Four Roses Barrel Head Stencil, OES backwards "E"

[namadio]

All, I found this post about 4R barrel head stencils. 

A friend of mine owns a distillery in town and he recently purchased a barrel from Four Roses.  The Recipe code looks like it says OES with a backwards "E" as the 4th letter.

 

Has anyone seen anything like this before?  I don't know how the stamp or stencil works.  Are they preset for the recipe codes and there are different stamps/stencils or do they prep it letter by letter and use it for the full batch of OESO being barreled that day or something.  Would be wicked cool if they were experimenting with something new......

 

 

Edit: Links to other barrel heads I found on google.  They all seem very clear on the recipe marking, except for the one missing a recipe, etsy fake maybe.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2017 by namadio
Added pictures

[0895]

The backward "E" is for the reject barrels going to bulliet...

 

Just kidding, but seriously, you could probably just email them and ask.

I wonder if it's a accidental backward "F" with extra ink smudge?

[flahute]

There actually is an E yeast that Bulleitt uses for blending. Not sure if that's what's on the Barrel head in question but it does exist. I'm told it's not very good on its own but that it's a good blending component. 

[Kpiz]

15 minutes ago, flahute said:

There actually is an E yeast that Bulleitt uses for blending. Not sure if that's what's on the Barrel head in question but it does exist. I'm told it's not very good on its own but that it's a good blending component. 

 

Thanks, Steve - I've never seen anything about an E yeast before. 

 

It would make sense that this is what's happening here, because putting the 'E' backwards would help avoid confusing it with 'F' (like how many airplanes skip seat 'E'). But is Four Roses still supplying Bulleit with bourbon? I know their contract ended but I'm not sure if they already had whiskey aging that was intended for Bulleit.

[namadio]

1 hour ago, namadio said:

A friend of mine owns a brewery.

 

 

I meant brewery if that wasn't clear from the context.

 

37 minutes ago, flahute said:

There actually is an E yeast that Bulleitt uses for blending. Not sure if that's what's on the Barrel head in question but it does exist. I'm told it's not very good on its own but that it's a good blending component. 

 

Wow that's cool!  Does MGP also have the E yeast then?

 

Edited February 1, 2017 by namadio

[jvd99]

If the stencils are actually individual letters, it could be a backwards E - just human error , but a pretty bad one because E shouldn't even be at the end of the four letter sequence, backwards or not.  Otherwise, I'd say it's a messed up, smudged, reversed F.  I'd e-mail and ask.  Beyond that, I'd have to delve into some conspiracy theories and the like.

[Limegoldconvertible68]

It looks like an OESB to me.  

[amg]

7 minutes ago, Limegoldconvertible68 said:

It looks like an OESB to me.  

There's a 'B' yeast?

[Paddy]

It does looks like a poorly, 'double clutched', stamp.

 

I also thought it looked like a B.  Maybe, a B for Bulleit, or possibly, a personal barrel for Baron Trump when he turns 21? 

 

[meadeweber]

48 minutes ago, Limegoldconvertible68 said:

It looks like an OESB to me.  

 

24 minutes ago, Paddy said:

It does looks like a poorly, 'double clutched', stamp.

 

I also thought it looked like a B.  Maybe, a B for Bulleit, or possibly, a personal barrel for Baron Trump when he turns 21? 

 

Where are you guys getting "B" from?  It does not look like a B.

 

I think Steve and Kpiz have most likely got it right.

[flahute]

2 hours ago, Kpiz said:

 

Thanks, Steve - I've never seen anything about an E yeast before. 

 

It would make sense that this is what's happening here, because putting the 'E' backwards would help avoid confusing it with 'F' (like how many airplanes skip seat 'E'). But is Four Roses still supplying Bulleit with bourbon? I know their contract ended but I'm not sure if they already had whiskey aging that was intended for Bulleit.

 

They don't publicize it but an eagle eyed friend of mine saw the OESE and OBSE labels on some sample drawers in the Bulleit Stillhouse B lab among all the other recipes. I was there a month after him and they had rearranged things so you couldn't see it anymore, but he was smart enough to take photos.

Being the persistent types we are we asked Brent and he confirmed it.

 

Four Roses is no longer supplying Bulleit but there's still a lot of aging barrels that Bulleit owns that haven't been dumped yet.

 

2 hours ago, namadio said:

Wow that's cool!  Does MGP also have the E yeast then?

 

 

It likely came over from Seagram's like the others so MGP probably has it but I don't know for sure or if they do anything with it.

