Attendees of local Jacksonville events this summer can try a taste of a new craft beer that is 200 years in the making. In a surprise announcement this morning, Jacksonville Main Street unveiled Celebrating 200, a Jacksonville Bicentennial Beer, which will be served during a number of local events.
Main Street Event Coordinator, Melissa Hebron, who came up with the idea for the beer, says they were looking for a surprise in honor of this year’s bicentennial when she contacted Brian Watts at Golden Eagle Distributing to see if they could help make a Jacksonville 200th beer happen.
“They reached out to a larger distributor who declined on helping because we are too small of a town for what they deal with. So then I asked Brian Watts to reach out to others to find one willing to help us out, and he found Riggs out of Urbana who was happy to help us out.“
“They worked with us on a logo and wording we wanted on the can. They did a QR code that will take you straight to the bicentennial page, showing all the events going on all year long. They’ve canned it for us, and it’s getting picked up today, actually, so we’ll have it available for next week’s first event.”
Celebrating 200, the Jacksonville Bicentennial Beer, is an American-style lager made by Riggs Beer Company of Urbana. Riggs is known for using grains grown on the Riggs family farm, which has been in the family for more than 150 years.
Hebron says residents can get their first taste of Celebrating 200 at the Jacksonville Main Street Blues and Brews event coming up on Saturday, May 3rd.
She says there is a limited supply of beer, but there will be enough to celebrate 200 years of Jacksonville all season long. “It will be until supplies run out, but we do have the opportunity to order more, though, if needed. And we will make sure that we have some for the Bicentennial on October 4th.”
Hebron says special thanks are owed to Riggs Beer Company, Golden Eagle Distributing of Jacksonville, and Brian Watts for making the bicentennial surprise a reality.
Hebron also assures that the beer will be available during the Jacksonville Main Street Summer Concert Series, which kicks off with rock band Revel in Red on Friday, May 30th.
The deadline for participating as a concert sponsor is this Thursday, May 1st. For more information on Celebrating 200, or contributing as a sponsor of this year’s Downtown Concert Series, go to jacksonvillemainstreet.org or find Jacksonville Main Street on Facebook.
You can also find out more about Riggs Beer Company at riggsbeer.com.