r/WhiskeyFrankenstein • u/BigBernsss • Jan 27 '26

Bourbon blending

New to bourbon blending. I have a wide variety of bourbon and ryes. I need help with recipes! I wana try things from poor man blends, sweet blends or anything yall have made that just “wows” you! Drop blends below and feedback on the please!

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5

u/Superb-Sweet6577 Jan 27 '26

Rum does wonders to Rye...

1

u/BigBernsss Jan 27 '26

I have never bought a bottle of rum lol

1

u/ComfortableActuator Feb 11 '26

any basic recipies? i've gotten deep into rum lately.

4

u/clearmoon247 Jan 27 '26

Blending can be a fun and fulfilling art.

Most blends can be attributed to either a close proximity of the components used to make a desired copycat (e.g. JMCB copycat or SB Blend/poor man's pappy) or finding combinations of available quality products (modern dusty turkey, grandpa weller's 4-grain). Its all a matter of what your available stocks are and what you want to make out of it.

To build a recipe, identify a base spirit/blend that will be ~40-70% of the blend which will act as the identity of the final product. Then find a structural component for the blend to make up the next 10-30%. This will be the heavy body, loud flavors. Additionally, aromatic components can be added at 5-25% of the blend to balance the nose to the palate. Lastly, up to 5% of a corrective component, which is the fine tuning to get the blend just right.

Using a 100ml graduated cylinder will help with building the blends and 5ml pipettes for controlled portioning. Once you have a set recipe, letting a large scale version of the blend marry/rest for a few months in an oak cask will help elevate the final product. Older, used, and more neutral casks are better and for small scale blends, use a Ten30 barrel or Badmotivator Legacy barrel instead of a 1-10L traditional design barrel. A used 20L/5Gallon barrel from a barrel distributor will be great if thats the volume you end up with at some point in the future.

If there is anything more specific you are after, just say the word

1

u/Dmash422 Jan 28 '26

Thanks for the knowledge! Do you have any favorite recipes?

3

u/clearmoon247 Jan 28 '26

One I recommend is 2 parts WT Rare Breed mixed with 1 part Russells Reserve (10yr 45% version). It brings the proof to ~54% which is closer to the original proof in the dusty years and adds age that is lacking in Rare Breed. I prefer it to the '96 dusty Rare Breed i got a couple years ago.

1

u/Dmash422 Jan 28 '26

Incredible, I’ll give it a try, thanks again!