CAMPBELL COUNTY RECORDER
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2018 ❚ BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS ❚ PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Newport SkyWheel vs. SkyStar: Let’s compare through June 16 at The Banks in Cincinnati. SkyStar: The wheel at The Banks is 150 The observation wheel opened in August to feet tall with a 15-story view. The wheel seats celebrate The Banks’ 10th anniversary. up to 216 people per ride.
When are they open?
What’s the view?
SkyWheel: The planned Newport SkyWheel, announced in June 2016, is not open yet. Final approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is needed to start construction, said Matthew Stack, president at Koch Development. Starting construction in 2019 is the objecThe SkyStar observation wheel is A rendering of the planned Newport tive, Stack said. The plan is to open either in scheduled to stay through June 16 at SkyWheel. The more than $10 million 2019 or the first of the year in 2020, he said. The Banks in Cincinnati. PROVIDED project still needs approval. PROVIDED Newport City Manager Tom Fromme said the city approved $15 million in Industrial Chris Mayhew unaffiliated with SkyStar, is also based in St. Revenue Bonds in September to assist Koch Cincinnati Enquirer Louis. Koch Development already operates Development with financing. The city will USA TODAY NETWORK SkyWheels in Panama City Beach, Florida, not be on the hook to pay for the bonds for Plans for the skyline-altering Newport and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. building the wheel under any circumstance, SkyWheel continue as the glowing SkyStar There are known key differences. Fromme said. Wheel circles above Cincinnati’s riverfront SkyStar: The portable Skystar is open for at least another six months. Permanent not temporary seven days a week. The Ohio River observation rides share similarities including climate-controlled enSkyWheel: St. Louis-based Koch Devel- Sizeable difference closed seating areas for up to six people at a opment plans to build a permanent observatime and LED lighting to make the wheels tion wheel atop the floodwall at Newport on SkyWheel: Newport’s observation glow at night. the Levee overlooking Downtown Cincin- wheel will be a 235-foot-tall ride. That’s a 21St. Louis-based SkyStar Wheel LLC oper- nati. story view. The wheel will have seating for a ates SkyStar. Koch Development, a company SkyStar: Skystar is scheduled to stay maximum of 240 people per ride.
SkyWheel: Riders will see Cincinnati’s skyline from Newport on the Levee. A raised pier will be built to extend 136 feet toward the Ohio River from a public walkway between Newport Aquarium and Mitchell’s Fish Market. SkyStar: The wheel overlooks an area at The Banks north of the approach of the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. Riders look down on the river and parts of Downtown. The wheel has become a temporary part of the city’s skyline below towering skyscrapers. Are the wheels competing? SkyStar’s presence has been a good experience for the area, Fromme said. “To me, it will just whet their appetite,” he said. SkyStar is scheduled to be gone before SkyWheel could open in Newport. It wouldn’t matter if they were open at the same time, Stack said. “We don’t see it as competition,” he said. “If the two wheels were open at the same time, we think our location is superior.”
Area distilleries are the next big thing ❚ Website: newriffdistillery.com
Polly Campbell
Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
We’ve gotten used to the idea that local food is a good thing. We come to regard our local beer breweries with the kind of loyalty sports teams get. Now distilleries are getting their turn. More slowly and in smaller numbers than breweries, distilleries that make various kind of alcoholic spirits are opening in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Their intentions range from New Riff, probably the best known, who sticks mostly to bourbon, the spirit Kentucky is best known for, to Karrikin, about to open in Fairfax, which will be making all kinds of liquor including bourbon, brandy, gin and mescal paired with an ambitious restaurant. That ability to do things differently is the advantage and selling point of small distilleries. “People learned to love bourbon. This is the next step,” said Terry Shumrick of Shumrick and Leys in Norwood. “People are looking for unique signature tastes. We can experiment and do things that the big distillers can’t.” To open a distillery is to get involved in the complicated, archaic world of liquor laws and state control boards. But Ohio and Kentucky have woken up to the idea that it might make sense to encourage distillery businesses and have loosened regulations that have made this new trend of microdistilleries possible. Ohio is a control state: the state actually owns the bourbon, rum and gin made by Shumrick and Leys or Northside Distillery and sells it back to them, with an almost 50 percent tax. But a local maker can now selfdistribute their product, selling directly to restaurants and bars who want to add local flavor to their cocktail programs. The federal government helped, too, by drastically lowering the excise tax on spirits, making it a somewhat more profitable business to get into.
