New Riff Maltster Series

New Riff Distilling (Newport, Kentucky) has released their Fall 2020 slate to their New Riff Whiskey Club. This slate included two new offerings they have dubbed “Maltsters”. According to the Whiskey Club website: “We’re pleased to introduce a project that explores the different malted grains used in a bourbon recipe and satisfies our curiosity – meet the Maltsters. Our distilling team delved in the their background as craft brewers and pulled out of their hat a couple of magical recipes: Matled Rye Bourbon and Malted Wheat Bourbon. These unique mashbills offer bold interpretations of traditional Bourbon styles, from a refined and sophisticated rye experience to a darker and deeper version of wheated Bourbon.”

As most Bourbon fans know, New Riff was founded in 2014 by Ken Lewis.  Alongside New Riff, Lewis launched the very popular OKI brand.  While New Riff was distilling and aging their own stock, OKI focused on 8 to 12 year old whiskey sourced from MGP in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.  In 2018, OKI released its last whiskey (at least the OKI owned by Lewis) and New Riff released the first of its own bourbon as a bottled-in-bond product.  Lewis and New Riff have been held up as an example in the industry for transparency to its customers. 

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Since 2018, New Riff has released a rye, developed a popular single barrel program for their bourbon and rye, and offered “riffs” on whiskeys with their peated “backsetter” bourbon and rye and a balboa rye.  Personally, I think their rye is my favorite product they have on the market.  I have had mixed impressions on their single barrel program as some are outstanding and some don’t rise to the “something special” level you’d expect in a single barrel.  I am not a fan of anything peated, so I have not tried the backsetter whiskeys. 

The Maltsters

I wanted to develop a baseline for my review of The Maltsters, so I started with a standard New Riff bottled-in-bond bourbon and then went on to the Maltster Wheat and the Maltster Rye.

There are two common points to mention first.  One, is the bottle.  The design of the New Riff bottle is modern and distinctive.  I also hate it.  Almost the entire bottle is either colored black or covered by a label thereby obscuring the whiskey in the bottle.  What is the color?  How much is left in the bottle?  You can’t tell. Two, is the color.  All three whiskeys share the same color in the glass: a very light amber or flax appearance.

New Riff Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon

  • Age: 4 years

  • Mashbill: 65% corn / 30% rye / 5% malted barley

  • Nose: The nose is pleasant.  Notes of citrus, vanilla, and mint are accompanied by a solid whiff of alcohol.

  • Taste: The citrus becomes a more well-defined orange.  The vanilla and mint stick around.  Oak also shows up here.

  • Finish: The finish is a musty, funky mix of oak and vanilla.

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Maltster Bourbon – Malted Wheat Bottled-in Bond

  • Age: 5+ years

  • Mashbill: 65% corn / 18% bohemian floor-malted wheat / 10% unmalted wheat / 7% dark wheat

  • Nose: I was encouraged by the aromas from this one.  Peach and butter were what I noticed first.  The sweetness from the wheat was apparent, too.

  • Taste: The taste was a a letdown after the nose.  There was an initial hint of sweetness and an oily, nuttiness like a cashew. That faded to the background quickly giving way to an astringent oaky flavor.  That could be from the barrel influence and/or from the tannins in the wheat.

  • Finish: The oak and tannins were prominent in the finish along with a bit of an almost metallic note. 

  • Note: Since I was surprised at how negative my first impression was of this one, I tried it again a day later.  Letting the bottle open up a bit helped mellow out the tannic nature of the whiskey, but the notes are basically the same.

  • Overall: I would have a hard time recommending buying a bottle of the wheat Maltster.  I would encourage you to give it a try if at a bar or a friend’s house, especially if you are a beer drinker.  The Maltster products seem to draw on the distillers’ experience in brewing more so than distillation.  Those who enjoy a lot of oak in their whiskey might also enjoy this one more than I did.

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Maltster Bourbon – Malted Rye Bottled-in-Bond

  • Age: 5+ years

  • Mashbill: 65% corn / 30% malted rye / 5% malted barley

  • Nose: The cherry on the nose of this one reminded me of some Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit’s I’ve had.  There is also a hint of cinnamon, but the dominant note to me is cherry.

  • Taste: The initial impression takes me to a cherry Coke.  There is some chocolate in here, too.

  • Finish: As with the other two New Riff bottles, this one has a prominent oak element on the finish.  The musty, funky vanilla noted on the finish of the standard bottled-in-bond is also present.

  • Overall: If you are a fan of New Riff and you like trying new things, then I would recommend buying a bottle of this if you can get your hands on one.  At $50 that isn’t a great risk of your whiskey budget. 

New Riff’s willingness to continue to experiment with their “whiskey riffs” is something I respect.New Riff has quickly reached a level of prominence in the Bourbon world based on their flagship whiskeys.They could easily coast based on the popularity of their standard product line.To continue to take risks and try new things, however, seems to be part of what makes New Riff New Riff and I will look forward to trying the next riff.

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