New Riff Backsetter Peated Backset Bourbon & Rye Whiskeys

Breaking news out of New Riff Distillery. They have just announced two new releases, Backetter Bourbon and Rye Whiskey!  Both expressions will be bottled-in-bond and non-chill filtered. According to New Riff, “This is an ongoing exploration of the deep truths and deeper mysteries of the Sour Mash method.  Just like all New Riff whiskeys, they follow the time-honored Sour Mash Kentucky Regiment, wherein a portion of grain “backset” from a prior distillation is added to the mash of a present batch. They utilize the exact same Mash bills as New Riff’s standard Bourbon and Rye recipes. The only difference is what they were being mashed with…

For this opening Backsetter run, we have used backset collected from a distillation of peat-smoked malt barley, which lends a wonderfully smoky cast to the whiskeys. The resultant smoky flavor is hauntingly unique with layers of peat enveloping spicy rich Rye and bourbon respectively.” 

New Riff Members Club will get first allocation of the release, but there will also be a limited amount of Backsetter released in late spring following their normal distribution footprint. Suggested retail price will be $49.99 and a two pack being $99.98 plus tax.

I have been a fan of New Riff for a while, and I think they are putting out great products for being such a young age. Given their flavor profile and potential, I am very curious to see what their whiskeys will taste like in two or three years. Personally, I am pretty excited about these releases. Being a peated whisky fan already, I am very curious to see how peat will affect their current bourbon and rye flavor profiles. I can already tell you this release will not be for everyone. There are many of us out there who can’t stand peat smoke or any kind of smoke in their whiskey at all. Given my history with peated scotch, those delicious smoke notes have always agreed with me and I was immediately drawn to it.

Yes, I am sure this is all part of a marketing ploy, but being crazy about whiskey like me, I still want to try them for myself and find out. What are your thoughts on these new releases coming out of New Riff? Excited or skeptical? Whenever we are talking about four year whiskey, I cannot help but be a skeptic myself…