Discovery Club May 2025: J. Rieger & Co. Straight Bourbon Whiskey

For the first release from the Lost Lantern Discovery Club, we are offering our first-ever bourbon from the acclaimed J. Rieger & Co. in Kansas City, Missouri.  J. Rieger & Co. was a major whiskey producer in Kansas City before Prohibition, and had a robust business in sourced and blended whiskies delivered by mail order. After Prohibition, the company’s alcohol business disappeared. But the Rieger name remained, most notably on the city’s Rieger Hotel. In 2009, Kansas City star bartender Ryan Maybee opened a new cocktail bar, Manifesto, in the basement of the Rieger Hotel.  There, he discovered the history of the Rieger family and the whiskey brand they once owned. Soon, he met Andy Rieger, the descendant of the Jacob Rieger for whom the whiskey brand is named. Together, they decided to revive the J. Rieger & Co. whiskey brand and restore it to Kansas City home.  The distillery officially reopened in 2014, and today is one of the most exciting attractions in Kansas Cit