Distillery tours are an amazing experience and if you are ever near one I recommend dropping what you are doing to go! Four Roses is my favorite bourbon and I wanted to share my experience of the Distillery Legacy Tour they offer. This was my first time going to the new Four Roses Visitors Center that opened in 2022 and I could not wait to see it. The smell in the air when you are approaching a distillery is something you have to witness in person to truly understand. There is nothing else like it! I went on a bright but cool March afternoon to check out the distillery, learn a little and drink some bourbon!
Where is Four Roses Located?
Four Roses has two campuses, the Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentukcy and the bottling facility in Cox’s Creek, Kentucky. The Lawrenceburg location is located on an estate that has been involved with bourbon since 1910! JTS Brown purchased the property, built a distillery and that land has been used for bourbon production ever since! Lawrenceburg has has a brand new visitor’s center, their yeast lab and active distillery where the new make (white dog, white lightning) is produced. The new make is then stored and shipped to the Cox’s Creek location (~40 miles away) where it is barreled, aged and allowed to mature in warehouses. The Cox’s Creek bottling facility is where the mature bourbon is bottled and where groups come in to make their private selections of barrel strength single barrels! Cox’s Creek has a small gift shop and also offers tours.
The Four Roses Legacy Tour
I was able to purchase my ticket for the Legacy Tour via telephone but reservations are also available online. As a Mellow Moments Member (Official Four Roses Fan Club) you are gifted one free tour per year so I cashed that in! Four Roses is located on Bonds Mill Road, a narrow but fairly straight road and you can slow begin to see the distillery peaking over the horizon as you approach. Just a beautiful drive!
As you weave through the different distillery buildings the new visitors center is nestled in the back on the distillery’s campus. Walking in I was amazed with the Spanish style architecture and the elegance of the outside and inside of the building. All of the staff working were super nice and helpful. I checked in for my tour and made my way to the back of the gift shop where they were selling Four Roses Barrel Strength Single Barrel OBSO! Barrel strength bottles are not always available so that was a special treat. Recently MSRP was raised on barrel strength single barrel bottles and my price was $106 after tax. I hate the price hike but it’s probably priced correctly with current market demand.
After that I hung out for a few minutes and looked around at the merch. In a section located directed off the gift shop called “Al’s Archive Collection” there were dozens of historic bottles that were displayed dating back to before prohibition! I should have gotten some pictures of those because it was really cool to see how Four Roses has evolved over time. When the tour started it began in a very elegant room called the Parlor, were we listened to our tour guide Grayson and a short recorded message from Master Distiller Brent Elliot. After a brief introduction to Four Roses we were given a receiver and headset so that we could hear our tour guide. We then began touring the grounds and heading to the distillery.
One of our first stops was by the yeast room! Other than tasting the bourbon, this is the most exciting part of Four Roses for me. I have a background in biology and the fact that a distillery cultures, grows and depends on these tiny living organisms to ferment sugars and create alcohol is amazing! Especially here at Four Roses where the yeast strains are so prominent and they use 5 different ones. I will write an entire article about the Four Roses yeast strains in the future because the story behind how they were acquired, used, currently stored (and one previous batch of bourbon had a famous mutated yeast strain) is fascinating.
We then arrived at the distillery! Again, the Spanish Style architecture is breathtaking, you can feel the history and smell the distillery in action! Grayson gave some more history about the architecture, the 10 unique recipes Four Roses has to offer and about the distillery itself. Before entering the distillery we had one more stop.
We weaved around the distillery to the grain drop off area. Four Roses uses corn from Central Indiana, rye from Western Europe and barley from Great Falls, Montana. They receive around four corn shipments daily, two rye shipments daily and one barley shipment per week. This makes sense because their deliveries are fairly proportional to the grains used in the B mashbill (60% corn, 35% rye, 5% malted barley) and E mashbill (75% corn, 20% rye, 5% malted barley). The two different mashbills and five yeast strains are one of the many reasons Four Roses is unique and so special. The 10 different recipes provide flavor variety and many different options to blend to target certain flavor profiles in the annual Limited Edition Small Batch. The 10 barrels stacked below represent the 10 unique recipes Four Roses produces.
Once we went into the distillery it was very hot and very loud. The headsets that were handed out came in handy and it was still hard to hear. When we first walked in there were two large doublers to the left and two large 40 feet tall, 100% copper column stills to the right!
