The Year Behind: Lost Lantern 2024 Stats
2024 was a year of growth for Lost Lantern amidst a challenging year for the spirits industry. In 2023, we launched two major new product lines in the Single Distillery Series and the relaunch of the expanded Blend Series. In 2024, we built on these two series and rolled out a formalized private cask program for the first time. We also significantly ramped up our presence in New York and California and launched in Massachusetts. Online sales through our retail partners are still a major focus, but we are increasingly available in brick-and-mortar as well. This has been a big change for us!
This was also our first full year of having our Vermont tasting room, and the first time we launched whiskies in our home market as well. It has been a year filled with awesome new whiskies, including some from new distillery favorites–in fact, we worked with more new distilleries this year than we ever have before!
2025 will be another big year for us – especially behind the scenes. And we have big plans for some amazing new whiskies that we’re very excited about sharing with you all. But that’s a story for another time!
Today, let’s take a look back at 2024 by the numbers! See our 2023 Stats post here if you’re curious how things compare.
Lost Lantern Whiskey 2024 End-Of-Year Stats
Number of Collections we released in 2024: 3 tightly themed collections
Number of single casks we released in 2024: 19 (four more than 2023!) + a slew of private casks
Number of blends we released in 2024: 2 (Far-Flung Rye and Far-Flung Bourbon II), versus 3 in 2023
Number of Single Distillery Series whiskies we released in 2024: 1 flagship (Mississippi Memory) + 2 small store-exclusive Single Distillery Series releases, vs 6 in 2023
New Distillery Partners in 2024: 10 (vs 6 in 2023)
(Wollersheim, FEW Spirits, Middle West, Rich Grain Distilling, High Wire, Leiper’s Fork, Woodinville, Union Horse, Rock Town, J. Rieger & Co.)
Distilleries we released whiskies from in 2024 (excluding multi-distillery blends): 21
Midwest Collection: Starlight, Wollersheim, FEW Spirits, Middle West, Tom’s Foolery, Cedar Ridge
Summer of Bourbon II: Rich Grain Distilling, Corbin Cash, High Wire, Leiper’s Fork, Woodinville, Union Horse, Rock Town, Boulder Spirits
10-Year Collection: Westland, Tom’s Foolery again, Spirit Works, New York Distilling Co.
Others: J. Rieger & Co. (a NYS-exclusive cask), and Kings County, Westward, Whiskey Del Bac, Cedar Ridge, and others already listed above for private casks
States we released our first whiskey from in 2024: 8 (up from just 1 in 2023!)
(Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois)
States we released whiskey from in 2024 (excl. multi-distillery blends but including private casks): 17
(Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, New York)
Most notable states we didn’t release whiskey from in 2024: Texas (except in Far-Flung Bourbon II) – the first year we haven’t done a Texas whiskey! But don’t worry, Texas will return.
State we’re surprised we haven’t released more whiskey from yet: Colorado, Kentucky
States we’re surprised we haven’t released any whiskey from yet: Vermont, Minnesota, Michigan
Oldest whiskey we released in 2024: Tom’s Foolery 10-Year-Old Ohio Straight Bourbon
Youngest whiskey we released in 2024: 11-month-old Whiskey Del Bac unsmoked American single malt
Average age of whiskies we released in 2024 (excluding private casks, even though that would bring it up): 6.2 years (vs 4.4 in 2023 and 4.6 in 2022)
Fastest-selling single cask: Corbin Cash 7 Year Old California Bourbon
Runner-up: everything we released from Tom’s Foolery
Fastest-selling Single Distillery Series: Mississippi Memory, our first ghost distillery release (sold out launch day!)
Biggest Surprise Hits: We were thrilled and blown away by the response to Mississippi Memory and everything we’ve released from Rich Grain!
