KAILUA-KONA, HI – This past March, craft beer drinkers were treated to something extra special at the 17th annual Kona Brewers Festival. The cast of Travel Channel hit Sand Masters, a reality show about a select group of sand sculptors who travel the globe to create masterpieces for clients on film, were so inspired by sights on Hawaii’s Big Island that they built a 50-ton sand sculpture to reveal at the festival. The sculpture’s unveiling coincided with the launch of Kona Brewing’s Longboard Island Lager cans, and the episode will air for the first time Sunday, May 20, 2012.
Kona Brewing president Mattson Davis personally toured the cast and crew to Volcanoes National Park to view the eruption of K?lauea Volcano which began in 1983 and continues today at the cinder-and-spatter cone of Pu`u `? `? (high point on skyline). The cast also tours Kona Brewing Company and even gets to take part in the brewing operations for Koko Brown Ale. The crew sculpted on the sand in front of the legendary King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel, just steps from King Kamehameha The Great’s palace at Kamakahonu Bay.
The inspiration the sculptors gathered from touring the Big Island resulted in a sand masterpiece that was exhibited Saturday, March 10 at Kona Brewers Festival. Each of the five sculptors had one piece of the sculpture to build for Saturday to reveal as one integral sculpture and included a way to serve cold Kona beer to the 2,500 festival-goers. Drama ensues when the beer isn’t temperature-perfect for Kona serving standards, and the sculptors fragile art of sand sculpting is threatened when the sand is not as easy to sculpt as they anticipated.
The Kona Brewfest episode of Sand Masters will premiere Sunday, May 20 at 4:00 pm Eastern and Pacific times. 1:00 pm Hawaii. Check local listings for more viewing times. The flagship pub and restaurant in Kailua-Kona and the Koko pub on Oahu will be hosting viewing parties with drink specials at each pub during the airing.
About Kona Brewing:
Kona Brewing Company was started in the spring of 1994 by father and son team Cameron Healy and Spoon Khalsa, who had a dream to create fresh, local island brews made with spirit, passion and quality. It is a Hawaii-born and Hawaii-based craft brewery that prides itself on brewing the freshest beer of exceptional quality, closest to market. This helps to minimize its carbon footprint by reducing shipping of raw materials, finished beer and wasteful packaging materials. The brewery is headquartered where it began, in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii’s Big Island. It has grown into Hawaii’s largest brewery, has three restaurant sites in Hawaii and beer distribution reaching 30 states and Japan. It is the 13th largest craft brewery in the country. For more information call 808-334-BREW or www.KonaBrewingCo.com.