Photos courtesy of Matt Green
The Hudson Valley’s latest craft beverage craze, canned cocktails, revitalizes the tradition of storytelling at Liquid Fables on Main Street.
With an alcoholic beverage in hand, storytellers tend to exaggerate the details just a little bit.
It’s just human nature. Liquid courage elevates mere anecdotes to pure legend.
All of a sudden, that fish your buddy caught at the beginning of a camping trip has tripled in size by the final night. That hike your friend conquered in the Catskills ascends higher with every recounting. Campfire-side orators turn Sleepy Hollow’s Headless Horseman more vicious and bloodthirsty with the arrival of October. Family jokes get bigger laughs every holiday season. The tall tales old-timers tell at atmospheric watering holes inflate more and more every time.
View this post on Instagram
With a plethora of top-rate breweries, distilleries, and cideries throughout the region, Hudson Valley denizens with the “gift of gab” can spin their yarns endlessly. Liquid Fables, Beacon’s canned-cocktail shop, seeks to fuel this kind of storytelling.
“This goes back to when you first start picking up alcoholic beverages, in my opinion,” says Matt Green, founder and owner of Liquid Fables. He’s also, of course, the CSO: Chief Storytelling Officer. “There’s always stories to be had, regardless of setting, and frankly, those stories always are changing.”
Before he opened Liquid Fables in a 100 year-old factory, Green worked in the craft beer industry. He cut his teeth in the northeastern brewing world about nine years ago. Green worked a variety of roles in the sales and marketing side, including selling to distributors in the Hudson Valley. It was exciting, but when he really reflected on what he wanted, Green decided to take a different approach.
View this post on Instagram
“I love craft beer and I love the cold craft beverage industry, but when it came time for me to really want to start my own company, I decided to focus my time and effort more on a craft distilling angle as opposed to a craft brewery angle,” Green says.
Born and raised in the Hudson Valley, Green moved to Beacon about four years ago. However, the impetus for starting Liquid Fables came from the West Coast.
“There’s a company in California producing canned cocktails. Now, I’m not very good at making my own cocktails at home—there’s always a lot of ingredients to contend with—but having the ability to just pick up a can, whether I’m on the run, or I’m at home, or out at a bonfire, having the ability to just have a can was great,” Green remarks. “Next, when I started trying what they were doing with the format, I realized this is the next frontier for craft beverages.”
View this post on Instagram
He and his wife kicked around the idea for a few years. They hunkered down and did a ton of research on the craft spirits landscape. When Green came across the New York Farm Distilling License, he recognized an opportunity to highlight local producers and distillers. All of the liquor that gives Liquid Fables its kick comes from a distillery in the Finger Lakes region. A variety of upstate farms supply apples, fruit juices, and maple syrup.
Everything starts with the recipe development, and Green strives and pushes for new and exciting flavor combinations. Guests won’t find old fashioneds or cosmos on the menu at Liquid Fables; each canned concoction is wholly original.
View this post on Instagram
“One of the big, very unique things to me with liquor is it presents a palate that’s borderline endless. You can start with something near flavorless like a vodka, and use it to highlight local fruits or herbs. On the flipside, you can take the spiciest rye whiskey on the market and the challenge is to find ingredients that complement that,” Green explains.
Currently, Green has four stories to tell, with more forming.
View this post on Instagram
The boldest of the bunch is “The Lion in Love,” an eight-percent ABV ode to liquid courage. Bourbon blends with raspberry and maple syrup for a delightful autumn libation. In the classic tale, a lion falls madly in love with a lioness. His beloved’s father insults his appearance and encourages the lion to remove his nails and extract his teeth to look prettier. Defenseless, the lion is killed by his father-in-law-to-be. In other words, love—like liquor—often inspires foolishness. In a similar vein, don’t let your guard down with this drink; it strikes when you least expect it.
Secondly, Liquid Fables cans a “Tortoise and the Hare”-themed cocktail, preaching responsible consumption. Green used a vodka base to highlight bright flavors like fresh mint and lemon. This drink still packs a punch at seven-percent ABV.
“There’s always the debate of if you should go fast or if slow and steady wins the race. Here, slow and steady will get you to where you’re going. It’s obviously better than racing, and you know, chugging a bunch of cocktails,” Green jests.
View this post on Instagram
Next, affluent urbanite gin meets rural blueberries and basil—and they get along! “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” encourages drinkers to leave their comfort zone and try new things. Juniper-forward gins can be quite divisive, and Green developed this cocktail to introduce naysayers to gin’s merits.
Finally, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” rounds out Liquid Fables’ flagship line. Believe it, this strawberry mule is the real deal. Green also works on limited-batch cocktails, which are available on draft in the brand’s Beacon tasting room. This collection of “Untold Fables” is a story in progress and features one-off experiments. With “Core & Cask,” Green plays with single-varietal apples and rye whiskey. Greek mythology, Native American lore, cryptids, and even Hudson Valley legends are on the table for future creations.
“I think we’ll try to get playful and do those kinds of fables as well. We don’t want to limit ourselves to one type of story, but rather a broad spectrum and scope of different tales from different areas,” Green says.
Liquid Fables
1 East Main St., Beacon
914.325.1040
