Ei8ht Ball Brewing, a division of New Riff Distilling, LLC, will close its doors later this winter. The move will allow the local craft distiller to put its entire focus into distilling high-quality whiskey and spirits.
“Ei8ht Ball was incredibly successful as a small niche brewery and we were selling all the beer we could make at our current facility,” said New Riff Distilling President and Owner Ken Lewis. “We have 28 exceptional beers on tap, we doubled production each year we were in business, and we’re very proud of our team’s commitment to a high-quality product.
“But the craft beer industry is tightening, and we made the decision to focus on distilling as we prepare for our first batch of bourbon in 2018. We have a unique position in the Kentucky bourbon market, but we’re less unique in the craft beer world. We’re going to narrow our focus and let others do craft beer.”
As a result of Ei8ht Ball’s closing, New Riff will not move forward with proposed plans to build a brewpub in West Newport.
However, it will continue with its $9 million Whiskey Campus, which is currently under construction. When completed, the New Riff Whiskey Campus will offer public tours of the facility – which will hold more than 19,000 barrels of Kentucky bourbon whiskey – a Napa-style tasting room where guests can sample bourbon cocktails, and an event space. It also will serve as New Riff’s bottling/warehousing facility and distribution center.
The Ei8ht Ball taproom, located inside The Party Source in Newport, will continue its normal operating hours until the official closing date in mid-to-late February. Updates on the closing will be shared on the brewery’s Facebook page:
New Riff Distilling is currently in negotiations for another brewery to occupy the taproom and plans for a smooth transition with little to no dark time. Allowing all Ei8ht Ball taproom employees to keep their current jobs will be a non-negotiable element of the contract.
In the meantime, New Riff Distilling is looking ahead to the release of its first batch of New Riff Bourbon.
“When we began distilling our very first batch of bourbon whiskey in 2014, our team at New Riff agreed that quality was of the utmost importance, and so we decided to be patient and allow our product to age four full years,” Lewis said. “Between the release of our first bourbon and the new whiskey campus, 2018 is going to be an exciting year for us.”
Ei8ht Ball’s award-winning brewer, Mitch Dougherty, is also looking toward the future. He has started on plans to operate his own brewery in Ohio and will announce more details once they are finalized.