Hey! Michelle with a Mic: A New Riff on Legecy with Mollie Lewis

From helping build one of Kentucky's most celebrated distilleries to championing women in leadership, Mollie Lewis has helped redefine what modern bourbon looks like.

In this episode of Hey! Michelle with a Mic, Michelle sits down with the President of New Riff Distilling to talk about family business, entrepreneurship, and the journey of growing an independent bourbon brand that's now recognized around the world. Mollie shares the story behind New Riff's founding, why community has always been at the center of the company's mission, and how collaboration, authenticity, and purpose have shaped its success. 

Michelle and Mollie explore how New Riff Distilling grew from a bold family vision into one of Kentucky's most respected bourbon brands while helping establish Northern Kentucky as a premier bourbon destination. Their conversation dives into what it's like leading in a traditionally male-dominated industry, the power of collaborating with beloved local brands like Graeter's, MadTree, and Rhinegeist, and New Riff's commitment to using bourbon as a vehicle for community impact. Mollie also shares her perspective on balancing executive leadership with motherhood, building a legacy rooted in authenticity and service, and what the future holds for New Riff Distilling and the evolving bourbon industry.

Whether you're a bourbon enthusiast, an entrepreneur, or simply love hearing stories about people building something meaningful, this conversation offers an inspiring look at leadership rooted in integrity, innovation, and community. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, everybody. Welcome to Hey Michelle with a mic. Um, this has been so exciting, bringing you good people, great stories. And I think this is like our sixth one, and it's been super fun. And I have Bree, who's like my, I don't know, editor, producer, director. And uh every time we finish one, we're like, okay, that is like you just learned so much. It's just so many, so many great stories out there. And I love sharing them with everyone. So thank you to everyone who's been listening. And today is no exception because we have Molly Lewis here, and she's the president of New Rift Distilling. And is very exciting for many reasons, as you can already think. It's a bourbon industry. You're thinking not as many women. Um, and it's a booming industry because bourbon was not always popular, but for some reason now it's, you know, people are lining up outside to get the right bottle of whatever.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Bourbon has definitely taken off, and more women should drink it.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yes, yes. Now I always say, I, you know, I go to the tastings and everything, and I take, and I've been to New Riff and to the bar upstairs, which if you have not been to Aquifer, I mean, that is it is a vibe. It is such a great little bar. Um, but you know, I do a little tasting and I'm like, ha. But I am a rye Manhattan girl and I love bourbon cocktails. So yummy. Uh, but tasters, I'm like, ooh, that'll get you. But I do love it. And I, yes, and I love the rye, which we have right here on the table. Um, and I think New Riff has become a a label that everybody knows. It's common now. I feel like it's on everybody's bar. You can definitely get it at all the restaurants and bars around town and I and everywhere. It's it's really gone up. So I cannot wait to hear all the stories of how everything got started with you. And there's a little family connection with the biz, but you had your own journey to that point. I sure did. Well, first of all, Michelle, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yes. Absolutely. What an honor to be here with you, to be your sixth person interviewed. So thanks for having me. And yeah, I'm all about promoting new riff and promoting women drinking more bourbon and um and sharing my story. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Well, let's do that. I mean, start start with your journey to this, to where you are now. I mean, that we have so much to talk about, honestly, because now we're at an award-winning bourbon that I mean, it you've got so much to tell us.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

So yeah. Um, so my father is our founder, is New Riff's founder. His name is Ken Lewis. Um, he built the party source, which, if you don't know the party source, it's in Bellevue, Kentucky. Um, some folks call it an adult amusement store. Absolutely. And it is still to date the largest independent retail alcohol store in the country.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Seriously. It is. Okay, fun fact already, we're only two minutes in. I mean, how about that? Yeah. That's crazy. Okay. And it is a great place. Like you get lost in there.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

You can, and you can learn so much about not just brown spirits like bourbon and rye, but I mean, they have an amazing tequila section. They have an unbelievable non-ALC section, probably, well, by far the best in the city. Um, so it's a great store. But the other cool thing about uh the party source is that Ken sold it to the employees in 2014. And so I always want to point that out because it is such a founding principle to who we are at New Riff and such an example to who Ken is as a leader. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

I thought it was such a great story that that happened, that he sold it to the employees. Like that is just such a cool concept. I didn't, I mean, I I don't think that would pop up in most people's mind to do that. So that is fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

