Mako254 Posted July 5, 2017 Share Posted July 5, 2017 (edited) I'm sure many others have done it before me many times over. 3 down, 7 to go. I'm still pretty new to bourbon and have tried a lot of bottles w/ out really having a plan or strategy to figure out what I like. A 100 proof four roses single barrel was the first bourbon that really made me say 'so this is whay people are talking about'. A OESF pour at a friends confirmed it for me. Can't wait to try the different mash bills. Edited July 5, 2017 by Mako254 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy Posted July 5, 2017 Share Posted July 5, 2017 ^^^Welcome to 'the cult'! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoustonNit Posted July 5, 2017 Share Posted July 5, 2017 ^Nice start haven't seen any of those around for months in Houston. Also a TW pick wish they could get soE here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako254 Posted July 5, 2017 Author Share Posted July 5, 2017 1 hour ago, HoustonNit said: ^Nice start haven't seen any of those around for months in Houston. Also a TW pick wish they could get so E here. The OF single barrel kind of lurking in the pic is very good as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 Paddy beat me to it. You are now a member of the 4R cult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako254 Posted July 6, 2017 Author Share Posted July 6, 2017 6 minutes ago, flahute said: Paddy beat me to it. You are now a member of the 4R cult. Is there a secret handshake that I need to know about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 You get the handshake when you've completed your first set of all 10 PS recipes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishnbowljoe Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 23 minutes ago, Mako254 said: Is there a secret handshake that I need to know about? No handshake for now, but we will need to check your wallet. Enjoy! Cheers! Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeTerp Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 This is a noble quest. I love me some Four Roses Private Selections. I find that my favorite to date has been the K's and I generally prefer the high rye B recipes to the E's, but I've had ones of each that I've really enjoyed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako254 Posted July 6, 2017 Author Share Posted July 6, 2017 4 minutes ago, JoeTerp said: This is a noble quest. I love me some Four Roses Private Selections. I find that my favorite to date has been the K's and I generally prefer the high rye B recipes to the E's, but I've had ones of each that I've really enjoyed. It is fairly intimidating. Not sure how to attack 10 bottles. Crack and drink em as I go? Get all 10 and invite over some buddies for an epic tasting? I am a self admitted novice but I am keeping track of bottles, age, ware house etc and plan on notes when i do crack them. How did others go about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 34 minutes ago, Mako254 said: It is fairly intimidating. Not sure how to attack 10 bottles. Crack and drink em as I go? Get all 10 and invite over some buddies for an epic tasting? I am a self admitted novice but I am keeping track of bottles, age, ware house etc and plan on notes when i do crack them. How did others go about it? Just dive in. Be spontaneous about it. Your preferences will reveal themselves over time. Here's the thing you need to know about the 10 recipes: some of those yeasts when combined with the two mashbills are just odd. This is not criticism by the way. Just saying that they are very different from what you expect bourbon to taste like if your barometer consists of what the other major producers are making. My first 4R PS was OESK. I thought it was downright weird when I first opened it. Wasn't until 1/3 of the way through the bottle that I started to "get it". My next one was OBSK. Was taken aback by the high rye component of the mashbill at first. It's now become my favorite. So crack them open, give them a whirl, and give yourself plenty of time to adjust if you are not digging them at first. I thought 4R just wasn't for me when I first tried it. I'm now a standard bearer for the cult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeTerp Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 1 hour ago, Mako254 said: It is fairly intimidating. Not sure how to attack 10 bottles. Crack and drink em as I go? Get all 10 and invite over some buddies for an epic tasting? I am a self admitted novice but I am keeping track of bottles, age, ware house etc and plan on notes when i do crack them. How did others go about it? It's however you want to do it. I couldn't imagine doing all 10 in one setting, but I did enjoy tasting the B and E version next to each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kpiz Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 Welcome brother Mako.I have to admit that my cult status was waning recently, but then I helped do a FR private barrel selection and now I'm back in 100%.As for tasting all 10 recipes, you could save a reference sample from each bottle you buy so that you can taste them all side by side, if you want to, sometime in the future. Seems like a good excuse to buy some 2oz or 4oz Boston round bottles, you'll probably want them anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako254 Posted July 6, 2017 Author Share Posted July 6, 2017 7 hours ago, Kpiz said: Welcome brother Mako. I have to admit that my cult status was waning recently, but then I helped do a FR private barrel selection and now I'm back in 100%. As for tasting all 10 recipes, you could save a reference sample from each bottle you buy so that you can taste them all side by side, if you want to, sometime in the future. Seems like a good excuse to buy some 2oz or 4oz Boston round bottles, you'll probably want them anyways. Thanks for the idea. Will certainly do that. Store across town has OESF and I'll be dropping by tomorrow to grab it. Curious to see the F yeast with the B and E mash bills. I appreciate y'all taking time for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako254 Posted July 7, 2017 Author Share Posted July 7, 2017 OESF, ten years. The next 6 will be a little more difficult as I think I've hit all available local spots. Going to try the F yeast side by side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kpiz Posted July 7, 2017 Share Posted July 7, 2017 OESO may be especially difficult to find, though you could possibly find one that was bottled a while ago. I'll post this in another thread soon but my understanding is that there will not be any more O yeast barrels available for PS until 2020. Luckily you already have an OBSO! Any idea when was that one bottled? