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Indianapolis-based distillery Hi & Mighty is now known as Shake Up Cocktails, a rebrand prompted by the popularity of its Lemon Shake Up canned cocktail.
The company, founded in 2021 by husband-and-wife team Dan and Jamie Fahrner with distiller Nick Traeger, makes its beverages in a building at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
It’s a setting that influenced the packaging of Shake Up’s canned cocktail flavors, which include lemon, cherry, peach, blueberry and a combination of iced tea and lemon.
“We wanted to build the new brand around affiliation with fairs and festivals,” Dan Fahrner said. “Lemon Shake Up is a flavor that’s nostalgic and that people know. The little light bulbs inside the logo are meant to be the lights on the Midway at dusk. The logo’s circle is like the Ferris Wheel or Tilt-a-Whirl.”
The company initially planned to convert the fairgrounds’ Southwest Pavilion, a 9,000-square-foot facility built in 1936, into a year-round Hi & Mighty bar.
But the public gathering space never opened because of challenges in financing a buildout of the building, Fahrner said.
On the bright side, Hi & Mighty sold its Lemon Shake Up—which features the company’s gin as its alcoholic component—through Urick Concessions at the 2022 Indiana State Fair.
“Urick sold it at their bars, and that gave us this immediate statewide audience,” Fahrner said.
Shake Up Cocktails operates as a retail-only concept, with distribution in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The company’s roster of stores includes Kroger, Total Wine & More, Schnucks and Chicago-based Binny’s Beverage Depot.
Although Shake Up makes gin, brandy and other spirits, the company’s ready-to-drink canned cocktails generated 92% of sales in 2024, Fahrner said.
On Saturday, Shake Up will celebrate its new name and new look with a festival scheduled noon to 6 p.m. in the parking lot of MononWorks (formerly the Speakeasy), 5255 Winthrop Ave.
Fahrner said Shake Up has another reason to toast: $600,000 in new investment led by Indianapolis-based Start Something Ventures and Elevate Ventures.
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Rooting for you guys!!
This is delicious news! Congratulations Jamie and Dan!