New Riff Aroostook Kentucky-Grown Straight Malted Rye

Joining the Maltster T50 Crystal Malt in this release is a riff on our Malted Rye program. When we started making New Riff Malted Rye in 2014, the only consistent source of good quality malted rye in the quantities we needed was Germany. We began importing German malted rye (and we still do today, a whopping 300K pounds annually), but we also kept our eye on the burgeoning number of American craft maltsters. These small malting houses have sprung up around the country, offering custom barley malts, special roasting regimens and local grains to craft breweries. One of these is Sugar Creek Malt Co., in Lebanon, Indiana, northwest of Indianapolis. Founder and head maltster Caleb Michalke offered us a rare malted rye, grown in Kentucky and using the Aroostook variety of rye grain. We were thrilled at this opportunity to try a Kentucky-grown rye, but especially to use a different variety of rye than our usual German supply. (Note that, dating only from 1981, Aroostook is not considered an “heirloom” grain; in fact it is one of the rye varieties that supplanted our beloved Balboa. It’s a perfectly good rye and makes a very nice whiskey, but it’s not an heirloom.) As we sampled this whiskey as it aged, our interest turned to fascination, as it easily showed off a dramatically different character from our standard Malted Rye. Now well-matured at six years, the Aroostook Kentucky-Grown Malted Rye presents as overall bolder and spicier whiskey than our standard New Riff Malted Rye, which is mashed from imported German malted rye. The fruited notes are darker, redder, a bit more pronounced and shaded with lovely spice details as well.