Brian Sprance

“The Brewing Head Distiller”

Brian Sprance came to the beverage alcohol business at the age of 21 when he worked as a delivery driver for Cincinnati, Ohio’s Barrelhouse Brewing Company. Over his 10 years there he became a brewer, but a change in ownership prompted a move to Boston Beer. Here he learned a great deal about fermenting a wide portfolio of products at America’s 2nd largest craft brewery producing Sam Adams beer. After around 5 years he grew tired of the work and was looking for a change.

At the age of 36 and with a non-compete agreement, he needed to look for something outside of the brewing industry. A friend working at Ei8ht Ball Brewing which was owned by Ken Lewis (at the time also owner of The Party Source and founder of New Riff) mentioned to Brian that Ken was looking to start a distillery.

Lewis was looking for someone with unique skills at Larry Ebersold’s request, New Riff’s consulting Master Distiller. Larry recommended finding someone without their own beliefs of distilling methods or even what the product should be or taste like. Larry felt it would be best to find someone to make something new and different - a new riff - that they should look for someone with a brewing and fermentation background and expertise. They were looking for someone with a small brewer mindset, but could handle larger volumes as well.

Brian who was quite familiar with using a wide variety of yeasts and wide portfolio of products with Sam Adams was exactly what Ken and Larry were looking for.

Brian joined New Riff in 2014 when it was founded and is their Head Distiller today. He studied under the guidance of consulting Master Distiller Larry Ebersold and today uses his background in fermentation and creates his own spin on various whiskies using grains from his beer background to create new and unique flavor profiles. One example of this different thinking lead to their Winter Whiskey which has a very different mash bill of 65% corn, 20% malted oats, 7% pale ale malt, 5% steel cut raw oats and 3% chocolate malt.

New Riff first used a mash bill of 75% corn, 20% rye and 5% malted barley suggested by Larry which he used at Seagram’s, later LDI, and later MGP. The team at New Riff felt this was a good starting point, but then went to a 30% rye mash bill and felt that was very good and have used that since. Their rye mash bill is 95% rye and 5% malted barely based on Larry’s legendary recipe, except of course for their 100% malted rye brand.

Contributed by Daniel Snyder, Whiskey Founders Committee Chair, Champaign, Illinois

New Riff Bourbon Line

New Riff Bottled in Bond Bourbon, Single Barrel Bourbon, Red Turkey Wheat Bourbon, Malster Bourbon, Backsetter Bourbon and Winter Whiskey Bourbon

New Riff Rye Whiskey Line

New Riff Bottled in Bond Rye, Single Barrel Rye, 100% Malted Rye, Balboa Rye and Backsetter Rye

Contributed by Daniel Snyder, Whiskey Founders Committee Chair, Champaign, Illinois