Fill Your Beer Steins to the Brim: Samuel Adams Toasts Oktoberfest With National Stein Hoisting Competition

BOSTON, Aug. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Grab your lederhosen and blast the Oompah tunes. This September, Samuel Adams is bringing a time-honored Oktoberfest tradition to the states by launching the first-ever Samuel Adams® National Stein Hoisting Competition. In celebration of the 200-year-old German holiday, as well as the award-winning autumn seasonal, Samuel Adams® OctoberFest, beer-lovers across the country will hoist one liter of OctoberFest in an official Samuel Adams beer stein. If you bend or drop your arm, you're out! 

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110831/NY60480)

The two hoisters who hold up the longest – one male and one female winner – will be crowned the Samuel Adams National Stein Hoisting Champions and will receive the Grand Prize – a trip for two to the 2012 Oktoberfest celebration in Munich. 

"As beer lovers know, there's no better way to welcome the crisp autumn weather than with a rich, full-flavored Samuel Adams OctoberFest. The caramelized malts provide a perfect transition from the lighter beers of summer to winter's heartier brews," said Samuel Adams Founder and Brewer Jim Koch. "Each fall, we celebrate the release of OctoberFest with a stein hoisting competition at our Boston brewery.  We have so much fun with it, we thought, why not expand our hoisting ritual nationwide so that drinkers across the country can hoist an authentic Bavarian-style brew and toast the season."

Competitions will take place now through Oct. 15 in local bars and at festivals across the country, where participants will be timed as they're challenged to be the last man (and woman) standing. The rules are simple:

• Steins Up: Participants must hold their stein, with one arm only, perfectly straight out in front of them, parallel to the floor.
• Sipping and Spilling: Once a participant starts to spill, or drops or bends their arm – they're out.
• Time Matters: Even if a local challenger is the last one hoisting, keep those steins in the air! All times are entered into the national competition, so every second counts.

The Samuel Adams National Stein Hoisting Competitions will run in participating bars across the country between now and Oct. 15, as well as at the three Samuel Adams-sponsored Oktoberfest Celebrations in Boston, Mass. (Sept. 9-10), Denver, Colo. (Sept. 16-18, Sept. 23-25) and Cincinnati, Ohio (Sept. 16-18).  In addition to the national Grand Prize (a trip for two to the 2012 Oktoberfest Celebration in Munich), nightly winners of the local competitions will receive a Samuel Adams OctoberFest prize pack as well as their name and hoisting time posted to the Samuel Adams website and Facebook page. 

The Oktoberfest celebration began in Munich, Germany more than 200 years ago and has since become the biggest public festival in the world. Samuel Adams OctoberFest is a traditional, malty marzen, inspired by Munich's festival and the arrival of autumn. This beer has a rich, deep golden amber hue, which itself is reflective of the season. The hearty lager includes a rich blend of five malts – Harrington, Metcalfe, Caramel, Munich, and Moravian – to create a delicious harmony of sweet flavors. The sweetness is balanced by the elegant bitterness imparted by the hand-selected Noble Bavarian hops. Samuel Adams OctoberFest easily complements spaetzle and sausage, hearty traditional Oktoberfest foods, and even fare such as meatloaf, barbeque chicken, and smoked fish.  

Samuel Adams OctoberFest is available in six-packs nationwide, retailing for $7.99, as well as in the Samuel Adams Harvest Collection Variety 12-pack alongside Samuel Adams® Bonfire Rauchbier, Samuel Adams® Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Samuel Adams® Black Lager, Samuel Adams® Irish Red and Samuel Adams Boston Lager®, retailing for $13.99.

Grand Prize winners will be announced in early November. Consumers can visit www.samueladams.com for national event listings and full rules and regulations.

THE BOSTON BEER COMPANY BACKGROUND

The Boston Beer Company began in 1984 with a generations-old family recipe that Founder and Brewer Jim Koch uncovered in his father's attic. After bringing the recipe to life in his kitchen, Jim brought it to bars in Boston with the belief that drinkers would appreciate a complex, full-flavored beer, brewed fresh in America. That beer was Samuel Adams Boston Lager®, and it helped catalyze what became known as the American craft beer revolution.  

Today, the Company brews more than 30 styles of beer.  The Company uses the traditional four vessel brewing process and often takes extra steps like dry-hopping, barrel-aging and a secondary fermentation known as krausening. It passionately pursues the development of new styles and the perfection of its classic beers by constantly searching for the world's finest ingredients. While resurrecting traditional brewing methods, the Company has earned a reputation as a pioneer in another revolution, the "extreme beer" movement, where it seeks to challenge drinkers' perceptions of what beer can be. The Boston Beer Company strives to elevate the image of American craft beer by entering festivals and competitions the world over, and in the past five years it has won more awards in international beer competitions than any other brewery in the world. The Company remains independent, and brewing quality beer remains its single focus. While Samuel Adams is the country's largest-selling craft beer, it accounts for just under one percent of the U.S. beer market. For more information, please visit www.samueladams.com.

SOURCE Samuel Adams