From the very beginnings of New Riff's distillery design, we incorporated the ability to add any bag of grain into our recipes. It’s called the “auxiliary grain conveyor.” We use this grain handling feature every week when we add 50-lb bags of malted rye into our standard New Riff Rye Whiskey. But we also use it to make a new riff on classic whiskey traditions...

Introducing Maltsters, a project that explores different malted grains used in a Bourbon recipe. Our distilling team delved into their background as craft brewers and pulled out of their hat a couple of magical recipes: Malted 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.

On its own merits, Malted Rye makes quite a nice Bourbon, but the almost required comparison is against standard New Riff. Take a glass of each side by side, and the subtlety, the sheer elegance of malted rye becomes apparent. The specific spicy flavors are similar, but the malted rye delivers a degree of polished sophistication not found in raw rye, together with an additional slice of fruitiness. The finish echoes long with clove-spiced fruit—gumdrops!