[0895]

4 hours ago, 0895 said:

The backward "E" is for the reject barrels going to bulliet...

 

 

Wait,

So I was actually, sort of, unknowingly right?

Whoa......

[namadio]

2 minutes ago, 0895 said:

 

Wait,

So I was actually, sort of, unknowingly right?

Whoa......

it would appear that way... you have a sarcastic third eye, the "sight"

[Paddy]

2 hours ago, meadeweber said:

 

Where are you guys getting "B" from?  It does not look like a B.

 

I think Steve and Kpiz have most likely got it right.

 

Are you suggesting that my 'alternative reality' version could be incorrect?

 

Anyway, it just looks poorly stamped to me.  So, if I envision that the vertical bar on the left (of what appears to be a number 3, or backwards E) had printed, it leaves one to imagine that it could have been a B.

 

Which fits nicely with my theory, which is noted upthread.  It's my story, and......

Edited February 1, 2017 by Paddy

[0895]

26 minutes ago, Paddy said:

 

 

Anyway, it just looks poorly stamped to me.  So, if I envision that the vertical bar on the left (of what appears to be a number 3, or backwards E) had printed, it leaves one to imagine that it could have been a B.

 

Which fits nicely with my theory, which is noted upthread.  It's my story, and......

 

If it helps, I toyed around with it looking somewhat like a "B" too. 

[mbroo5880i]

The way I understand it is that it is a hidden subliminal message like listening to a Led Zepplin album backwards.  If you spin the barrel head counter-clockwise and close your left eye you will clearly see the the words "Bourbon Whiskey."

[mosugoji64]

I played around with the image a bit in Photoshop tonight. When I copied that letter and flipped it around it closely matched the "E" in "Whiskey" above. BUT, it also could complete the first "B" in "Bourbon" but since the second "B" isn't clear, I didn't have a good example with which to compare. I'm leaning toward upside-down E at this point. 

[rcornel]

On ‎2‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 3:11 PM, flahute said:

 

They don't publicize it but an eagle eyed friend of mine saw the OESE and OBSE labels on some sample drawers in the Bulleit Stillhouse B lab among all the other recipes. I was there a month after him and they had rearranged things so you couldn't see it anymore, but he was smart enough to take photos.

Being the persistent types we are we asked Brent and he confirmed it.

 

Four Roses is no longer supplying Bulleit but there's still a lot of aging barrels that Bulleit owns that haven't been dumped yet.

 

 

It likely came over from Seagram's like the others so MGP probably has it but I don't know for sure or if they do anything with it.

"E" yeast at Seagrams/MGP always represented the use of dry yeast rather than propagated yeast. This dry yeast was normally emergency yeast if the yeast tubs were not ready to be used.

Chances are, Bulleit selected a common whiskey yeast strain that is dried and had FR use it for their contracted whiskey.

[tanstaafl2]

3 minutes ago, rcornel said:

"E" yeast at Seagrams/MGP always represented the use of dry yeast rather than propagated yeast. This dry yeast was normally emergency yeast if the yeast tubs were not ready to be used.

Chances are, Bulleit selected a common whiskey yeast strain that is dried and had FR use it for their contracted whiskey.

 

Well now, that could certainly help explain how Bulleit bourbon could come from Four Roses and still be relatively "meh"!

[kcgumbohead]

4 hours ago, tanstaafl2 said:

 

Well now, that could certainly help explain how Bulleit bourbon could come from Four Roses and still be relatively "meh"!

I have often wondered the same.

 

[namadio]

9 hours ago, rcornel said:

"E" yeast at Seagrams/MGP always represented the use of dry yeast rather than propagated yeast. This dry yeast was normally emergency yeast if the yeast tubs were not ready to be used.

Chances are, Bulleit selected a common whiskey yeast strain that is dried and had FR use it for their contracted whiskey.

Do you have some insider knowledge of Seagrams/LDI/MGP?

[Kpiz]

I did a private barrel selection at FR recently and asked about this. Mandy, the Private Selection Manager, wasn't sure about a backwards E in the recipe specifically, but said that if there's ever a "weird" recipe (something other than the standard 10 recipes) it means it was one of the first couple runs they completed after cleaning some of the equipment (which she said can throw the flavor profile off a bit). So that could be the case here.

 

However, she also said that having DG in place of FR (on the bottom line before the recipe) indicates it was made for Diageo (to become Bulleit). So this was definitely made for Diageo, and it seems to me the most logical scenario is that the backwards "E" in the recipe is another indication that this is not one of the standard recipes (perhaps the E yeast Steve and rcornel mention above).