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Music, beer and blue skies make for weekends made in heaven |
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Friday, 24 July 2009 |
Sean Turner talks about Bluesapalooza and Blue Sky
By Diane Eagle
Mammoth Times Editor
 mammoth times photo Sean Turner and John Wentworth take a moment to taste Turner’s Mammoth Brewing Company brews. Turner will donate 20 percent of proceeds from Bluesapalooza’s beermaker dinner to Wentworth’s trails and public access organization.
Back in the Sixties, before Woodstock, people were known to string stereo speakers in trees so that they could listen to their favorite bands while savoring their favorite beverages and communing with friends – an unbeatable atmosphere of summertime, music and revelry.
Summer in Mammoth seems like a never-ending musical party, with all the outdoor concerts scheduled in July and August.
Sean Turner, CEO of Mammoth Brewing Company, sponsors two of them, Bluesapalooza (July 30-Aug. 3) and Blue Sky Festival (Aug. 7-8 or 8-9). Both happen at the Sam’s Woods site on Minaret Road.
“This is a special event,” Turner said from his Mammoth Brewery tasting room. “It promotes handcrafted beers.”
Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza will bring more than 70 micro breweries, all family-owned and locally operated.
The four-day event begins with a Beermaker dinner Thursday night at the Westin. Tickets are $49, with one fifth of the ticket price being kicked to MLTPA (Mammoth Lakes Trails & Public Access). The four-course meal will be paired with four Mammoth Brewing Company beers: the 395 IPA, the Double Nut Brown, Floating Rock Hefeweizen, and a new whiskey barrel aged brown ale.
The Friday Night Blues BBQ and Concert features the California Honeydrops and Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers.
Saturday, traditionally the big day of the festival, starts at noon with bands and a Grand Tasting of beers. Featured bands are the California Honeydrops, John Nemeth, Janiva Magness, Eric Sardinas & Big Motor, John Lee Hooker Jr., and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
The fourth day is Sunday – hair of the dog day – and appropriately, there’s a Hangover Party. It’s an event with a Bloody Mary bar, free live music and a steak and egg breakfast prepared by Mammoth Noon Rotary Club (Bloody Mary’s and breakfast is not free).
Mammoth Brewing Company has been a sponsor of Bluesapalooza for 14 years, and Turner has been involved for three years, since buying the brewery from Sam Walker.
In addition to turning over 20 percent of the beermaker dinner proceeds to MLTPA, the California Small Brewers Association is the beneficiary of beer sales at Bluesapalooza.
“We [Mammoth Brewing] do a great job of representing the Eastern Sierra, on a national basis,” Turner said. “We’re known for Bluesapalooza and the money we give back to the industry.
And the micro-brewing industry, Turner said, is the most profitable category within the beer world, despite the fact that its sales are barely 4 percent of the whole. It’s that they sell all their inventory.
Turner has spent almost 15 years in the beer business. “In San Francisco I got into contract brewing in 1994 for Wolaver’s Organic Ales, which is the largest organic brewery in the country.” He served as CEO and national sales manager before moving to Mammoth with his wife, Joyce, and their son, Gavin.
Clearly, Turner is a man who looks at holes and sees a way to fill them.
His goal is to make a great beer and stay local. But he also looks at the summertime – prime beer time – as a time to promote both Mammoth and Mammoth Brewing Company.
Blue Sky Music Festival
“We have 16 weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and only seven major events,” he said. By Turner’s count those include Motocross (2 weekends), 4th of July, Jazz Jubilee, Bluesapalooza, Mammoth Festival and Labor Day Arts Festival.
Thus the Blue Sky Festival (Aug. 7-8)slips into the line up during the dark weekend between Bluesapalooza (July 31) and the Mammoth Festival (Aug. 14).
“We wanted to create a music concert fest that utilizes the stage in Sam’s Woods and reaches out to a younger demographic of 20-30-year-olds,” Turner said.
Billed as “Rock to Reggae, Blues to Bluegrass, and Folk to Jazz,” Turner listed a few of the performers; Toots & the Maytals (Reggae) and Jackie Greene (likened to a young Bob Dylan), not to mention slide guitarist Roy Rogers & the Delta Rhythm Kings and Devon Allman’s Honeytribe.
Blue Sky also utilizes Turner’s mind-set of sustainability, by selling T-shirts made of organically grown cotton and pouring beer into biodegradable cups.
Almost all the grains the brewery uses are organic, and some are local, from the Bishop/Chalfant area. In fact, after they’re done with the grains, they go to a Benton rancher, who feeds them to his cattle.
But Turner is also mindful of attractions that bring people to town. “Our beer is manufactured here and exported out of the area. We’re at the source. We provide great experiences for people to associate with the brewery.” His hope in promoting events is for someone to come here, have a great time, so when they see a label later on, they’ll buy a sixpack.
“It brings people to town and creates a memory that they will take back to their home town,” Turner said. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 31 July 2009 )
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