Buckbean and the Bonanza Team Up for a Beer Dinner

Attention all beer bloggers!

We at Buckbean believe that the online beer community is the most underrated and, at times, unappreciated group of beer enthusiasts and experts out there. Since canning our first beer a little over two years ago, we have one group of people to thank for helping us accomplish a great reputation all over the US- and that’s the group of the dedicated and highly opinionated bloggers and online journalists who gladly accepted our free samples and press release sendouts.

Because of the mutual loyalties we’ve established with the community of thirsty critics, and the endless amounts of coverage and support they’ve given our brewery, we’d like to offer a little something back to them.

But, it doesn’t come without a little work. We like to see you sweat.

Here’s the deal:

In 2009, the owners of Buckbean came to the realization that the perks of canning beer are beyond what the public understands, and that the most effective way to spread the gospel of canned beer would be to conduct a competition and tasting festival. This year, we expect to draw 50+ craft breweries from around the world to compete and participate in the celebration of canned beer. We're working on building it into an event similar to the sold-out festivals and beer gatherings, as well as being looked at as a sort of landmark in the culture of beer.

The event is CANFEST, one that many of you are already familiar with (thanks for all the love last year, by the way!). This year it’s back, and we’ve got plans to make it bigger and better than ever. Additions are being made left and right to help build the event into a must attend for beer fanatics. And that’s where you come in!

Want to attend as well? Cool, I bet you do.

Starting now and lasting until the 1^st week of September, we’re offering those with an established beer blog (meaning you didn’t build a blog simply to participate in this contest) an opportunity to write one blog post, centered on why they deserve to come to CANFEST. We are very partial to creativity and humor. Once your blog post is live, send the link back to my constance@abbipr.com email with an appropriate subject line.

Once we’ve got the compiled list of blog posts, we will post every link to our blog and filter via social networks, and pick a winner based on votes. The winner will be flown to Reno for the weekend and have the opportunity to attend all of CANFEST’s festivities and even be a guest judge during the competition portion. Yes, we will feed you too.

So now you’ve got the details- on your mark, get set, GO!

Cheers and happy writing!

Constance Aguilar

The Return of CANFEST!

Alright folks, here is it.
The official announcement of CANFEST 2010

You can fan it on Facebook now, too!


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Constance Aguilar, Abbi Public Relations
constance@abbipr.com or 775-232-3977

Buckbean Brewing brings CANFEST to Reno
Dozens of brewers from across the country will showcase unique beers at Grand Sierra Resort

RENO, NV (June, 2010) — Buckbean Brewing will once again turn Reno, Nev. into the center of the canned microbrew universe this October, as it puts on CANFEST – Reno International Canned Beer Festival, the world’s first canned beer festival, for a second straight year.

Dozens of breweries from around the world will converge on Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort and Casino on October 9, offering up their canned creations to beer enthusiasts from around the region. The heavy hitters of canned microbrewing — names like Oskar Blues, New Belgium and Bohemian Brewing — showed up last year, as well as a large selection of small craft can breweries like Mudshark, Uncommon Brewers and Surly Brewing in addition to international beers from Europe, Asia and North American. Buckbean Brewing co-founder Dough Booth said he expects almost all brewers from last year to return. Winners of a judged canned beer competition will be announced the night before the event at an awards dinner.

CANFEST is both a recognition of the fast-growing popularity of canned craft beer and a celebration of the benefits of the aluminum cylinder. Long regarded as a symbol of inferior beer, the can has come into its own in recent years as beer drinkers realize that cans offer superior protection from sunlight and oxygen infiltration, and the containers are much more portable and environmentally friendly than their glass counterpart.

The notion that world-class beer can be delivered in a can has caught on, and now the number of microbrews offering canned beer is growing at an astonishing rate. In 2002 the first microbrewery began canning craft beer; today over 52 microbreweries offer their brews in a can, according to the National Brewers Association.

And as the canned beer craze continues to catch on, organizers expect CANFEST to expand.

“It was our first event last year, so it was pretty local, but I think that will start changing,” said Buckbean Brewing Co-founder Doug Booth, of CANFEST’s growing audience.

Buckbean, the largest production microbrewery in Western Nevada, started canning unique microbrews in Reno in 2008. Their beer — from a crisp, dark German Schwarzbier called the Black Noddy Lager to the unique Original Orange Blossom Ale and the rich, hearty Tule Duck Red Ale — represents co-founders Doug Booth and Dan Kahn’s outside-of-the-box thinking on everything from brewing ingredients to the container the beer is packaged in — 16-oz. beer cans.

CANFEST was just a natural outgrowth of Buckbean’s enthusiasm for great beer in a can.

“I think every other town or brewery has a beer festival. Some have music; some have food; some have judging. They all seemed fairly similar. We wanted to create something unique,” said Booth.

For more information on CANFEST contact Constance Aguilar from Abbi Public Relations at constance@abbipr.com or by calling 775.323.2977. For more information on Buckbean Brewing visit www.buckbeanbeer.com.