Sierra Nevada Honors The Origin of Oktoberfest With Contest for Beer Loving Lovers
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. will kick-off its annual Oktoberfest celebration with an expense-paid “royal wedding” at the festival for one lucky beer-loving couple. The celebration harkens back to the very first Oktoberfest, which was held in Munich in 1810 to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.
The brewery is searching for an engaged couple whose love for craft beer matches their love for each other. A special panel of judges will select the couple to tie the knot on September 27, 2019 at Sierra Nevada’s brewery in Chico, California.
“Love. It inspires our passion to create great beer and it certainly drives the human condition,” said Sierra Nevada spokesperson Robin Gregory. “We are taking Oktoberfest back to its origins as a celebration of the joining of two individuals and two families in front of 3,200 new friends.”
To enter the contest, couples must upload a short video (one minute or less) making the case for why they’d be the perfect candidates to wed at Sierra Nevada’s 2019 Oktoberfest Royal Wedding. Sierra Nevada fans will narrow the candidates down to five finalists via social media voting, and a panel of expert judges will select the winning couple. Contest submissions can be made between July 15-August 15at Oktoberfestwedding.sierranevada.com.
The winners will receive two round trip plane tickets to Chico, transportation from the airport, a honeymoon suite before and after the wedding, and food, drink, entertainment, and revelry for a wedding party of 50 guests. The ceremony will be officiated during the festival in front of thousands of people.
Each Oktoberfest, Sierra Nevada partners with a German brewery for its collaboration Oktoberfest beer. This year, 200-year-old, family-owned Bitburger Brewery and Sierra Nevada have brewed an Oktoberfest with a secret blend of hops which has never before been shared outside the Bitburger brewery walls. The recipe features what Bitburger calls Siegelhopfen, meaning “sealed hops,” that complement the beer’s strong malt backbone. The flavors are married together with the help of a custom German yeast — another house ingredient gifted for the first time ever.
“It has long been Sierra Nevada’s tradition to partner with a German brewer for our Oktoberfest offering, and that seems truly fitting given the roots of the event,” said Gregory. “Bitburger brings some very special ingredients to this year’s Oktoberfest that our festival guests and all Oktoberfest drinkers will no doubt love.”
An Eco-friendly Event
What’s more, the event is also ZERO WASTE. Sierra Nevada typically achieves about a 90% diversion rate at their events through comprehensive reduction, recycling, and composting efforts. The key, they explain, is designing out as much waste as possible when planning an event and then making purchasing and logistical decisions with zero waste in mind so they can recycle or compost as much as possible. It takes a team of people to manage and sort waste during the event itself but everyone involved in the event, including attendees, participates in the effort and helps get to 90%. Our souvenir steins, wooden utensils, water monsters, and reusable decorations are all examples of reducing waste throughout the event.
Here’s to beer!
