, but still these were high flavor, high intensity, cracking in-your-face cask strength whiskies!

Favorites

It's tough to really call a favorite here.  These are all sort of punchy, awesome, kicking, spicy beasts.  They're all at cask strength which definitely doesn't hurt.  We'll call out the OBSF, with its combination of mint and spice which was definitely compelling, and also the OBSQ which combed the spice and fruitiness to great effect.

Tune in tomorrow when we line up all the "OE" varieties and get to the bottom of all ten recipes!