And in full transparency, he probably could have made a lot more money if he had sold it to a, you know, a for-profit larger chain, like who knows what. But but he didn't. He sold it to the employees, which is awesome. And that financially enabled us to build new riff, that building that we share a parking lot with the party source, but it enabled us to build that building um from the ground up without any investors, which is pretty awesome. And so that independence is really who we are. It resonates with everything we do. Um, I remember wanting, you know, wanting to go into the beverage alcohol world. I grew up in it, you know, around the dinner table and whatnot, and got into the wine business to start. Okay. Um, moved out to California, worked at Behringer in their tasting room. I poured white Zinfandel, yep, in my 20s.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

I should get the strawberries in it. Oh my gosh, I saw a t-shirt once. It was in Key West, get a figure. And it said, friends do not let friends drink white zinfandel. It's great. Fantastic. Because back in the day, that's what that's how everybody started drinking wine when you were, you know, like kind of maybe underage. I don't know. Right. Yeah, absolutely. It was sweet. Wait, this tastes great.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

It was a great starting point. You know, for me, it was great because I was learning about wine from the ground up. I didn't know anything. And um, so it was really interesting to interact with people and people coming in from all over the world to try whatever. It was a it was a wonderful start. Um, and then I I know that the agenda was always for me to come back and and work at the party source, but throughout my tenure in California, I fell in love with wine. And so I started working in the world of wine. I worked for distributors, I helped a friend open a restaurant, um, I followed a guy to Italy, you know, I did Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

It was pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Not the guy. It's like a movie. The well, yeah, the experience was great. Um, so yeah, so I really worked my way around the wine industry, and I do remember, you know, sitting around the dinner table. I always say, like in 2000, late, 2008, 2009, and Ken, my dad, is he's just a serial entrepreneur. Um, and he really he was having access to all these amazing bottles of bourbon. I mean, they're really good stuff. He remembers barrels of Pappy 15 and and whatnot being offered to him to choose which barrel would you like for the store. So he saw the bourbon world starting to really take a turn. And he looked around in northern Kentucky and realized there wasn't a significant distillery up here in this region. And we're so close. I mean, we're you know, so close to the whole thing. We have CDG, which is the only international airport in the state of Kentucky right here. Um, you know, Cincinnati, two million plus people, right? And there was a rich distilling history here in northern Kentucky and on the Cincinnati side for pre-Phibition, you know, very, very rich. It was called the Las Vegas of the East over here, remember? And um, but since Prohibition, no one had really resurrected the tradition. There were a couple smaller distilleries, nothing of significance of size. And so he said, What if we built a distillery and started bringing bourbon tourism to this part of the state? And I, I mean, how could I? That was such an exciting thing to think about and to imagine, to be a part of America's native spirit here in Kentucky, a family business. So I moved back uh to Newport in 2011 and uh helped, you know, I'm still working in the wine industry. There wasn't as much for me to do um, you know, as far as selling anything in the early days, but it was really fun to watch New Rift come to fruition. And um I yeah, but I'll never forget that day at the party source when he that was the beginning of it all when he announced that it was gonna become an Aesop. It was a pretty exciting time.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Right. And I so I a little fun fact, um I don't know how I found out about it. Email something back in, you know, the like 2008, whatever that whole time was. And I got this email about a ranger. Oh yeah. So I did it. I bought I'm a ranger to New Rift, but it was like this weird, I was like, I don't even know what I'm doing. Then, you know, it takes a while for bourbon to happen. Yeah. So these are like little investor situations. And I kept finding this paper on my desk. And I'm like, oh gosh, yeah, what is this? Is this happening? Like, what is this new rift thing? Like, is it happening? Because you kind of didn't hear anything for a while. Right. Because it takes a while. Right. And then all of a sudden, you know, soon enough, we're like pouring a bottle and labeling it and sealing it over at the uh distillery in Newport, which was super cool.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Well, thank you for believing in us. I mean, I don't even know if we believed in ourselves back then, you know. That was a leap of faith for everybody. So we're super grateful.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Well, that was just me wanting to be in on some fun activity. I had no idea what it was gonna be. That's well, that's awesome. And so what do you think the pivot was? Because like I was saying, you know, bourbon wasn't always around, like it wasn't a big deal. Um, you know, it it all of a sudden just became so popular in and around our area, even because then when we would go to Colorado to travel, we'd go to the liquor store there, and and my ex-husband would be like, wait a minute, how much is this bottle? Like, I'll take three of these and whatever, because out there they still weren't getting it yet. Yeah. And it was kind of starting to boom. Yeah. What do you think it was that made it turn for bourbon to be this popular?

