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Proof: Cocktail & Spirits Festival offers a new take on adult beverage festivals

Posted at 9:00 AM, Aug 12, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-12 11:28:43-04

CINCINNATI -- If there is any doubt that craft cocktails and spirits are currently trending in the Queen City, one local festival organizer will offer the best evidence this fall.

Festivals Unlimited, the company behind the Cincy Winter Beerfest, is hosting its inaugural Proof: Cocktail and Spirits Festival on Oct. 22 at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

"The Beerfest will always be our main thing, but [Cincinnati] has such a craft cocktail scene,” said Festivals Unlimited event organizer Tori Meeker.

Organizers hope to draw up to 2,500 people to the festival, which will feature 100 local and national spirit makers and bartenders.

Proof will occupy a single hall in the convention center divided into four themed "pop-up bars," a VIP guest area, local and national distillers sections and a main stage. Both VIP and regular admission tickets are now on sale on the Proof festival website.

“The main stage will have an educational component, an opportunity for enrichment as well,” Meeker said.

The four bars -- Tiki, modern mixology, log cabin lodge and "cocktails and dreams" themed areas -- will offer live music and two cocktails tailored to each respective station.

Wellmann Brands, which owns Bottle & Basket, the Famous Neons Unplugged, Old Kentucky Bourbon Bar, Japp's Since 1879, Myrtle's Punch House and Melt, will run the Tiki bar.

"We are basically moving our entire Tiki oasis set-up from Japp's," said Wellmann Brands owner and mixologist Molly Wellmann.

Two of Japp's bartenders will mix the Tiki-themed cocktails at the bar while Wellmann serves drinks in the VIP area. Bottle & Basket is catering food for Proof, something that is a first for a Festivals Unlimited event, according to Meeker.

Meeker said she will reveal other local bartenders and bars scheduled to attend the festival soon.

On the vendor side, Northside Distilling Co. was one of the first local micro-craft distilleries to sign up for Proof.

"We are going to be part of the regional/local section of the event," said Northside Distilling's head distiller Chris Courts. "We will have our own booth, along with a couple other locals showcasing our products."

Courts said he plans to share how Northside Distilling makes its moonshine and the vodka it began distributing in July.

"I think the reception is really good," Courts said of Northside Distilling's spirits. "We are having a hard time meeting demand right now."

If Proof is successful, Festivals Unlimited might make the festival a recurring event, Meeker said. 

“I’m excited about this,” she said. 

Wellmann, who opened Japp's as one of Over-the-Rhine's first craft cocktail bars in 2011, said she was excited about Proof as well.

"Eight years ago when I moved to Cincinnati no one was doing anything with cocktails," she said. "I’m very excited. I think we deserve to have something really neat. We deserve to have the very best." 

Proof: Cocktail and Spirits Festival

7-10:30 p.m. Oct. 22
Duke Energy Convention Center
www.beerfesttickets.com