Most Award-Winningest Whiskey: Far-Flung Rye
Sleeper Single Casks of the Year (aka my favorite single casks that are still available): Union Horse Bourbon and Middle West Rye
Whiskies People Are Most Likely To Fall in Love With After Trying Them: Far-Flung Rye, Gentle Giant, Flame, Shadow
Total # of Distilleries Visited In 2024: at least 35 (way up from 20 in 2023)
# of National Parks and National Monuments Visited: at least 5
(Theodore Roosevelt, Badlands, Glacier National Park, Devil’s Tower, Craters of the Moon)
Lost Lantern 2024 Secret Predictions Revisited
Last year, we made a bunch of predictions for Lost Lantern in 2024. Now, we’re going to revisit them and see what we got right and what we got wrong. And now onto the secret predictions for this year, which, as with the ones above, are sometimes more “teases” than actual predictions. Scour these for clues, and perhaps clues you shall find.
What We Said: Odds that we release only single casks this year: 0% (rounded down)
Reality: Lost Lantern will always do single casks. But the days of Lost Lantern only doing single casks are definitively behind us!
What We Said: Odds that we release another blend of whiskey from multiple distilleries this year: 100%
Reality: We knew Far-Flung Rye was already in the bag; hence the extremely high confidence here.
What We Said: Odds that we release multiple blends this year: 95%
Reality: We released two (Far-Flung Rye and Far-Flung Bourbon II)!
What We Said: Odds that we release more Single Distillery Series releases than last year (6): Zero
Reality: With only one major Single Distillery Series release, this year was quieter on this front. But we knew that going in!
What We Said: # of Distilleries We’ll Release Whiskey From For The First Time in 2024: at least 4, probably 7+ (yes, that’s the same answer as last year, and it’ll probably be right again!)
Reality: It ended up being 10, on the very high side of what we thought we might hit!
What We Said: # of States We’ll Source From For The First Time: certainly at least three, but hopefully 5 or more!
Reality: We landed at 8, which is even more than we expected!
What We Said: State We’ll Release The Most Whiskey From This Year: Not sure, but definitely not Texas
Reality: Yup, definitely not Texas. Mississippi is the winner here, which we certainly would not have guessed!
What We Said: # of Cohorts We’ll Release This Year: Four.
Reality: We actually only ended up doing three… we did a lot of new stuff this year and it felt like too much to squeeze in another one in September!
What We Said: # of Private Casks We’ll Release This Year: A bunch! Email [email protected] if you’re interested.
Reality: We did indeed do quite a bunch – and we even did two private Single Distillery Series releases for retailers too! Email [email protected] if you’re interested.
What We Said: Odds That We Do A Tasting Room Exclusive Release This Year: 37.5%
Reality: We did not! We ended up moving through a large portion of our library in the tasting room instead and helped people discover awesome older whiskies that are sold out everywhere but here.
What We Said: First 2023 Release: March!
Reality: It was March and already fully planned out so this one was kind of a cheat! Or a clue, if you want to be generous.
Lost Lantern 2025 Secret Predictions
And now onto the secret predictions for this year, which, as with the ones above, are sometimes more “teases” than actual predictions. Scour these for clues, and perhaps clues you shall find.
Odds that we release more single casks in 2025 than 2024: low in our official Collections, high counting private casks and… other things
Odds that we release another blend of whiskey from multiple distilleries this year: 100%
Odds that we release multiple blends this year: 95%
Odds that we release more Single Distillery Series releases than last year (1): 90%+
# of Distilleries We’ll Release Whiskey From For The First Time in 2025: probably similar to or slightly higher than 2024 (which was 10).
# of States We’ll Source From For The First Time: 5-10
State We’ll Release The Most Whiskey From in 2025: Probably New York or Mississippi
# of Cohorts We’ll Release This Year: Three! But those are not the only whiskies we’ll be releasing.
# of Private Casks We’ll Release This Year: A bunch! Email [email protected] if you’re interested.
Odds That We Do A Tasting Room Exclusive Release This Year: 37.5%
First 2025 Collection Release: March!