J. Rieger & Co.’s head distiller, Nathan Perry, talks up the new Midwestern Dry Gin

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When I stopped into the J. Rieger & Co. distillery in the East Bottoms a few days ahead of the launch of the company’s newest product — its Midwestern Dry Gin — I was surprised to see only three people in the warehouse: Andy Rieger, the triple-great grandson of Jacob Rieger, the company’s namesake; Nathan Perry, the head distiller; and Perry’s assistant. This was the usual crowd, Perry told me.

As Perry attempted to find a quiet spot for our interview, I watched Rieger — co-founder and partner, along with Ryan Maybee of Manifesto and the Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange — work through a phone conversation as he formatted labels. The assistant moved about the space, hopping on and off a forklift. This may be a small army, but it is a determined one.

Today, the Midwestern Dry Gin officially launches — the third spirit J. Rieger & Co. has unveiled since forming a little over a year ago. There is much to celebrate: the Rieger gin uses the personal recipe of Tom Nichol, retired grand distiller for Tanqueray.

Perry chatted with me about the experience of working with him and distilling gin for the first time.

The Pitch: You are formerly a microbiologist with Boulevard Brewing Company. Tell me about what first attracted you to working with spirits at J. Rieger & Co.
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Perry: I just needed more alcohol. [Laughs.] It was about this time last year that I saw that they posted for the job [of distiller], and I was like, “This would be a good way to push myself a little bit,” and so I went to meet and talk with the guys. And I sat down and talked with Andy [Rieger] and Ryan [Maybee] in September of last year, just to see if it would be a good fit, and a lot of the things that they thought were important for the  company were a lot of the things that I picked up at Boulevard.

We talked about maintaining quality and being true to your brand, about wanting to be smart in the growth of the company. It reminded me of what John [McDonald] did when he started Boulevard: Just making sure that every chance you choose to make something good, you take it. They had this vision of not over-extending yourself and remembering that no matter what, you’re trying to make a quality product. And in that, you’ll be able to grow. As soon as I started talking to them, I was pretty excited.

It feels pretty ambitious for a new company — J. Rieger & Co. is just over a year old — to have Kansas City Whiskey, Midwestern Premium Vodka and now Midwestern Dry Gin in such quick succession.

If we look back now on the initial timeline, I think we were naively ambitious. There were some projects that we’ve put on the back burner now because of time. Any big project takes about three times longer than you think it will. But always, there was a vision that we’d have the Kansas City whiskey and the gin. The vodka actually happened after getting feedback from the bartending community — like, “If you make a good vodka, we’ll sell it.” It’s hard to stand out in the vodka market, and so we took a whiskey approach to it and thought about blending the grains to make it a little more distinctive.

We knew we wanted to make a gin prior to getting a chance to meet Tom [Nichol], and we just feel crazy lucky that when we got to meet him and he liked us. Our gin is his recipe — it’s a recipe that’s been in his head for years. It’s his signature recipe, and for me, it’s kind of scary for him to be like, “I have a hundred percent confidence in you.”

Tell me about the learning curve you faced in transitioning from brewing beer to distilling this triple-threat of spirits.

In all of those, it’s a big complicated machine. It can be overwhelming, but one of the things I learned in working with the quality team at Boulevard is looking at the whole thing — looking at your inputs and deciding where you can change something, and where can that change affect the product.

It’s a very broad way to describe it, but having a science background, I felt reasonably comfortable with the concept. And then, paying attention to what you’re tasting — it was very easy to apply that to the distilling process. There have been times here where I’ve made cuts [adjustments to the batch] just by tastes. That, and being able to trust what I’m smelling, that’s been nice.

The whiskey process and the gin process, those are so different, but that’s really exciting for me. The whiskey that’s coming off right now, that’s still in process — it’s four years from going into a bottle. It’s going to spend a lot of time in barrels. I’m still looking at the intermediary of this product. And gin, from the day you distill it and cut it down, it’s basically ready to bottle. You’re tasting something that you just made, you see your changes that day.

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What’s the flavor profile of the Midwestern Dry Gin?

If you’re going broad category, it’s a traditional London Dry Gin, and it’s juniper-forward. It’s got five ingredients: coriander, juniper, angelica, licorice root and orange peel. We put those all in the pot, all together, all at once.

When you’re tasting it, it’s going to come forward with juniper first, but there’s no point when you can’t taste any of the ingredients. They’re all there. And with the gin, we wanted it to do well in a classic gin cocktail — gin and tonics. I like it just on ice with a squeeze of lime. It’s nice and refreshing, but still a pretty assertive gin. It’s 92.2 proof, which is in a happy range that Tom thought we should go with. Tom was really happy with the recipe. He’d never done it before.

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So this is hitting the shelves…

We started bottling last week, and it’ll be hitting local shelves within the week. Anywhere that carries our products should have the Midwestern Dry Gin. And another thing is that we’re keeping the price point similar: It’s under $30 a bottle. We wanted to make it accessible. We didn’t want people to think, “Oh, that’s cool, but I’m never going to afford it at such-and-such a price.” We wanted to make a really nice, really quality gin and have anyone be able to afford it. I think we did that.

J. Rieger & Co.’s Midwestern Dry Gin is available this week at liquor stores and area bars and restaurants in Missouri and Kansas. A 750 milliliter bottle retails for under $30. For more details, see the J. Rieger & Co. website. 

You can celebrate the launch of the Midwestern Dry Gin with Tom Nichol tonight at the Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange, with a special happy hour featuring $5 gin cocktails from 9 p.m. — midnight. Details here. 

See also: 
With J. Rieger & Co. Whiskey, Ryan Maybee resurrects a KC classic
J. Rieger & Co. has a brand-new product: Midwestern Premium Vodka