SPEAKER_01 8:30

I think it was just a culmination of lots of different things. I mean, it, you know, it's it's such an exciting spirit. It's America's only native spirit. I mean, even rye was brought here from your the Europeans, right? It came in through the East Coast and rye wasn't indigenous to North America. Okay. Um, and so we didn't have much rye growing here in Kentucky. We had corn. And so fermentation of corn began, and then bourbon kind of sprouted from that over 200 plus years ago. So it it is really indigenous to this area. I think that's exciting. I think the quality of product has just really increased over time. And there's just a lot of excitement surrounding the category. Yes. But, you know, in the early days, we we just were hoping people would like what we made. I mean, it was a real, it was a it was a gamble. It was an exciting gamble, but we were always really wanting to be focused on the community and northern Kentucky. That was important to Ken. It was important to all of us to really bring the community with us. And so the Ranger program was a program we we dreamed up, and it was really, you know, inviting the community to support us, invest sixty dollars in new rip.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

I mean, I don't want to, you know, to I was dripping cash, that's 60 bucks into the bucket there. Well, that's a lot, you know, it's a lot for people. When you get enough people to do it, it has to help, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Well, and then, you know, and don't hear from us for four years, you know, and then four years exactly to the month that you gave us your sixty dollars. You come back and you fill a bottle on your own of new riff bourbon, and you're one of the original. I mean, you get to taste some of the original juice. And so um, thank God it was good. It was good, it was great. And uh it all turned out, but it it was it was an investment in, you know, it was a it was an investment in community and a little bit of a leap of faith, I think, for a lot of people. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

And I feel like the cocktails have evolved with bourbon, you know, in drinks and Manhattan's and old fashioned coming back as kind of like, you know, obviously on every menu, you know, and and all around. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

I mean, just the level of of sophistication that has grown from bourbon taking off and all the different, I mean, it's a it's a very versatile spirit, really. I mean, you can make so many easy drinking, refreshing cocktails, you can make more spirit forward cocktails like old fashions or Manhattan, see more classic cocktails, you can riff on cocktails. There you go. And tell us, tell us about the name. New Riff is our name, as you know. And, you know, a lot of folks say, well, where did the name come from? And truthfully, we came up with a lot of other names before we settled back on New Riff. In the early, in the in the very beginning, we kept talking about being a new riff on Ken's life. Okay, right? He was a retailer, he was doing this mid-life complete career shift, and it was a new riff on his his career trajectory, on his life. But we also realized that, you know, we weren't gonna pretend that we had granddaddy's recipe under the bed, right? Because a lot of people have that long, long history. A lot of people in Kentucky have that long history, and it's an amazing history and something to really honor, but it wasn't something we were gonna pretend that we had because we didn't, right? And so um, we kept coming back to really honoring the history of bourbon production in the state of Kentucky, but putting our own spin on it, putting our own riff on it. Love it. So we we I can't remember who coined the initial phrase of being a new riff on an old tradition, but as soon as we said that, we were like, yep, that's who we are. Perfect. New riff on Ken's life, new riff on an old tradition. And we're just riffing on, you know, the great history of bourbon production. Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

And the logo. It's kind of, you know, and I have the guitar picks because it is kind of like string. I mean, that's what I see. Is that what it is? Well, no, no, no. You're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

There's definitely a musical innuendo there. I mean, I grew up going to Grateful Dead shows with my with Ken. You know, I think I went to 50 before I was. Oh my gosh, seriously. Oh, yeah, yeah. He was definitely a deadhead. So my gosh, I love it. That is a lot of fun. So there is certainly like a musical reference to the to the logo and symbolism.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

And it's great because you brought the trail closer to us because really now new riff is the start of the bourbon trail, you know, as north as it gets.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah, I think which is fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

And I think that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

That's one of my personal missions is to make people aware that the Bourbon Trail starts here in northern Kentucky, right? I always love to refer to us as the gateway to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Um, and yeah, I think more and more visitors are coming to Northern Kentucky every year. There are eight other distilleries now. We are the largest still of scale, but there are a number of different distilleries that have popped up. There are a couple of older ones who are who are doing great, who are right here in our vicinity. So we got a nice pocket for bourbon tourism. I mean, there's a great reason to spend a long weekend here in Newport, Covington, Northern Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

