Northern Kentucky Beerventures- Part 2

New Riff Distilling (Newport, KY)

Outside and on the left of the Party Source and Braxton Labs parking lot was a massive, seemingly impossibly tall alcohol still. We didn’t know it was here but how could we not stop? New Riff Distilling of Newport, KY opened four years ago, but has yet to bottle any of its own whisky; the spirit is still aging. Instead of staying closed until they had a whisky offering, New Riff makes a series of gins and vodkas and even purchased several barrels of aging Seagrams to make ends meet. This includes purchasing the remaining few barrels of the infamous OKI brand; which is distilled in Indiana, bottled in Kentucky and enjoyed in Ohio.

Steve, our new to Kentucky but not new to alcohol, bartender was busy making ice balls for a private event that night in their spacious party room upstairs; which he assured us would be perfect for a wedding or any other social or business gathering. A fun fact from Steve was that the distillery had poached the Master Fermenter from the Sam Adams facility in CIncinnati.

New Riff is in a prime location between breweries so there is no reason to not take a few minutes and sip some local spirits. I think we actually spent close to an hour there; Steve was a great conversationalist and very knowledgeable on the spirit world. The Smoked Gin was our favorite inhouse beverage, and clearly the OKI was great to taste and once it’s gone, it’s gone for good.

Darkness Brewing (Bellevue, KY)

Right down Fairfield ave, and only a couple of minutes from New Riff is Darkness Brewing of Bellevue, KY. This Star Wars themed brewery was reminiscent to what Other-Half used to look like; a dank, down and dirty garage. Since we showed up on a Thursday, we were privileged to hear the weekly, and sometimes ear piercing “Open Mic Night.” We grabbed a flight at the bar, sat down at a hightop table and tried to enjoy a terrible rendition of Bruce.

“Shockingly” we’re behind schedule so we went with the tastiest sounding flight of four from this nano breweries 6 available beers. Centennial Falcon, Smores Man on the Moo, Honewdew Nebula and Luke Skymalter. Like I said, Star Wars themed.

Centennial Falcon is a crisp pale ale with a fair amount of centennial hop; which showcases a not so subtle lemon flavor. Unfortunately, the centennial notes were quickly marred by an uncharacteristically bitter back end. So it was not our favorite of the flight.
The Smores Man on the Moo was an average milk stout, nothing terrible but also nothing to striking from the beer. We were expecting graham cracker flavor, or maybe some hints of vanilla or whatever would be used to emulate s’more in beer form; but alas we didn’t. Maybe they made a bunch of smores and dumped them into the mash?
The Honeydew Nebula was a thin IPA that might be more akin to a pale than a proper IPA. Unlike the Centennial, the Honeydew was sparsely hopped and overall was just not very satisfying to drink.
Last up was the Luke Skymalter. It’s a rarity that the red ends up being best in show on our flight but here is another one. The hearty, malty body was matched perfectly with a hearty nose and a really smooth mouthfeel. We don’t really consider ourselves red or amber ale people; but Skymalter was one of those exceptions to the rule.

Darkness and I share an affinity for Star Wars; but our beer palates are just not in the same place. The only beer that we really enjoyed was the Skymalter, and the rest was just filler. The force was not very strong here, and I’m not sure Luke would have been able to take on the Death Star with only 2.75 Rebel Squadrons out of 5.

Bircus Brewery (Ludlow, KY)

(sorry, no 360 pic)

Backtracking several minutes to the otherside of Covington is Bircus Brewery of Ludlow, KY. Unlike Darkness, there was no amateur singing talent here. Instead the brewery opted for a more modern take on brewery music. That’s right, we’ve upgraded to real Bruce Springsteen on the most modern piece of technology; vinyl. Yep, we’ve hit ultimate hipster with BYOV.

Jokes aside, we’re here for the beer:

Pie FIghter Pilz: Classic German pils, not a whole lot of frills. Clean, crisp, and pumped with Hallertau hops.
Comic Walrus: There was a gentle nose of cranberry + ginger in this golden ale, and an even lighter presence in the flavor profile. We’ve run across so few cranberry + ginger ales, that we really had expected more from this unique style. So we casually dropped the comment to Sean, the brewer at Bircus, that the beer need more character.
Diving Elk: At the lower end of the Dubbel ABV scale (6.7%), Diving Elk managed to hit the other two markers of a great Belgian; sweet, and rich. I’m a tad biased, and prefer my dubbels on the boozier side without the booze character (don’t we all). But we can sidestep the low ABV and highly recommend this beer as is.
Lagoon: A smooth, and very malt bodied Scotch Ale weighing in at 7%. Normally we associate this style with a bit of smoke, or floral spice but Lagoon was sweet through and through.

We got a chance to speak with Sean, one of the brewers at Bircus, about the breweries growth strategy; which in this case is certainly unique. The current taproom is housed next to an old theater (Ludlow Theatre) which the brewery had acquired for their production facility. However, the Bricus strategy is to go full Circus with live performances and entertainers after the theater has been renovated and made usable again. Pretty sure this will be the first big top brewery combination we’ve ever seen; and potentially ever. We got to visit the production facility/theater and it looks like they still have a long way to go until the tent opens; but we will for sure be back when they do.