New Riff Distilling Distillery Tour

The New Riff Distilling Distillery

New Riff Distilling Distillery Side View

Gift Shop Tasting Bar

Gift Shop

Grover, our tour guide, in front of the column still

60 foot column still

Column Still

Grain Silos

Barrel Filling Station

Barreling Area

Cooker (Mash Tun)

Fermenters

Tasting

Aquifer Tasting Bar. Tastings, flights, pours and cocktails available.

Aquifer Tasting Bar Patio

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24 Distillery Way

Newport KY 41073

859-261-RIFF (7433)

A stone’s throw from the imposing Ohio River lies the home of New Riff Distilling. Located in Newport on the KY side of the river, the modern industrial style building has an entrancing glass facade which beautifully displays the workhorse of the distillery, its 60 foot Vendome copper column still. The distillery opened in 2014 and is a mid-sized craft distillery which in part loosely refers to the number of gallons produced per year. New Riff produces around 8,000 barrels a year or roughly 424,000 gallons. This urban distillery shares the exceptionally large parking lot with its well known neighbor, The Party Source, a liquor superstore. In fact, New Riff co-founder Ken Lewis sold that business to begin this new adventure in distilling.

Due to Covid-19 rules and restrictions, the only tour currently (as of September 2020) offered at New Riff is the Bonded Tour. This $10 tour covers distillation from grain to glass and finishes with a tasting. Reservations are available online and highly encouraged since there are only 6 guests allowed per tour. Currently the Bonded Tour is available on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at noon, 2pm and 4pm. A mask is required for entry and is provided if needed. After a brief stop inside the gift shop to check in, we met our tour guide and brand ambassador, Grover, outside under the awning of the distillery entrance. The tour began here with Grover first covering pandemic do’s and don’t’s. With housekeeping duties complete, the tour was underway.

The tour at New Riff is a bit unique. Most distilleries follow a grain to glass order, However, at New Riff, the tour began outside in front of its towering copper column still. Grover first explained the distillation process making special note of New Riff’s water source. No Newport or Ohio River water here. New Riff has the very good fortune to be sitting on top of the ideal aquifer for making bourbon. This gold standard water checks all the boxes, a neutral pH of 7, it’s loaded with yeast loving minerals, and it maintains a year round temperature of 58 degrees. We continued around the outside of the building with stops at the 2 enormous stillage tanks and the equally gigantic grain silos. Grover briefly explained the purpose of the each followed by a quick discussion of their grain sources and milling process. The tour then headed inside to barreling.

As required, New Riff uses new charred oak barrels to age their bourbon and rye, and in addition, they add a toast to each barrel. This extra step differs from charring in that the barrels are heated, but not ignited as in charring. They are then held at a high temperature for a prolonged time, much like toasting bread. This is a unique twist, as it is not a common practice among distilleries. Toasting brings more sugars into play during the aging process and helps the distillery achieve its particular flavor profile. While barrels are filled on site, due to the lack of space at the distillery, they are stored at the New Riff west campus located about 2 miles away. Unfortunately, there’s no rickhouse visit on this tour. The Barrel Proof Tour, which prior to COVID was offered every Wednesday at 6pm, did visit that area. From the barreling area, the tour headed up to the second floor for an up close and personal view of the mash cooker, fermentation tanks, and the still. This was the final stop on the tour before the tasting. Here Grover covered both the cooking process and the fermentation process a bit more in depth and afterwords, we were able to step directly into the still area and get a great view from bottom to top. This wrapped up the distillery tour portion of our visit and then it was off to the tasting.

Tastings at New Riff take place in their Aquifer Bar located on the top floor the the distillery. Due to social distancing, the tasting was not as intimate as tastings tend to be. Grover, however did a good job of guiding us. There were 5 tastes included with the tour: New Riff Small Batch Bourbon and Rye, New Riff Barrel Proof bourbon, and New Riff Wild Gin and Bourbon Barreled Gin. Once the tasting was completed, we took advantage of our surroundings and enjoyed some of Aquifer’s tasty handcrafted cocktails. The ambiance in the Aquifer Bar is terrific because the expansive glass windows on both sides of the bar offer wonderful scenic views of the Ohio River as well as the downtown Cincinnati and Newport areas. There is also an equally impressive outdoor patio with ample seating for more viewing opportunities.

We ended our visit back where we first began, the New Riff gift shop. There are plenty of items to shop. From hats and shirts, to mixers and barware, and of course plenty of New Riff bourbon, rye, and gin, all available for purchase. New Riff Distilling is part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour as well as the B-Line of northern Kentucky. Whether you’re considering a tour or just stopping in for a cocktail, check out this city distillery’s "New Riff" on an old tradition.

Please note that Distillery Hours and Tour/Tasting Availability may vary. Please contact the distillery or check their web page or social media for details before you go.

Days of operation	Wed-Sat 11:00am-7pm Sunday 11am-5pm Closed Mon-Tues Tours only Wed/Sat/Sun
Paved Drive / Lot	Very large but busy paved lot
Motorcycle Parking	No separate parking, just the paved lot
Motorcycle unfriendly features	No
Number of tours per day	Bonded Tour Only during COVID Wed & Sat: 12, 2, 4pm Sun: 12pm, 2pm
Length of Tour(s)	45 minutes to an hour
Advanced topic tours?	Yes, but currently unavailable due to Covid-19
Advanced topic tour names	Barrel Proof Tour Distiller’s Tour
Tours by owners /distillers available?	Yes
Number of different types of tours	3 (During Covid-19 only 1 tour currently offered)
On-Line Tour Reservations Available	Yes
Advanced Reservations Recommended/Required	Yes as very limited offerings and only 6 people allowed per tour
Cost for tour(s) in $	Bonded Tour $10 Ticket price may be applied to gift shop purchase of $25 or more
Tasting Included?	Yes
Number of samples included in tasting	5
Tasting Only Option?	Yes
Tasting Only Option Cost	Prices vary depending on selections available
High-end tasting option?	No
High-end tasting option cost?	N/A
Designated Driver Option	No
Handicapped Accessible?	Yes
Souvenirs included with tour?	No
Gift shop	Yes
On-Site bottle sales?	Yes
On-site food: Restaurant/Cafe/Snacks	No
On-site Cocktail bar	Yes The Aquifer Bar
On-site event space	Yes
Should I visit? (Yes, Perhaps, No)	Yes
Unique Features	Urban Distillery
Website	https://newriffdistilling.com
Date Visited	July 2020