And it's almost a little more accessible because, you know, when you do that Louisville part, it's a lot of driving. It is it's a short period of time and it's a long tour and all these things. People think they can nail, you know, like so many in a day. I'm like, no, you cannot. So, you know, our area, you can hit a lot in one day.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah, that's a great point that I always love to point out a lot. I'm uh a member, uh, New Roof is a member of the Kentucky Distillers Association that um is the mothership of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. And we talk about that a lot about how folks come to Kentucky maybe for the first time. They think they're gonna hit Bardstown, Louisville, Newport, Danville, you know, in one trip. And it's like, ah, absolutely like a headache. That's like trying to see Italy, you know. In a day. And right. I mean, it's a lot. So there is so much going on in each pocket. If you want to come to northern Kentucky, make your trip about northern Kentucky. You know, if you want to go to Louisville, don't bite off more than you can chew. There are plenty of cool distilleries and interesting restaurants and things to do down in that area. But it's a look, there's some education that needs to happen.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

The trail is doing a really good job of that. They just launched a new website. Oh, and it's a plan your trip user-friendly website. So you can go on and you can pick a distillery that interests you or that you know about, and you can build a trip around that. And I think that's really that is genius. It is perfection. They've done a great job with that.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

That is great. Okay, so tell me, I know I've been lucky enough to attend a few of your events, and well, you've done a lot of collaborations. I mean, Greater's Ice Cream to with Mad Tree. Uh, tell us a little bit about those collabs. And then I also want to dip into your give back program because you do some great bourbons that have a bourbons for the purpose. I don't know what you call it, but yeah, kind of thing. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

No, I'm happy to talk about all of those things. These are these are my heart and soul, and lots of us at New Riff's heart and soul. But um, you know, collaboration is just another, it's a reflection of how we feel about our community. And there's so many amazing businesses in the greater Cincinnati community. Um, we love to pride ourselves to connect ourselves with other family-minded businesses, businesses that are really authentic, that are just integrity-driven, that are focused on quality, doing the right thing, if you will. And so when the partnership with Graters came about, um, it was it was such a dream for us. I mean, we're a 12-year-old, we were a 12-year-old business at the time. Well, we still are. Um, and Graters is on their fifth generation of family leadership. And so that they wanted to collaborate with us was a true honor for us. Um, I think we complemented each other's brands nicely. When we visited their facility and saw how how they make ice cream and the attention to detail and the way that no corners are cut, the highest level of ingredients are used. I mean, it was like New Riff and an ice cream for right. I mean, just the we treat our raw ingredients the same way, all the things. And so um, that was such a fun collaboration and so delicious, of course. Um, and the fun part was actually coming back and forth. You know, I said it was good, probably like three iterations before they decided on it. They were so committed to getting everything right. I love it. Um, and so it was a true, you know, a true honor to collaborate with them and see how they work and come out with such an awesome product. And same deal with Mattri and now with Rheingeis, right? I mean, to be collaborating with the greats in your region, um, you know, it gives you positioning in the community.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Well, it's fun because you can learn from each other too. You learn from each other industries, but same kind of idea-ish, you know, with your what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Yeah, there's an energy um behind all of these businesses that we have too at New Riff. It's just an excitement for who we are and what we're doing and what we can bring to the table, and then to collaborate with other businesses that are bringing awesome energy to the table. And it's just it's been really an exciting ride.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Now, do all those stay around or those kind of a limited their special edition?

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Well, Graders was originally going to be a special edition and it is sticking. So it was a popular product that they are continuing to sell and and enjoy the fruits of, which is amazing. Um, Mad Tree is a limited edition, although I wouldn't be surprised if we could clean the line. Yeah, because it's fun and unique and um refreshing.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

And that's also a woman, uh woman at the home kind of thing now, also. So that's fun. I love I mean the two of you kind of have a very similar vibe. I like she's the best. Rihanna at the home. Rihanna's right. She's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

