Lost Spirits is a working distillery and immersive circus show located in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. It was founded by Bryan Davis and Joanne Haruta. The distillery was initially located in

Salinas, California Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area lo ...

, where it opened in 2010. In 2016, the distillery was moved to downtown Los Angeles, California and later moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. The experience of visiting Lost Spirits has been described as "cult hit among spirits geeks". The distillery attracted attention after Davis developed technology to create mature

whisky Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden c ...

and

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Phili ...

within days.

Lost Spirits Distillery & Circus

In 2021, Davis and Haruta moved the distillery to Las Vegas. The new location included a tour described as "equated to an adult Disneyland." The Las Vegas version featured a large cast of live actors, acrobats, contortionists and singers. In 2023 Lost Spirits was listed on the annual Thrillist list of the best live shows & musicals in Las Vegas.

Technology

In 2015 the company attracted global media attention when Davis announced that he had invented a new means of aging spirits. Davis's process was shown, using modern

analytical chemistry Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...

, to replicate the chemical reactions which take place as spirits age in barrels. The process aims to replicate the

aging Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...

process in a laboratory while producing the same chemical signature and taste. Whisky made using Davis' process performed favorably in blind tastings hosted by Whisky Advocate, and won a Liquid Gold award in Jim Murray's Whisky Bible (widely considered the world's most influential whisky critic).

References

{{coord, 36.13028, -115.18257, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NV, display=title Wineries of the United States Companies based in Nevada 2010 establishments in California