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Feature
The big interview: Swizz Beatz, InnoBev
Grammy-winning music producer and businessman Swizz Beatz has stepped into the spirits world and joined the InnoBev family. We met the entrepreneur for an exclusive interview to learn more about his latest investment.
“It’s about the ‘za za za’,” says Kasseem Daoud Dean, better known as the Grammy-acclaimed musician and businessman Swizz Beatz. He continues to explain: “It’s about positive energy, excitement. It used to be the ‘zone’, but that felt too hard. The ‘za’ feels easy.” Spend five minutes in the company of Swizz, and you’ll quickly learn he thinks, feels, and speaks in terms of positive energy. “The key is to keep the positive energy going in, and ignore the noise,” he says.
The positive vibes are particularly strong surrounding the musician’s latest venture. In 2023, Swizz officially joined InnoBev as a shareholder. InnoBev is a beverage brand development company, specialising in creating consumer experiences, challenging the status quo, and creating truly innovative alcoholic, and alcohol-free, beverages.
The company’s portfolio comprises a broad assortment of products, including a premium Irish coffee liqueur, an Irish vodka, a 21-year-old Irish whiskey, gin, and alcohol-free ‘spirits’. With the support of Swizz and his entrepreneurial prowess, the team is readying to share its portfolio with the world for the first time.
“The portfolio we have at InnoBev is everything that people drink with just a higher quality, a bigger story, and better meaning,” Swizz explains. “InnoBev is a disruptive spirits company. We want to disrupt the industry.”
Swizz has worked closely with Stephen Dillon, founder and head of innovation at InnoBev. Fellow shareholders in InnoBev include: Hans Cauchi, Brendan McQuaid, Glen Hynes and Chris Kelly.
“I haven’t met anyone as passionate as my brother Stephen,” Swizz notes. “I’m so happy to be a partner in this company. They accepted me as a brother and I accepted them as a brother, and we instantly became family.”
With close ties to the Irish whiskey industry through its association with Ireland’s Boann distillery, the category will play a key role in the InnoBev portfolio. It was a key attraction for Swizz, who shares that a DNA test revealed his heritage is 30% Irish.
Irish masterpiece
Temris Irish Whiskey is one of InnoBev’s flagship products, and will launch with two age-statement bottlings: a five-year-old and a 21-year-old. While each whiskey has its own flavour profile, when it comes to quality, it is hard to tell them apart, Swizz says.
“That’s when you know you have a masterpiece because when you produce quality, they’re close to the same lines. When that quality between the five-year-old and the 21-year-old is that close, it means the blend is just ridiculous,” he enthuses.
The name ‘Temris’ hails from an old Irish phrase meaning ‘sanctuary’ or ‘sacred space’. The 21-year-old single malt whiskey was aged in ex-Bourbon barrels before being transferred into oloroso Sherry casks to add “richness and complexity”. It sits at 46% ABV.
As Irish whiskey continues to grow as a category, Dillon draws attention to the USP he believes sets Temris apart from other products on the market. “For me it’s about taste, the palate,” Dillon explains. “As a music producer, this man knows when a song is right. I’m a producer of liquid; I know when the balance is there between spiciness, sweetness and smoothness.”
The group’s passion for Irish whiskey extends to Temris’s stablemate: Black Twist Hard Coffee. The premium Irish coffee liqueur, made with cold-brew coffee and a twist of Irish whiskey, will relaunch in the US and Europe this autumn. “This is such a versatile product,” Swizz says. “You can drink it with ice or without ice. You can mix it if you want to – it’s just pure quality.”
On the white spirits side of the portfolio there is Inginuity Gin. The small batch Irish gin is distilled in a copper pot still with 14 carefully chosen botanicals. The result is a “crisp, clean spirit”, bursting with citrus notes and a dry finish – recommended in a gin and tonic with a slice of lemon or lime.
“The idea behind the Inginuity brand was, again, a deep kind of innovation to play with,” Dillon explains. “So, we’ve got a classic Irish dry gin but we’re going to play with some flavours and do some really cool stuff.
“I’m not worried about trends, what’s up or what’s down, we’re looking at the bigger picture. Gin is a great transatlantic drink. It used to be seen as a ‘granny’ drink, and then Hendrick’s came out, and everyone bought into it. The industry has talked about rum being the ‘next big thing’ for years, and the Tequila boom – there’s a constant cycle of chasing trends. But, ultimately, it’s about creating fantastic liquids and products, the best possible brands that will stand the test of time.”
This ethos extends to VLVT Premium Vodka. The spirit is described as “crisp and clean”, enhanced by its carbon-filtration, Swizz and Dillon note. Designed to be suitable for enjoying neat over ice or mixed into vodka cocktails, InnoBev trusts that VLVT has global potential. “We think this could be really big in the club scene,” says Swizz. “We’re being very intuitive with VLVT, like all of our brands. Rather than us saying ‘this is what this brand is’, we’re trying to be very organic. We’re creating what we think is amazing, then we’re putting them in the universe.”
Dillon adds: “And the universe is going to come back and say if they love it in China, but they don’t love it in America. So, to an extent, we’re going with the flow. We’re going where the consumer tells us they want to see the product.”
Evidently, there are big plans in the works for InnoBev. This year, Swizz Beatz and rapper Timbaland inked a deal with Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) to distribute their multimedia platform Verzuz. Swizz and Timbaland retained their ownership and creative control, while X gained exclusive distribution rights. How will this help InnoBev? Swizz explains: “This partnership means adding 560 million people [monthly users] to this plan.”
Dillon continues: “There are so many artists, so many creators, but they don’t know anything about the drinks business. They can plug into InnoBev – we know how to do this. We can manufacture amazing products for the right partners, as well as a part of our business.
“We’ve got a lot of people with huge platforms who would like to get into the drinks industry, but they don’t know where to start. So this is an opportunity to say, ‘OK, what’s your vision? Does it make sense? How can we help?’”
InnoBev’s expertise would help aspiring brand creators source the liquid, the logistics of blending (if required) and bottling, and all-important distribution. “It’s about inviting people to be more than consumers; they can be bosses, leaders, innovators,” adds Swizz.
“We’re thinking so differently about everything,” Dillon also notes. “We go with our gut, with what feels right. We want to keep creating and pushing boundaries.”
Memorable experiences
Swizz and Dillon are already planning how to take InnoBev’s portfolio to the next level, from a spirits gaming company to an InnoBev music festival.
“We’re into creating experiences,” says Swizz. “When you have a drink, it usually goes along with a conversation, a moment, or an event. Imagine these drinks come with different tools, different things that enhance those moments as grown-ups, and we’re tapping into something different that we haven’t seen in the spirits world. And that’s where the disruption is going to come in.
“Now we have a bigger plan – and the bigger plan is to create moments that you will never forget.
“That is what InnoBev is going to do. So with our entire portfolio, we’re looking at it with ground-breaking innovation.”
Finite details about the spirits gaming concept and festival are being kept secret for now. But the excitement between Swizz and Dillon about InnoBev’s future is palpable.
“We’re a young company, but we have amazing connections and amazing people in the group who come from a diverse background,” says Dillon. “We’re doing our own thing and presenting ourselves in our own unique way. We’re going into the world with our own ‘za’ and spirit and positivity. We love the brands and we truly believe they are going to resonate differently.”
Swizz, clearly, concurs wholeheartedly, and adds: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone; the sky’s the limit. We’re here to disrupt. We’re here to do something new. And you know, we’re small guys right now – but we’re ready to compete with giants.”
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