She is, she is really the best. And so what Madre's doing for our community and our local, you know, it's she's just she's awesome. So partnering with them is a true gift. And then our Rheingeist collaboration, our recent collaboration called Duet. Okay. Um, that's yes, that's was really a label labor of love between our distilling team, Brian Sprantz and his team, and the Rhein Geist brewing team. I mean, Brian's a brewer. Okay. You know, he comes from a brewing background, and so brewing and making beer was his jam. Um, and so we took a 100% barley-based whiskey that we had made. We aged it in fooders, which are like these large um uh large barrels that you age beer in. Okay. We aged them at Rheingeist for several months and then we bottled it. And it was a true collaboration. It was barley is what makes beer, you know, the whiskey part we did, the beer part they did. The label was designed by one of their designers and one of our designers who happened to be married. Oh a married couple. So duet. Duet. I mean, oh my gosh. So it was just, you know, just finding these like opportunities to have fun and create in the community has just been so awesome.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

That is so fun. But you do also the bottles for charity. Yes, yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

So uh Ken, you know, I mentioned that Ken's a hippie, he'll he'll he always laughs when I say that, but he really is. And so the ethos behind, he always wanted to take care of his people. Um really did, yeah. And he walks the walk. And so taking care of employees was always paramount, but taking care of our greater community was up there too. And so we we founded New Riff with the agenda to make one of the world's best whiskeys that we possibly could, right? To be included in one of the world's best whiskeys lineup. And then we wanted to use whiskey as a vehicle for good. I mean, we wanted to do good in our community, in our in our backyard. And so we have over the years created a number of different SKUs, if you will, or brands, bottlings, um, where the proceeds go to the local community. Um, so we have one, it's called Silver Grove. It's our distillery exclusive. Okay. Um, it's a bourbon and a rye that we sell only at the distillery. And it's in honor of the town of Silver Grove, which is about 15 minutes south of Newport here in Kentucky. Um, we built a warehouse there a couple of years ago, and it's a small town. I think there are about 1,500 residents. And so every year we're able to cut them a check for the proceeds of this release. And we've donated over $90,000 to the town of Silver Grove. Yeah, so that's been a really exciting thing that we've participated in. Every year we have a summer release. We call it Headliner. Um, it's a loose musical reference to like music posters, right? Or like who's gonna be the headliner this year. Um, but we usually choose some of our oldest and best barrels to blend together. Brian and his team make these incredible blends. And we choose local charities or local organizations that we um dedicate the funds, the pro the proceeds to as well. This year we're dedicating to Tri-State Trails. Okay, which is the bike. You know what? I don't want to say that because that hasn't been announced. Oh I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Something new is coming.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah, so over the years, um, we've this will be our third year that we are uh creating our headliner brand. More on that. Um the last two years we've dedicated, we've given uh the donation to the Brighton Center, which is based here in Newport, Kentucky. They do amazing work uh for people in need, um, and we've donated money to uh Green Umbrella and uh the Horizon Fund, which is another um local organization. So we try to keep it right in our backyard. Um but for organizations that are doing great stuff here.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

I love it. Okay, so tell me, uh being a woman in the bourbon industry.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Uh your your place is a great, you guys have a lot of women over there. Every time I go, I you know, you have Catherine and so many people. Um, but how is it being in Your position and sitting at the table with mostly men.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yeah, yeah. No, I mean it's it's it's a great question. I wish you didn't have to ask you. I wish we were all right in all of these male-dominated industries that there were more women in them. Um we at New Riff, you know, we didn't necessarily aim to put so many women in leadership positions. Ken would be the first to say that. Um, but he put the best people that he thought in the right places. Um, and we turned around and we looked around, and like two-thirds of us are female. That's female. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. And um, you know, so we do champion that. We champion women in our industry, we champion women drinking more bourbon. You know, we use it as a platform at this point for New Ring to encourage women to get into bourbon and that everybody can drink bourbon. And um, it is fun. You know, it's still, we are still very much in the minority. Um, when I sit with other colleagues across the state of Kentucky, their majority, they are certainly more men than women. Um, but there are more women coming up in the industry, and I have seen that really change over the past 10 years. That's awesome. Yeah, so it's coming. And then there are these amazing organizations like Bourbon Women, which I have to give a shout-out to.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yes, do. I got to meet a couple of those gals when I did a bourbon thing in Louisville. And yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Bourbon Women is an awesome organization. It's about as old as we are, so there's a little bit of a love there. It was founded in Louisville. We have a very active chapter here in northern Kentucky, Greater Cincinnati. And it's women who come together and just enjoy drinking bourbon and talking about it together. And there's a conference every year that's coming up in August called Siposium. Um, that women come now from all over the world. I love it. And it's it's just an opportunity to break bread with other women and celebrate America's native spirit.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

I love it. That is fantastic. So, where do we think uh New Rift is going in the future? What kind of big plans? How do you keep it new and fresh?

