Independent bottler Lost Lantern has announced its Spring 2024 collection of American whiskies. The Spring 2024 collection focuses on Midwest distilleries and will feature three bourbons, three ryes, and one wheat whiskey, each bottled non-chill filtered, of natural color, and at cask strength.

Lost Lantern Far-Flung Rye
Limited to 486 bottles at 60.8% ABV (121.6 Proof)
Suggested Retail Price: $100

Lost Lantern’s first blend of straight rye whiskey proves that some of the country’s best rye whiskey comes from the Midwest. This special release brings together a blend of straight ryes, ranging from four to nine years old, from five of the finest distilleries in the region: Cedar Ridge (IA), Middle West Spirits (OH), Starlight Distillery (IN), Tom’s Foolery Distillery (OH), and Wollersheim Distillery (WI). It has bright rye spice and fresh-cut grass on the nose. The palate is spicy, with rich oak and hints of dark chocolate and warm bread.

Lost Lantern Starlight Distillery Indiana Straight Bourbon Single Cask
Limited to 132 bottles at 59.35% ABV (118.7 Proof)
Suggested Retail Price: $90

Starlight Distillery is part of Huber’s Orchard & Winery, an Indiana institution since 1843. Ted Huber started Starlight in 2001 to capture the flavors of Indiana grain and fruit from the place his family has farmed for seven generations. This straight bourbon whiskey was aged in a 53-gallon barrel for 6 years, including two years in Vermont. It was made with 60% corn, 20% malted barley, 10% rye, and 10% wheat. It has a rich and creamy nose, with notes of cherry, nutmeg, fresh oak, and chocolate on the palate. Very spicy and full, with a long finish.

Lost Lantern Wollersheim Distillery Wisconsin Straight Bourbon Single Cask
Limited to 200 bottles at 65.6% ABV (131.2 Proof)
Suggested Retail Price: $90

Established in the 19th century, Wollersheim is a family-owned winery and distillery. Its grain-to-glass whiskies truly reflect Wisconsin’s climate and agricultural heritage. This 5-year-old straight bourbon whiskey was made from 66% corn, 22% rye, and 12% malted barley, all locally grown. An intense and powerful cool-climate northern bourbon with notes of leather, chocolate oranges, and pipe tobacco on the nose, and hints of chocolate mousse, dry grain, and spice-blackened meat on the palate.

Lost Lantern FEW Spirits Illinois Straight Bourbon Single Cask
Limited to 200 bottles at 62.3% ABV (124.6 Proof)
Suggested Retail Price: $90

A pioneer of American craft spirits, FEW has distilled award-winning grain-to-glass whiskies since 2011 in a unique urban setting outside Chicago. This straight bourbon whiskey, Lost Lantern’s first from FEW Spirits and Illinois, was distilled from 70% corn, 20% rye, and 10% malted barley and aged for 5 years in a 53-gallon new American oak barrel. It has warm, sweet notes of nutmeg, cinnamon, and French vanilla on the nose. The palate has a rich and rounded spice, a soft, creamy texture, and notes of milk chocolate and cinnamon rolls. The finish is long and warming.

Lost Lantern Tom’s Foolery 9 Year Old Ohio Straight Rye Single Cask
Limited to 170 bottles at 58.25% ABV (116.5 Proof)
Suggested Retail Price: $120

This family-owned distillery uses traditional, labor-intensive methods to make whiskey, including wooden fermenters and pot still distillation. Their whiskies embody the cold, snowy climate of Ohio’s snowbelt. Aged for 9 years in a 53-gallon barrel, making it the oldest whiskey Lost Lantern has released, this straight rye whiskey was made from 70% winter rye and 30% malted rye. It is fresh and elegant, with hints of fresh-cut grass and lemon on the nose and rich rye spice, lemon custard, and balanced oak on the palate. It has an extremely long, warm finish.

