New Riff Spring 2024 Releases
June 2024 - New Riff Distilling has released four new whiskies for the Spring 2024 season. This consists of two bourbons and two ryes, and they fall under two brands: Silver Grove, which has seen one previous release (a bourbon, in 2023), and Ol’ New Riff, which is a new branding style.
The Silver Grove brand returns after its inaugural release in 2023 - this time, both a bourbon and a rye are offered. Silver Grove was originally created to celebrate a 1933 bottling of ‘Silver Grove’ whisky, which was distilled in the Cincinnati area before prohibition. The bourbon and rye in these bottles was aged on the two highest levels of New Riff’s five-floor rickhouse, where temperatures are the highest; these whiskies became available on April 23, 2024. A portion of the proceeds from these releases benefits the Silver Grove Community Foundation in northern Kentucky.
The 2024 Silver Grove bourbon employs a mashbill of 65% corn, 30% rye, and 5% malted barley; its counterpart, the 2024 release of Silver Grove rye whisky, has a mashbill of 95% rye grain and 5% malted rye.
Both bottles are offered at barrel proof: the bourbon has a strength of 58.1% ABV (116.2 proof), while the rye has a strength of 58.2% ABV (116.4 proof). They both are aged for 4 years, and they come with a suggested retail price of $55.99.
Ol’ New Riff is a new series from New Riff Distilling, and these first releases were available through the New Riff Whiskey Club. The goal was to imagine and attempt to reproduce a bourbon in New Riff’s style, as if it had been produced 120+ years ago, in the late 19th century. This was done through the use of several specific ingredients and processes:
Heirloom grains: a mixture of the Blue Clarage and Yellow Leaming corn varieties, along with the Balboa rye grain varietal
Air-dried staves: no kiln drying was used on the oak that made up the barrels
Low barrel entry proof: distillate was cut to 51.5% ABV (103 proof) before it was put into the barrels for aging
Ol’ New Riff Kentucky Straight Bourbon has a mashbill of 60% heirloom corn (a mix of Blue Clarage and Yellow Leaming), 26% Balboa rye, and 14% two-row malted barley; the Kentucky Straight Rye version uses a mashbill of 65% Balboa rye, 20% heirloom corn, and 15% two-row malted barley.
Both of these whiskies were aged for 6 years, and they come with the ‘bottled in bond’ designation, meaning the bottling strength is an even 50% ABV (100 proof). They became available through the New Riff Whiskey Club on May 23, 2024; the suggested retail price was $54.99 for each bottle.
Like all of New Riff’s whiskies, these Silver Grove and Ol’ New Riff releases are not chill filtered, ensuring that the maximum amount of flavor makes it into the final product. All four of these releases are now available for tasting at New Riff’s Aquifer bar at the distillery in Newport, Kentucky.