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yeah, I mean, that that's a great question. Um, you know, it's been a long 12 plus years that it also has gone by in a blink of an eye, right? And so we've created a lot of incredible whiskeys. And uh we just our goal right now is to maintain, to continue the integrity and the quality of everything that we produce. Um, we were just awarded world's best bourbon. I know for our flagship whiskey, our flagship bottled in bond four-year-old Kentucky Strait bourbon whiskey, which is awesome. That is amazing. So continuing to make that, you know, we're not making it fast enough right now, which is an exciting problem to have. Um, you know that the world is clamoring for little old new riffs, bottled in bond bourbon. So putting Newport on the map, putting Northern Kentucky on the map, bringing more tourism to the state of Kentucky, those are all things that are on our agenda to continue to do. But really to just continue to be authentic and uh, you know, create a great environment where not only our employees love to come to work, where other people love to come and have a drink and shop and learn about new riff.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

I love it. And like I said, your place is fantastic and the tours and even in the shop downstairs. It's I mean, you've got everything. You kind of just want to buy a little bit of everything. Really cute things, great gifts for everybody. We um it's a good spot. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Thank you so much. You know, the the team, particularly in our visitor center, have worked really hard to differentiate all the different cool things that we have on offer in the gift shop to keep it fresh, to keep it, you know, to keep people coming back. We um we have a series we call our homegrown series. Okay. And we we specifically represent small businesses, minority-owned businesses, or small businesses here in northern Kentucky that make spices and hats and candles and all kinds of cool things with New Riff bourbon, and we um sell them in our gift shop. So it's a fun place to come check out what the community is making too.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

It is great. Okay, so everybody knows you through New Riff. What is something that you want people to know about you that maybe isn't part of your bourbon? You have children, you've got your yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Well, that's a that's a good question. Um, you know, I think in full transparency, family business is is challenging, right? Because you take the reins of your family member who has created this uh this legacy. Um, and it is my job to take care of that, but I also want to be identified for who I am too, right? So that's kind of what's on top of mind for me right now. I am a mom of boys. Yay, same. I have four boys. Three. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Yes, so boy mom. Um, you know, I love being a boy mom. I always did want to have a daughter. Same.

unknown 26:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

So I do really champion women in leadership. I it's a passion of mine, you know. I love, particularly in bourbon, but not necessarily only in bourbon. Um, I love championing young women across Greater Cincinnati and mentorship and um, you know, how we can help women have more leadership roles across the city. So uh over the next couple of years, you'll definitely see me playing in that field a lot more and and trying to, you know.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Now now our job is to raise boys who will also bring us wonderful women that we can have in our lives eventually. Yes, and maybe some grandchildren that's supposed. I we we just got a puppy. One of mine just got a puppy. We're moving up, we're working our way to that realm, you know. There you go. Or maybe some girlfriends would be great. Yeah, see, there you go. We're both the queens of the house. So, what's your go-to bourbon cocktail when you're off the clock? What's what do you like to drink?

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Well, if any of our aquifer staff watches the podcast, you know, they will. They all will for sure. They will say that my drink right now is a French 95. Oh, French 95. I get all the eggs. 75 I got, but I didn't know that. Yeah. So, well, a French 75 is a very classic cocktail, right? And it's very easy to make. It's made with gin, um, sparkling wine, usually prosecco. You can use kava or other sparkling wines. And uh uh, we make it with a grapefruit shrub. Shrub is like a reduced grapefruit, almost like vinegar, but adds a lit level of bitterness to the cocktail. So I want to be drinking bourbon at all times. And so I realized, we realized someone shared with me that you could switch bourbon out for the gin. And it was a cocktail that was invented a hundred plus years ago called the French 95. Okay, we need that on more menus because I would love that. It's perfect for this time of year. Yes. Because it's refreshing and you're still getting your bourbon. And it I think it adds a dimension to the cocktail that the gin, dare I say, doesn't give it. So that's my jam right now.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Okay, I love it. I'm gonna have to come get one of those. You should just call it the Molly.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

Just call it the Molly. You should say Molly don't order this.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

It's not on the menu, but the laugh. So, how long does it take to get a bottle from start to in our drink?