Lost Lantern Middle West Ohio Straight Rye Single Cask
Limited to 197 bottles at 63% ABV (126 Proof)
Suggested Retail Price: $90

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Middle West Spirits is one of the Midwest’s largest and most ambitious independent distilleries. This four-grain straight rye whiskey is made with dark pumpernickel rye grain, giving it a full, toasty, chocolatey, and earthy flavor. It was aged for 4 years in a 53-gallon new oak barrel from Speyside Cooperage. It has notes of rich chocolate mousse and warm rye spice on the nose, with cocoa nibs, nutmeg, cinnamon, and leatherbound books on the palate. It is Lost Lantern’s first release from Middle West.

Lost Lantern Cedar Ridge Iowa Straight Wheat Single Cask
Limited to 203 bottles at 61.55% ABV (123.1 Proof)
Suggested Retail Price: $90

Cedar Ridge has been farming and distilling spirits in Swisher, Iowa, owned by the Quint family, for decades. The area’s dramatic seasonal temperature swings help create whiskies with a soft, clean, yet spicy character. An exceptional cask, this is an elegant and powerful wheat whiskey made from 100% malted white winter wheat that was aged for 6 years in a 53-gallon barrel. It has a very spicy nose, with notes of black cherry and vanilla shortbread on the nose. The palate is bold and warm, with hints of baking spice and cinnamon coffee cake.

The Lost Lantern Spring 2024 collection will be available for purchase at lostlanternwhiskey.com, seelbachs.com, the Lost Lantern Tasting Room in Vermont, and at select retailers in California and New York beginning Wednesday, March 27th.

Source: Lost Lantern Whiskey.

Good Deeds Spirits, a group set up with the intention of creating collaborative spirits releases with the goal of raising money to benefit important industry causes, has announced its first-ever release: Good Deeds Malt Whiskey, a malt whiskey blend from leading craft whiskey producers.

Good Deeds Malt Whiskey was created in February 2021 from a blend of nine donated whiskeys from Balcones Distilling (Waco, TX), Bently Heritage Estate Distillery (Minden, NV), FEW Spirits (Evanston, IL), Headframe Spirits (Butte, MT), Rogue Spirits Distillery (Newport, OR), Santa Fe Spirits (Santa Fe, NM), Sonoma Distilling Company (Rohnert Park, CA), State Line Distillery (Madison, WI), and Thornton Distilling Company (Thornton, IL). Fellow distilleries and industry suppliers including Saxco and Tapi further supported these efforts by donating bottles, closures, labels, and their expertise in an effort to contribute to Good Deeds Spirits’ cause.

Full barrel details for Good Deeds Malt Whiskey follow:

Balcones Distilling (Waco, TX)

• Ingredients: 100% Golden Promise malted barley, brewed with dry M1 & English Ale yeast.
• Distilling Notes: Double pot batch distilled in custom copper stills.
• Barrel Notes: 1st use Madeira Cask.
• Aging: 3 years, 219 days.
• Nerd Notes: The whiskey reflect the marrying of malt from a variety of cask maturations and slight peat hints finished together in Madeira.

Bently Heritage Estate Distillery (Minden, NV)

• Ingredients: 100% estate grown malted barley.
• Distilling Notes: Double distilled on Forsyth’s stills.
• Barrel Notes: STR (Spanish oak red wine, scraped, toasted, and recharred) barrel.
• Aging: 2 years.
• Nerd Notes: This will be the first whisky Bently Heritage has ever released.

FEW Spirits (Evanston, IL)

• Ingredients: 100% malted barley, some of which was smoked with cherry wood.
• Distilling Notes: Single pot distillation.
• Barrel Notes: Ex-Bourbon and ex-rye barrels.
• Aging: N/A
• Nerd Notes: The addition of the cherry wood adds a softer and sweeter smokey note that is balanced, and delicious.

Headframe Spirits (Butte, MN)

• Ingredients: 100% malted barley.
• Distilling Notes: Continuous Flow distilled.
• Barrel Notes: Ex Neversweat bourbon barrels and finished in Oloroso Sherry casks.
• Aging: 2 years.
• Nerd Notes: Headframe invented the still that made this whiskey and has sold the same still to 22 distilleries around the world.

