August Cocktail: Rusty Solution

53 of you solved the August Cocktail puzzle, Rusty, with 35 solving the original puzzle within a week without any help. Congratulations to all! Below is the solved grid and an explanation of the final answer. A full solution, including cryptic solutions to every clue, is available for download on my Patreon page. If you haven't joined, sign up at https://www.patreon.com/negronis_cocktails, which will also give you access to future puzzles. The next Cocktail will launch on Saturday, September 13, at 4pm Eastern.

Cheers!

Negroni

Four intersections (in red) get FE from one entry and O from the other entry. The O appropriately turns into RUST, making new words in that direction: CRUSTED, TRUSTY, RUSTLE, and THRUST. These new words are alternate answers to some straight definitions that appear at the beginning of clues (Coasted to enhance flavor, Reliable, Steal in a way, Move into enemy territory). The original entries for those clues are (in blue) GLAZED, UNFAILING, ABDUCT, and ADVANCE, whose first letters (also red) in grid order give you the final answer, AGUA, which you can find in the cocktail in the form of ice, and which is the other ingredient needed for rust to form.

About Me

My name is Martin Reinfried, and in some circles, I am known as Negroni. I have been writing puzzles for a long time, both for work and for fun, and I have always been enamored of cryptic crosswords, especially variety cryptics. I have written several variety cryptics, some for fun, some appearing in the MIT Mystery Hunt, and some published in the National Puzzlers League's Enigma magazine. Most of the variety cryptics I have written can be accessed at negroni.fun/puzzles. I am a software engineer, and I have been a co-founder of a couple of companies, including Shinteki, where I wrote a mobile app to run puzzle-based events. I live in Telluride, CO with my wife Dennise and son Max, and I look forward to providing you with a steady stream of variety cryptic puzzles.