SPEAKER_01 29:04

In our drink.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Well, uh, what is the what is the process time?

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Yeah, so we don't release any bourbon until it's at least four years old. Okay. And then what we have done, which a lot of distilleries don't do, but we hold back 30% of everything we make for future aging. So we're committed. I mean, it's a it's a laborious time intensive process. Um, you know, fermentation usually lasts about three days for bourbon, sometimes a little more for rye. After three days, you have the base beer, right, that goes to the still. The distilling process is a couple of hours. And so you can fill a barrel within, let's say, four days.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

But you're not gonna want to drink that, right? And a lot of people don't realize that it actually comes off the still clear. So a lot of people don't realize it's like vodka. It's not vodka you want to drink because it's like super flavorful. And most of the time when you want vodka, you don't want it to taste like anything, right? Right. But um, but whiskey comes off the still clear, and so it takes, it needs time to evolve and interact with the barrel and get all absorb all those flavors from the barrel. So, you know, we don't think it's drink, it's drinkable, it's great, but we don't think it's new riff worthy until it's at least four years old. So four days, four years at the very minimum, right? And then we dump it and we do very little filtration. We don't do any chill filtration. We just uh take the the um char out and the large pieces and then and then we bottle. So let's say a minimum of four years in a week it takes, but generally um, you know, a little longer than that too. We don't always bottle right it before they have a bad thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

So how many can you have going on at the same time? Or is it, you know what I mean, how many different can you do a rye and a regular and everything? Yeah, all those are all going on at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

So you can, you certainly can. We have in in production, we can have rye fermenting and bourbon fermenting, not in the same fermenter, but next to each other or in the same area together. And often we do. Yeah. So um, right now we're running two shifts. We're running a morning shift and an afternoon shift, and we could do rye in the morning and bourbon in the afternoon or vice versa, um, or any of the other whiskies that we make, barley-based whiskey. Um each fermenter yields about 13, 14 barrels. So um, you'll have to come see us to give you this.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

I took the tour a long time ago. I need to come back. It's one of those things I do the bourbon tour and I it could be new every time. Yeah. Kind of because I gotta forget a lot of like, oh yeah. I do always, you know, the finger in the bubbles that you think it's gonna be hot, do that, all the things. And they tell all that fantastic information, and then I go drink bourbon, and then I kind of forget all the things. Yeah, so it's like a new experience every time.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

And every distillery is different, and the sizes of the fermenters are different and all the things. But um, you know, depends on how many barrels you have aging in the Rick House. And we have one line, one bottling line. So we run one, whether it's bourbon or single barrel or rye, one at a time. So we don't bottle more than one, let's say, skew at a time.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

All right. I love that. Yeah, it's so fun. Um let me see. Okay, so what do you drink bourbon with anything particular, a meal that you think bourbon goes with perfectly? Because you know, there's some things you have to have wine. Like I think Italian is good with wine and you know, a hot dog and a beer. I what is your what's your go-to with your bourbon?

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Well, the two things that come to mind, we are, I have to brag a little bit, we are the feature distillery for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival this year. Oh, which is in September. And it's a it was a tremendous honor to be asked. I mean, it was, you know, it's it's a big deal. So we're headlining the festival. Um, so for the launch event, the chef made this unbelievable ice cream dessert with our bourbon ball ice cream. There you go. And I had to have a glass of our malted rye.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Malted rye for me is one of our lesser known whiskies, but it is so good. And when you malt the rye as opposed to our regular rye, the flavors are softer, more elegant, and it just paired beautifully with that whiskey. That would like it. It can be my last meal. Okay. Or with that ice cream. Yes, yes. Um, I've also had some amazing ribs that have been marinated. Excuse barbecues. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

To me, like a good bourbon compliment. I mean, you know, those two together, I feel like.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

Yeah, yeah. I love any kind of whiskey marinade, especially if it's a new riff marinade on some good old ribs.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

Uh so are you uh neat or rocks? You know, the the big ice cube is a whole new thing, a whole thing too that has evolved with this bourbon thing.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

I um I taste neat, but I drink on a rock. Okay. Not too many rocks, but I like a rock. Okay. Yeah. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Um let me see here. Oh, so what legacy do you want to leave behind with new riff? And now you've got these boys, like that that could be part of that whole old.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

