Courtesy Mixed Breed Brewing
By Carol Ann Conover
Guy Bucey has never done anything small.
The founder of Inovabed — a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing operation in Brunswick with 85 employees and about 20,000 beds installed at Disney properties worldwide — Bucey is also the driving force behind Mixed Breed Brewing, a craft brewery that began as a therapeutic hobby after two combat deployments to Iraq and has quietly grown into one of the Capital Region’s most decorated small brewers.
Now, after seven years, a pandemic-era basement speakeasy and a successful run in Guilderland, Mixed Breed is making its most ambitious move yet: taking over the former Unified Brewing location in Malta and launching a full-scale beer garden at Van Patten Golf Course in Clifton Park.
“I’ve always wanted to get into an opportunity where I could make choices based off of it being the right choice or just being a good opportunity — versus backs up against the wall, kind of have to do it,” Bucey said. “This was just one of those nice first times where a really good opportunity presented itself.”
The Malta acquisition came through the craft brewing grapevine. Unified Brewing had quietly been winding down operations, and Bucey — who had partnered with the brewery on collaboration beers — moved quickly. With two new partners now in the fold — Lance Orcutt, owner of Executive Group, a custom millwork firm serving the hospitality industry, and real estate developer Zach Dorough — Mixed Breed closed the deal and is currently midrenovation at the former Unified space.
The 10,000-square-foot industrial park location will be overhauled from floor to ceiling. The taproom will be expanded and refined, the bar extended and the industrial aesthetic softened into something warmer. Brewing capacity is scaling from a five-barrel system to a seven-barrel system, complemented by a newly acquired 3.5-barrel pilot system and significantly expanded cold storage. A full kitchen is planned, with a menu anchored in pizza and pub fare. A full liquor license — something Mixed Breed operated without in Guilderland — is part of the new blueprint.
One of the more distinctive additions is a large projection wall where the existing mural stands, aimed squarely at becoming the area’s destination for major sporting events. UFC pay-per-views, NFL Sundays with tailgating in the parking lot, the Masters and the upcoming FIFA World Cup are all part of the vision. Mixed Breed is already in early talks with the Buffalo Bills organization to become a designated Bills bar.
“There’s not a really good area to go watch UFC fights and things like that,” Bucey said. “We want to have a really awesome space that people can come hang out and do that.”
The Van Patten beer garden is slated to open in time for the 2026 golf season. The 27-hole public course already serves Mixed Breed’s lineup, and the new outdoor space will allow patrons to watch golfers on the 18th hole and first tee via on-course cameras. The two locations are designed to complement each other seasonally — Malta as the year-round indoor anchor and Van Patten as the summer destination.
The brewery’s name carries more weight than it might first suggest. “Mixed breed” was the nickname earned by Bucey’s squad during his deployment to Fallujah with the Marine Corps infantry — a unit drawn from different backgrounds, ethnicities and life circumstances that forged a tight bond under pressure.
“We were every color, every background — we were just an absolute mixed bag of people,” Bucey said. “One of our officers ended up coining us the mixed breed. He was always like, ‘Get the mixed breed squad in here.’ That’s where the name really comes from.”
The brewery’s mascot is Benny, his mastiff-pit bull — a fitting embodiment of the name’s dual meaning.
The brewery’s beers have built a strong following on beer-rating platforms such as Untappd. According to the brewery, several of its IPA releases have reached the No. 1 spot among new beer drops on the platform, and its annual holiday stout — a high-gravity release ranging from 11% to 13% ABV and often brewed with ingredients such as cocoa nibs, roasted marshmallow, peanut butter and graham cracker — regularly ranks among the site’s most popular seasonal releases.
Mixed Breed also credits itself with helping revive cream ale in the Capital Region. Its “Holy Ale” has become an entry point for new craft beer drinkers. “Nobody had been doing it in the area,” Bucey said. “It’s like training wheel beer — your introduction to craft beer, to show you that you don’t just have to drink Bud Heavies for the rest of your life.”
The Malta brewery is expected to open around May. Mixed Breed Brewing can be found on Facebook and at vanpattengolf.com.