Santa Fe Spirits (Santa Fe, NM)

• Ingredients: 100% 2-row malted barley, 1/3 of which was mesquite smoked.
• Distilling Notes: Double distilled on a hybrid column still.
• Barrel Notes: 1/3 in new American oak, medium char; 2/3 in used bourbon casks.
• Aging: 3 years.
• Nerd Notes: Strong enough to stand alone as a whiskey, but ‘plays nicely with others too’.

Rogue Spirits (Newport, OR)

• Ingredients: 60% 2-row barley, 20% cherrywood smoked malt, 20% alderwood smoke malt.
• Distilling Notes: Single pass distillation on a hybrid column still.
• Barrel Notes: Used char #3 barrel that previously held Dead Guy Whiskey.
• Aging: Ocean aged, 6 years.
• Nerd Notes: Made with smoked-by-hand alder and cherry wood. Rogue’s cooper, Nate, uses a home built smoker to impart a distinctive smoke flavor of the Pacific Northwest.

Sonoma Distilling (Rohnert Park, CA)

• Ingredients: 100% California grown, 2-row malted barley.
• Distilling Notes: Double distilled on a direct fired copper alembic still.
• Barrel Notes: Ex-Bourbon barrels.
• Aging: 4 years.
• Nerd Notes: Made with three types of yeasts (all fermented separately and blended prior to distilling); a traditional single malt yeast, an American whiskey yeast, and a California steam ale yeast.

State Line Distillery (Madison, WI)

• Ingredients: 100% Wisconsin malted barley.
• Distilling Notes: Double pot distilled.
• Barrel Notes: Ex-Bourbon barrels.
• Aging: 2 years.
• Nerd Notes: State Line’s first whiskey distilled, oldest whiskey on site.

Thornton Distilling (Thornton, IL)

• Ingredients: 100% American 2-row pale brewers malt, mashed and proofed with water from the distillery’s limestone-filtered artesian well dating back to the 1830s.
• Distilling Notes: Double pot distilled.
• Barrel Notes: One new, low-char barrel made from Minnesota oak; one freshly dumped ex-rye barrel.
• Aging: 2 years.
• Nerd Notes: This will be the first malt whiskey Thornton Distilling has ever released.

Triple Eight Distillery (Nantucket, MA) )

• Ingredients: 100% Maris Otter malted barley.
• Distilling Notes: Stripped on continuous flow still, spirit run done on hybrid column still.
• Barrel Notes: STR (Spanish oak red wine, scraped, toasted, and recharred) barrel.
• Aging: 5 years.
• Nerd Notes: Distiller Bryan Jennings’ stripping run on the column for this barrel took 2.5 plays through of the Harry Dean Stanton album “Partly Fiction.”

Blenders Johnny Jeffery (Bently Heritage Estate Distillery), Randy Hudson (Triple Eight Distillery), Reade Huddleston (Headframe Spirits), and John McKee (Headframe Spirits) created the blend over the course of two days in Butte, MT, then returned it to used Bourbon barrels to marry for five months before proofing down to 46% for bottling and release.

Good Deeds Malt Whiskey is described as having aromas of “dried apple, brûlée sugar, brown butter, toasted walnut, biscuit, hay, golden raisin, dried cherry, orange peel, and warming spice.” On the palate, it’s “silky, earthy, savory and dry,” with notes of “dried apple, dried cherry, heather, toasted brioche, toasted walnut, savory leather, black tobacco leaf, hay, caramel, singed cinnamon, and orange,” concluding with a “long” finish.

Good Deeds Malt Whiskey is limited to 1,000 bottles and will be available exclusively via Seelbachs beginning on October 15th. It carries a retail price of $75.00, with 100% of the proceeds to benefit STEPUP Foundation, the diversity and inclusion initiative founded by the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA).

Photo credit: Headframe Spirits.
Source: Good Deeds Spirits.