So my oldest is 16. My youngest is not quite four. Um, I know it's a big spread. That is a big spread. Uh it would be fun to see them rolling barrels down the road, you know. Absolutely. And uh, you know, but I want them to do their own things too. Um, I want them to be really proud of their mom in the world of bourbon. I would like them to look back at this time and see the time that I'm away from home and the time that I'm working, and you know, that it really matters, and that we built something at New Riff and we added more women to the landscape. And, you know, I want them to be proud of me. I think that's my big leg.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Well, I think that you've nailed that. Now, I think it with boys, it takes a little longer for them to appreciate things like that. Yeah. And it may be old older when they start telling their story at a bar when they're drinking bourbon, they're like, wait, oh, people are really there, they know who my mom is. Yeah. Yeah. Like they know our bourbon, you know. Yeah, right. It takes boys a little longer to appreciate uh what us moms do.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Right. And right. And I, you know, it's I don't want my kids walking into their school class being like, bourbon. You know, I know all about bourbon.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

So I gotta be careful there. But I mean, they're all those things. Like my son came home with the Mother's Day gift, you know, when they do preschool and they ask him the questions, you know, how old's your mom? 87 years old, you know, whatever. That's what mine said. And then the one thing is, what um, when is your mom the funniest? And she says she she's the funniest when she's drinking beer. Oh no. And I, the teachers were like, Have you opened your Mother's Day gift? I mean, he was three, four. I was like, oh my gosh, this is really embarrassing. That's hilarious. I'm sure you laugh about that with your memory. He's 25 now. I still post that all the time. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

That's the best.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

I know. So um we end usually with like some kind of Cincinnati question. Let's see. Um, what is your perfect day out in northern Kentucky area? I love that. Well, I'm so glad you didn't ask me where I went to high school. Well, I could have asked that. I do love that question. It's one of my favorites, I might have to say.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

It's a great question. I just grew up in Louisville, so I wouldn't be able to answer that.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

See, but then you say I'm from Louisville, and that's some people are like, well, where in Louisville? Maybe I know somebody from your town, and it just evolves and evolves. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

True, true. Well, I grew up in Louisville. Uh, went to DuPont Manual High School today. Okay. All right. Cheer out to DuPont. Yeah. Woo, ooh. Um, my best day out in northern Kentucky. You know, I'm really excited about all the trails that are being built here in northern Kentucky. A lot of them are funded, not all of them, but it's an exciting time. I mean, this is probably the best time, I think, to ever live in Northern Kentucky. You know, we've got so much outdoor access. The Riverfront Commons is being developed. We're gonna have all these great um parks and access to the riverfront. And so I think going for a nice walk or you know, fast walk with my doesn't get much faster than that with my kiddos, maybe having lunch in an iconic northern Kentucky restaurant. I love autos. Oh, it's one of my faves. I could just eat the I love all their restaurants.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Yeah, I mean, there's all the restaurants that they have auto standard and Fritas, they're they do such a great job. Even Larry's Larry's too. So they've got a little bit of all every gun you want, every gun food you want.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

I love it. Popping over to New Riff, obviously. Walking through a flight of some of our exciting whiskeys and um, you know, calling it a day in another one of our great restaurants in northern Kentucky. It would be a lot of eating and drinking.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Well, that's you're you're speaking my language. That is what I love to do. Oh, and walking across the rolling bridge. Well, that's always a super fun thing to do. And I do that all the time. And then you have to stop and tell people as you're doing it all the time do you know, do you know the story of robling bridge? Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Because people don't always know. It's a lot of predecessor to the Berkeley Bridge. And now, speaking of bridges, as soon as we get all the bridges finished between Newport and Covington and all these, then everything is gonna be so fantastic for everyone. It's a great time to live here.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

It's gonna be so much better and all this. Even heightened, yeah, with the bridges. It's gonna be incredible. It is. It is a great time.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Well, I really appreciate you coming on and talking. Bourbon with me and New Riff and the history and the fun. And I cannot wait to see all the wonderful things that come up in the next few years. I'm sure it's always something.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

Thank you. Well, thank you. Again, it was a privilege to be on the show. It's so nice to sit and talk to you. Nice to talk to you. And to be here and we should have opened these bottles. We do have two bottles.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

Always time to bring urban or rye, or verb, what uh all the kind. And their bottles are super cool too. So everybody needs to go check them out.

unknown 38:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

Well, thank you so much.