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry in WashDC Posted July 7, 2017 Share Posted July 7, 2017 On 7/5/2017 at 11:53 PM, Mako254 said: It is fairly intimidating. Not sure how to attack 10 bottles. Crack and drink em as I go? Get all 10 and invite over some buddies for an epic tasting? I am a self admitted novice but I am keeping track of bottles, age, ware house etc and plan on notes when i do crack them. How did others go about it? Since they are single barrels, I don't keep notes, BUT I taste each one I buy right away under ideal conditions (in a chair watching baseball an hour or two after a nonspicy meal). If I love it, I'll go buy one or two more. If I just like it, I more often than not will wait for another 4R private selection. Using this approach, I have seven bottles, four recipes, and two open. I finished one of my two OBSOs last week (same barrel, 11 yrs 6 mos). Time to keep my eyes open again to fill that eighth spot. I don't care what recipe it will be so I'm sure I'll be happy to find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako254 Posted July 7, 2017 Author Share Posted July 7, 2017 1 hour ago, Kpiz said: OESO may be especially difficult to find, though you could possibly find one that was bottled a while ago. I'll post this in another thread soon but my understanding is that there will not be any more O yeast barrels available for PS until 2020. Luckily you already have an OBSO! Any idea when was that one bottled? Not sure. The bottle shop I picked it up from is not one I go to often, so I dont have a raport with any folks there. It is also close to campus and many employees are students, $60 750 ml bottles aren't really their thing. They had one OBSO (the one that I picked up) and several OESF. I'd say the bottle has been in store for several months. I'll keep an eye out for anymore O yeast bottles. I might have a tough time explaining multiples to my wife. She is still getting a grip on the 10 recipe part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcgumbohead Posted July 16, 2017 Share Posted July 16, 2017 This is a really fun undertaking, its a bit more $$ than when I did mine but having done it, no doubt its still very much worth it. Several great suggestions already posted on an "approach" I will add what I did to further confuse and complicate the issue. I gathered all 10 and each week I opened a new recipe, I followed yeast pairs (OBSO THEN OESO...). Focusing on one at a time over several nights gave be a baseline for each recipe. I later took a bit of eack and did a riff on a barrel strength yellow label, never tried the small batch but that would be fun too. I later circled back and revisited each to see if my initial impressions held up or not, in my case they did. I then had a hierarchy of preferences among the 10. Subsequent tastings of those recipes from other sources are forming a reference profile for how I taste each recipe ( this is afterall a long term project ????). Of the 10 there was only 1 I genuinely disliked, I have yet to sample another of that recipe but I believe mine had fallen off the bitter,tannic cliff before bottling, definitely on the steep downside of the bell curve. I took it and vatted it with another recipe that was OK, one I liked but didn't love. When all was said and done 6 of the 10 are buy em when I see em, the remaining 4 are taste first. Actually this WAS my approach but I hit my purchase goals and have moved on to bourbon zen. This is a cool experience you have ahead of you, take you time, enjoy and have fun. Cheers!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasled Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 I'm 6 down, 4 to go. If anyone coming to the UK wants to bring any of the following over, I'd be mightily chuffed.. OBSO OESK OESQ OESF Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Black Tot Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 I'd recommend you find a group of friends who want to split the costs of new explorations, and are also willing to help with the logistics of stocking up on what you love. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCwhammie Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 I started collecting when I was at the distillery the first week of April. I'll continue to buy a different one each time I see it. In my eyes, the standard Single Barrell can hold its own with all these private selections. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako254 Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 On 7/27/2017 at 3:59 PM, JCwhammie said: I started collecting when I was at the distillery the first week of April. I'll continue to buy a different one each time I see it. In my eyes, the standard Single Barrell can hold its own with all these private selections. Agree about the single barrel. It is a go to. I've got a line on two more bottles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeTerp Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 On 7/27/2017 at 3:59 PM, JCwhammie said: I started collecting when I was at the distillery the first week of April. I'll continue to buy a different one each time I see it. In my eyes, the standard Single Barrell can hold its own with all these private selections. I enjoy the standard single barrel, but these good private selections are a lot better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCFan Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 ^ I'd be leery of anything from Schnucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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