223 - From Liquor Store to Distillery with Ken Lewis of New Riff

Bourbon Pursuit

Hobbies, Food, Arts, Leisure

4.9 • 866 Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2019

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New Riff is a name that has become synonymous with bourbon lovers. You may have recalled our conversation with Jay Erisman, Vice President, back on Episode 072, but this time we get to speak with Owner, Ken Lewis, who drives a bunch of the decision making behind the company. It feels like an episode of How I Built This as we get to hear Ken’s story. From owning and hustling liquor stores to eventually selling all that to start a distillery, hiring some great people, and having a few strokes of good luck to put him in the position where he is today. Then we also get to hear about his thoughts on stickers and some future plans he has in store for New Riff as well. Show Notes: Jim Beam’s Historic Kentucky Home on Airbnb: https://www.travelandleisure.com/hotels-resorts/vacation-rentals/jim-beam-bourbon-historic-kentucky-home-airbnb This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about the top 5 states for bourbon besides Kentucky. What is your title? Tell us about your entrepreneurial spirit. How did you get into the alcohol business? How did you end up in Northern Kentucky? Do you have any regrets getting rid of your stores? How did you decide to sell Party Source and start a distillery? How did you get interested in bourbon? When was your first taste of bourbon? How did you find the team to get the business off the ground? How did you chose the mash bills? Tell us about the O.K.I. days. Do you still do contract distilling? So why did you release the bourbon at 4 years? How is such a young product so good? How did you get such a great location? What are your future plans for the bourbon? Tells us about the balboa rye. What do you think of the single barrel stickers?

Transcript

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0:00.0	I thought, you know, this could be almost like semi-retirement.
0:03.6	Because once you start distilling, I mean, you just kind of sit around and watch barrels age, right?
0:08.6	That's what I assumed what happened.
0:10.4	You know, I'd wander in, you know, at noon or something.
0:13.2	Get myself a glass, hang out, talk to some people.
0:15.4	You know, how hard could it be?
0:17.1	You know, you're just going to watch these barrels get old.
0:27.7	Yeah. be, you know, you're just going to watch these barrels get old. Going on, everybody, it is episode 223 of Bourbon Pursuit.
0:32.6	I'm Kenny, one of your hosts, and it's time for the Bourbon News, so let's get to it.
0:36.8	Woodford Reserve is
0:37.7	releasing their fall 2019 Masters Collection. It's a chocolate, malted rye bourbon. This limited
0:44.0	edition and one-time release is offering a different flavoring technique where they toast the
0:48.9	rye grain just long enough that it begins to taste like chocolate. This bourbon will have a suggested retail price
0:55.4	of $129.99. It has hints of, you guessed it, dark chocolate as well as spice coming in and at
1:01.9	90.4 proof. The completed mash bill will be 70% corn, 15% of the chocolate malted rye, and 15% of
1:10.5	distillers malt.
1:11.6	Baker's bourbon is getting a facelift and a rebranding,
1:14.6	as well as a new limited edition offering.
1:17.6	This one sort of flew under the radar for a lot of people.
1:19.6	It was first picked up almost a year ago by skew through the TTB
1:24.6	just kind of trolling through the website, but now people are starting to find it on the shelves.
1:28.5	The Baker's bottles with the black wax that we once knew is going away, but there's going to be an
	...

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