We walked past these with a little backstory and then we proceeded to enter, the most interesting and visually stunning, a room full of fermentation tanks! These tanks were at all different steps of fermentation with some being very active with a lot of bubbles and heat coming off of them. Some of the other tanks were just getting started fermenting or almost completely finished. The sights, smells and temperature were something you just have to be there to witness. Our guide even let us dip our hand into the the fermentation tank to taste the mash. It was very grainy and a little taste went a long way. The entire fermentation process takes 3-4 days from start to finish.
Once we were finished in the fermentation room, we turned around and went back through the distillery. We walked past the column stills and stopped by the doublers where Grayson explained more of the distillation process. After fermentation the distillers beer, around 8% alcohol, is moved to a holding tank. When the distillery is ready the distillers beer will be placed in the column still and heated up. The heat will vaporize the alcohol and then as the gas moves up the still it will cool down and condense back into a liquid. This will concentrate the alcohol leaving a liquid around 132 proof.
The liquid is then distilled a second time in the doubler to remove impurities. After the doubler, the resulting liquid (white dog or new make) is around 138-140 proof which by law is too strong to be used to make bourbon with. The new make must be no higher than 125 proof entering the barrel. At Four Roses they add water to bring their their barrel entry proof to 120. Four Roses uses a lower barrel entry proof to provide better quality and flavorful bourbon.
We exited the distillery and made our way back to the visitors center. We entered into a side door into their tasting room. It was a medium sized room with a huge banner explaining the Four Roses mashbills, yeasts and 10 recipes. In the middle of the room there were tables set up with pitchers of water, complimentary Four Roses water glass, water droppers, palate cleansing crackers and a flight of four bourbons. Four Roses Bourbon, Four Roses Small Batch, Four Roses Single Barrel 100 Proof and Four Roses Small Batch Select.
Grayson walked us through each expression and explained the recipes and flavors that might be expected. We tasted lowest proof to highest and all were very enjoyable. Grayson did a great job and overall the tour is a great overview of Four Roses, the basic fermentation and distillation process and what makes Four Roses unique. I would highly recommend going to explore the grounds, learn more about America’s official spirit and visit the AMAZING new visitors center. There are other tours available and I am excited to try those out on another visit!
Bar 1888 and Four Roses Single Barrel OBSF Review
Once the tour concluded I looked around the gift shop a bit more then headed over to Bar 1888 in the visitors center to grab a drink! They had the four standard Four Roses offerings I tasted on the tour, a cocktail list, a barrel strength single barrel OESK, OBSF and the Four Roses Limited Edition 2022! After reading the label and barrel info on the two barrel strength options, I decided on the OBSF. This is a Gift Shop selection made by Master Distiller Brent Elliot. OBSF is the high rye recipe (60% corn, 35% rye, 5% malted barley) and uses the F yeast (herbal notes). This particular barrel was aged 11 years and 2 months, in the South side of warehouse R, on the 76th rick, on the 6th tier (the highest at Four Roses) in the 11th position (K).
Four Roses OBSF Barrel Strength Single Barrel RS 76-6K Review
My pour was $20 for an ounce, poured neat in a glencairn and let rest for a few minutes. You can see the backdrop of Bar 1888 is stunning!
Color – Dark amber with highlights of red, bordering on a mahogany.
Aroma – So intense that I starting picking up the aroma far away from the glencairn. Strong herbal notes first followed by a brown sugar sweetness. The alcohol is present but softer than what a regular 125 proof bourbon would be.
Taste – Caramel and vanilla hit the front of the palate but it quickly transitions to rye spice and oak on the mid palate. The alcohol tingles the tongue very nicely. Nice earthy tobacco notes and a hint of mint. Above average mouthfeel, I wouldn’t say thick and creamy but close. The high amount of rye in the mashbill probably hamper the mouthfeel a tad.
Finish – Very deep long finish with tobacco, mint and oak that linger in your mouth. Intense is the right word even for an experienced bourbon drinker. The mint lingers and leaves a refreshing feeling on your palate.
Rating – 9.1/10
Thoughts – This is excellent. The proof is apparent but not overwhelming. Nice intense flavors that leave you wanting more. This is strong and something I would want to enjoy neat after a big meal. I tend to prefer my higher proof bourbons or barrel strengths after a nice meal (on most occasions not all). OBSF is supposed to be earthy and spicy and this hits on all cylinders. Thrilled the visitor center had a tier 6 at their tasting bar, Bar 1888!
While I’m was sipping on my OBSF I also presented my Mellow Moments membership card and received my free gift! An awesome Mellow Moments copper mule cup! So glad I made the trip to Four Roses for a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon. The staff could not have been more welcoming and nice. The grounds were in pristine shape and my tour was fun and educational. Well done and I will be back soon!
Debonair Gentlemen 
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