Today’s post is the last in this series about Rye, covering a US-made whiskey. Next week there will be a little European diversion before moving to a new and potentially infinite whisky topic. But before that, it is time for another New Riff Rye review, after the Malted Rye from a couple of weeks ago. This is actually the first New Riff bottle I ever bought and the one that made me pay attention to the distillery. Today, I am going to review one of the Single Barrel Rye bottlings from New Riff.
TL:DR: Unmistakeably rye, in the best way possible: rich, complex and moreish.
Score: 7, Very good Stuff
What is Sour Mash?
Today’s New Riff Single Barrel Rye in review is a whiskey made using sour mash. The term is probably more familiar to Bourbon and Rye drinkers than Scottish Malt whisky drinkers like me. So learning what sour mash is could be useful to some of us.
The “sour mash” process refers to a whisky-making technique in which some of the spent mash (the leftover stillage from a previous fermentation) is added to a new mash. In practice, this means that after the grains are mashed with hot water, the neutral mash (initial pH ≈ 7) is acidified by adding stillage (with a pH around 5.0-5.4), lowering the new mash pH to about 5.4-5.8. Sour mashing is not exclusive to whiskey; it is a process also used in beer making.
Why is lowering the pH useful? Because this acidification helps inhibit bacterial growth, it protects the yeast and ensures a cleaner, more reliable fermentation. This was particularly important when sterilisation techniques were less advanced. Yet, while today’s sterilisation practices might have reduced the need for sour mashing, it influences the taste of the spirit. Rather than providing acidic notes, it is said to balance, producing a whisky that’s cleaner and smoother.
Who came up with Sour Mash?
I have only seen the sour mash method specifically mentioned in the US, mostly Tennessee-made whiskeys. So I was under the impression that this was a method developed over there.
Some sources credit Scottish chemist Dr James Crow for inventing the method, but, as is often the case with certain British “discoveries”, he is probably the first person to document it formally, rather than the person who came up with it. A good hint that this is the case can be found in Rum production.
The addition of Dunder (spent mash) in the next mash as a way to stabilise fermentation was already in use in the 18th century and might be the origin of sour mash in whisky. Since the use of pre-ferments in processes from bread making to pickling, cheese making to soy sauce production goes back in history, there is also a solid case to be made for this going back much further… history is not only what is written in books.
P.S. Shortly after publishing this article I stumbled on a great resource on Dunder & Sour Mash. If you want an in depth look at the topic don’t miss this hugely informative video on the Liquid Antiquarian.
Be as it may, time to move on to some whisk(e)y and review the New Riff Single Barrel Rye.
New Riff Single Barrel Rye
Specs
Price paid: $56.99
Cask: 5123
ABV: 53.75%
Natural colour: Yes
Non-chill filtered: Yes
Mashbill: 95% rye and 5% malted rye, aged at least 4 years
Tasting Notes
Colour: A rich dark amber, almost caramel in colour.
Nose: The first notes are stone fruit, peach and apricot and even a little ripe red plums. Rapidly, the Rye character emerges. It becomes quite spicy: hot cinnamon, vanilla, chilli pepper, ginger. There are some typical mint and dill green notes, but they are integrated. In the background, there is a dark roasted grain note, some rye bread, just a hint of acetone and a touch of creaminess. Lovely and multilayered.
With water, it becomes sweeter, more centred around caramel and fudge notes, there is still some Rye spice and vegetal character, but now with a lot more orange oil. Pleasant, but significantly less complex.
Taste and Finish: Rich and oily, unsurprisingly a bit hot due to the combination of ABV and spicy notes. There’s cinnamon and ginger, even a bit of white pepper. A noticeable vanilla cask influence. A touch of orange oil. Just a hint of those stone fruits, which were upfront on the nose. Then, more grain-driven notes of rye sourdough. The medium finish takes a turn to darker notes, after a short-lived hint of stone fruits, it turns to espresso, roasted grains and dark caramel.
With water, it becomes rounder, more balanced between spice, sweetness and grain notes and the dark roasted notes are more of a background track than a noticeable harmony.
Score*: 7, very good stuff
I opened this series on Rye, claiming that I usually prefer Rye to Bourbon. And yet, if I look back at my votes over the past reviews and compare them to the votes I gave during my Bourbon series, you could be persuaded that there’s no difference. Maybe it is just the bottles I picked, or maybe it is because my preference is for higher Rye mashbills, though, like the disappointing experience with the Emerald Giant shows, that is no guarantee either.
Be as it may, this New Riff Single Barrel is much closer to what I would define as my ideal rye. Spicy and minty but also rich and grain-forward, complex and balanced. Clearly, as with every single barrel of whisky, a different barrel could provide a different experience. Maybe I got lucky with this one, or maybe there are other releases which are even better. In any case, this is a rye I a happy to have in my collection and will continue to enjoy until the bottle is drained.
* Scores are based on the scoring scale used by Dramface, slightly modified to allow half-points
Interested in my take on a specific whisky style? Check the full Journey here and jump to the relevant Chapter.
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