Grab your lederhosen and blast the Oompah tunes.
This September, Samuel Adams is bringing a 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 and 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!
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.
"Each fall, we celebrate the release of OctoberFest with a stein hoisting competition at our Boston brewery," Samuel Adams Founder and Brewer Jim Koch. "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 inBoston, Mass. (Sept. 9-10), Denver, Colo. (Sept. 16-18, Sept. 23-25) and Cincinnati, Ohio (Sept. 16-18).
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.
Grand Prize winners will be announced in early November.
