Businessman Brews Up Tie-In with Sam Snead

As of Friday, August 31, 2012

Golfers looking to quench their thirst after a round of golf at Pinehurst Resort now have another option.

Slammin’ Sam lager is now available in bottles and cans at the Resort. The craft-brewed premium American Lager is inspired by the late Sam Snead, a gentleman, golf champion and sports icon.

Photo by Glenn Sides

A can of Slammin' Sam beer

“This is a good marriage — Sam Snead and Pinehurst — and we are proud to have the product here,” said Ed Peckels, director of food and beverage at Pinehurst Resort. The new beer is one of 32 served at the resort.

The beer will also be available during the 24th Pinehurst Labor Day Food & Wine Festival this weekend at the Pinehurst Resort. It will be featured during the Culinary Showcase on Sunday, Peckels said.

Brewed and bottled by Stevens Point Brewery, in Stevens Point, Wis., Slammin’ Sam lager is described as a medium-bodied, smooth beer with no bitter aftertaste.

The beer has local ties. Casey Bierer, founder and CEO of Slammin’ Sam Beer Co., is a Pinehurst resident. His parents have lived in Pinehurst for a quarter-century.

Bierer, a former producer-reporter for the Golf Channel, has an exclusive licensing agreement with the Snead family. The brew is a proprietary recipe developed by Ray Klimovitz, recipient of the 2011 Distinguished Life Service Award from the Master Brewers Association of the Americas.

Slammin’ Sam beer debuted in July at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia in conjunction with the centennial of Snead’s birth. It is available at select locations in Virgina, West Virginia and North Carolina, and will soon be available at other resorts, restaurants and other outlets that sell beer.

The line’s packaging and marketing will depict famous images of Snead from the 1950s and ’60s.

“We tried to stack the deck in our favor by releasing the beer in areas where we don’t have to explain who Sam Snead was,” Bierer said.

But one thing that does need explaining about Slammin’ Sam: He was pretty much a teetotaler, especially when he was on the circuit playing.

Contact Tom Embrey at (910) 693-2484 or at tembrey@thepilot.com.