Alibi makes beer, hard seltzer, soda, and now…cocktails!
Maxx Grush, our incredibly knowledgeable Sales Manager and Spirits Expert has been making cocktails for 15 years. He started bartending before he was legal (shhhh…) and found he had a real knack for it. Since then, he’s had an eclectic professional history; from becoming a chef with turn-and-burn service to entering the bar industry and serving up 5-star craft cocktails. He went on to develop bar programs and draft letters for change in legislation on ready-to-drink cocktails. He has been instrumental in brands getting their start behind the bar and behind the scenes.
Basically, this guy is not only an spirits expert but also an expert on badass-ery.
So, when Alibi wanted to get into the world of spirits, we knew we had our guy. Maxx helped develop the program and implemented it at Incline Public House. He mixed up a killer starter cocktail and then took notes from our Alibi Family on what we wanted to drink. Maxx went to work on a second and now third cocktail, each time serving up fresh flavors and featuring different liquors.
Now, all of this talk about developing a new program may leave you wondering why. Well, offering cocktails behind the bar has been something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Not only do we love a good mixed drink, but we want everyone to feel welcome at Alibi. Cocktails allow our guests to participate in the libations, if they don’t prefer beer as their drink of choice. Even for our dedicated beer lovers, switching it up once in a while can be fun!
Sophia Guglin, the General Manager at Alibi Incline, shares, “I came onto the Alibi team knowing we wanted to start exploring liquor options behind the bar. I know that at its core, Alibi is a brewery and beer will always be the focus, but I also know that that hasn’t stopped our amazing brewers from experimenting. The Alibi team is no stranger to breaking the brewery mold and inviting non-beer drinkers to find something right for them.
When we talked about cocktails, a full liquor bar felt like a step too far from our core. Thus entered the draft cocktail! With a draft cocktail we can play around with fun flavors and local products with consistency and simplicity. We took one of our four rotating non-beer taps and dedicated it to cocktails. An ever-changing offering to scratch the liquor itch without straying from our brewery roots.”
Our draft cocktails are an Incline Public House exclusive, with the option to create a signature craft cocktail upon request for private events at the Barrel House as well (subject to availability).
With our passion for community, we are focusing on spirits from our friends in our home region. So far we’ve featured local distilleries 72 Mile Spirits and 10 Torr Distilling.
Our first draft cocktail, released in November 2023, was a 72 Mile Bourbon-infused apple cider cocktail. ‘Twas pure bliss…and it went really fast. Maxx is creating only two 15-gallon kegs of each cocktail, so they rotate frequently and he can keep on keepin’ on with his creativity and craft.
What’s next?
Maxx is keeping his ideas close to his vest, but did give us a short teaser, “Whiskey cocktail in the making. Two kegs, limited.”
Come on in to Incline Public House and give us your feedback on our new draft cocktail program and keep updated by following our Instagram. This post was just released yesterday. Cheers!