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Second Sight Carus Waggoner and Rick Couch met at Conner High School and both ended up working on theatrical props in Las Vegas. After being involved in Las Vegas Distilling, they decided to come home and create their own distillery. “We’re proud of the uniqueness of the facility,” said Waggoner. “Everything is hand-built. And we’re about the future, and about interaction and engaging with our clientele.” Their still is turbanPATRICK topped, like a fortune teller. They’ve got REDDY/THE plans to make it even more elaborate. And ENQUIRER they’re looking to grow in 2019, said Waggoner. ❚ Opened: February 2014 It’s all in the service of very flavorful ❚ Products: Rum, bourbon, moonshine, whiskey. Just to make things harder, they hazelnut liqueur, single malt whiskey like to use rye, notoriously difficult to distill. ❚ Some specialties: Oak Eye Kentucky Their bourbon has 30 percent rye, a higher Bourbon, spiced rum number than most, lending a spicy, distinctive flavor. In December, their 100 percent See DISTILLERY, Page 1A rye whiskey is being released. Erisman said their ultimate goal is to be on the list of the best small distilleries in the world. (Though their bourbon is moderately priced, for craft Junior newspaper carriers bourbon, at $40.) needed ❚ Opened: 2014 ❚ Range of products: bourbon, rye, gin Hey kids! Become a Commu❚ Specialties: Kentucky Wild Gin, made nity Recorder carrier and earn with wild foraged botanicals, and their 100 your own spending money and percent rye soon to be released, along with still have time for other fun acsome single-barrel tivities since delivery is just ❚ Tasting room: The Aquifer Bar, once a week on Thursday. named for the source of their water, serves It’s your own business where whiskey and cocktails your neighbors rely on you to ❚ Food: No deliver information about their ❚ Tours: They are part of the Kentucky community. You’ll learn valuBourbon Trail Craft Tour. Tours of the distillable business skills and gain ery are Tuesday-Sunday, and on Wednesday, experience in customer service there is a tour of the barrel warehouses. Book and money management. You’ll on the website. also be able to earn bonuses, ❚ Hours: 11 a.m.- 7 p.m. Tuesday-Saturand possibly win prizes. Call day; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday 859-781-4421. ❚ Address: 24 Distillery Way, Newport ❚ Phone: 859-261-7433 At New Riff Distilling, David Miller draws a sample of bourbon mash from a 5,600-gallon fermenter.
But to the drinker and spirits enthusiast, the most important changes in legislation are measures that allow distilleries to actually serve their products on site in pours and cocktails, not just 1⁄2-ounce tastings. So now you can try before buying, drink a rum, whiskey or vodka right where it’s made, with a tour of the fermenting, distilling and aging process, often meeting the owner or distiller. No one would suggest going on one grand tour of all these distilleries at one time, but the list is small enough that you could visit and check all these off your list before the new ones open.
New Riff Distillery Everything bottled at the New Riff Distillery in Bellevue is bottled in bond, including their straight Kentucky Bourbon. That, says Jay Erisman, is the most stringent quality standard for spirits in the world. A quality designation that Kentucky distillers created in 1897 when whiskey was often adulterated, it must be aged four years, have no additions of flavor or sugar, be made within one distillery season (6 months) and be bottled at 100 proof. Not only that, New Riff does not use chill filtration.
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