American Fifth Spirits in Lansing has new owners.
Michelle and Scott Quoss took over the distillery officially last week.
“We're really excited to be back here and be back to part of the community,” Michelle said. “We're excited about local sourcing for a lot of our products.”
They are hoping to expand the first distillery in Lansing, which was established in 2015.
“We'll work on expanding what we have,” Scott said.
One of their plans is to produce a ready-to-drink cocktail.
“We'll take what we make here and try to put it in cans and sell it,” he said.
Expanding some other product lines is also a part of the plan, including rums, bourbons and gins.
“But for the most part, continue on and just make things a little a little broader,” Scott said.
Even though they have another business called Van’s Sports Center in Grand Rapids, they are no strangers to the Lansing community.
“We lived here for 15 years, and I commuted for seven of those to Grand Rapids," Scott said. "So, we ended up moving to Grand Rapids and funny thing, this business happens to be back in Lansing, so now I'm commuting the opposite way."
Scott said he liked the opportunity to build on something and see people enjoy the product you make.
As to their own favorite drinks?
“The creams are fantastic,” Michelle said. “The bourbon cream and the salted caramel cream are my favorites.”
Scott’s favorite is the Old Fashioned 2.0 and the gin drinks.
Former owner Nickolas Garyet said he wanted to retire.
“My son had to drive from Kalamazoo to work here a couple of times a week,” Garyet said.
They decided to turn the distillery over to someone who could take it to another level.
“We're very, very happy to have Scott and Michelle take over couldn't be a better fit for us,” Garyet said. “We're really excited about what they're going to do with the business. We're going to watch it very closely and help them in any way we can.”
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