Breaking Bourbon Award Winning Single Barrel Club picks are selected by Breaking Bourbon, and whenever possible with the help of Patreon supporters. The bottles are made available to Patreon supporters first by pledge tier. If any bottles remain after all supporters have had an opportunity to purchase, they are made available to the public on a first come, first served basis. Each barrel is sponsored by a retailer partner, who sells the bottles directly to end purchasers.

Retailer Partner: Seelbach’s

Name: New Riff Straight Bourbon

Company: New Riff Distilling

Distillery: New Riff Distilling

Age: 4 Years

Proof: 106.3 (Barrel Proof)

Mashbill: 65% Corn, 30% Rye, 5% Malted Barley

Yield: 230 Bottles

Release Date: October 2020

For this pick, we partnered with Seelbach’s, which was founded by Blake Riber, also the creator of Bourbonr and the Bourbonr Facebook group. An online-only retailer with a twist, we interviewed Riber to discuss how he’s running his shop differently than everyone else. “Unlocking Craft Spirits” he calls it - seeking out up-and-coming craft distilleries and learning about their process and tasting through their products to find hidden gems.

New Riff is certainly an up-and-coming distillery that should be on everyone’s short list. We’ve been really impressed with New Riff’s entire operation - their process, people, facility, whiskey...everything. We toured their facility and selected our first New Riff barrel pick onsite in June 2019, and encourage everyone to make it a point to visit their facilities if you have an opportunity. For more background, be sure to read our in-depth interview with company Co-Founder and “Whiskey Man” Jay Erisman.

While we had initially planned to do this pick onsite at New Riff, COVID-19 turned those plans upside down. This is not the norm, as New Riff rarely allows offsite picks because they are very focused on ensuring those making barrel selections experience the barrel selection process they’ve carefully curated based on years of making selections themselves. Their onsite barrel selection process is one of the absolute best in the industry.

With three samples in hand, we got to tasting.

One of the most notable and exciting aspects of choosing a New Riff barrel is how different each of the options always tastes when taken side-by-side.

For this selection, we had three pretty equally appealing options. One was quite traditional - those very typical notes of vanilla, caramel, rye spice, and oak with a quintessential bourbon flavor profile in great balance. The second barrel erred on the sweeter side, again playing off what we would describe as traditional bourbon flavors, but with amped up sweet notes and toned down spice notes. Finally, the third barrel offered a diversion from the traditional, instead introducing some unique flavor notes including maple syrup, cigar box, and molasses, but also with a noticeably thicker mouthfeel than the other two options.

Alas, the always present decision between some more certain “mainstream” options and a unique option. Being single barrel, we decided there are plenty of mainstream options out there, so unique was the way to go. It was the unanimous pick among us.

Being our second New Riff pick in partnership with Seelbach’s, we decided to play off our first pick which was a play off from Steve “Stiffler’s” mom from the hit 1999 film American Pie. Very simply, the parody continues with the name “Riffler’s Mom 2: 2 Hot 2 Handle,” similar to the film sequel’s naming convention of just adding a “2” to their sequel. We chose an iconic image of Stiffler’s mom from the film for this nostalgia-inducing parody sticker.
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Tasting Notes:

Barrel #16-11477 distilled on 8/1/2016

Nose: Smoky | Maple syrup | Baking spices | Clove | Cigar box

Palate: Maple sugar candy | Mild astringency | Thick, chewy mouthfeel

Finish: Rye spice | Cinnamon-like taste - different than usual | Molasses | Syrupy mouthfeel | Lingering

Distillers, Producers, and Retailers: If you would like to be a part of this program and get your name in front of millions of bourbon enthusiasts, contact us.

‍Please note these bottles will not be sold by Breaking Bourbon, but will be sold by retailers we partner with in order to fulfill the orders and ship the bottles directly to Patreon supporters. Breaking Bourbon will receive no compensation from our partner retailers under these agreements (with the exception of a bottle from each barrel for editorial purposes). If you represent a retailer and ship to consumers and you’re interested in partnering just let us know!