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Wasatch Brewery to celebrate 30th anniversary with shot ski

Judy Cullen, center, Wasatch Brewerys marketing director, demonstrates a shot ski with marketing managers Lauren Boyack and Tony Coppola. The brewery is organizing a shot ski in October to celebrate its 30th anniversary, and hopes to have 1,000 people participate. Proceeds from the event will go to the Sunrise Rotary Club.
(Bubba Brown/Park Record)

On the 30th anniversary of the Wasatch Brewery opening on Main Street, Parkites will lift their glasses in celebration — all at once.

For its birthday bash, the brewery is organizing what it hopes will be the world’s largest “shot ski.” On October 22, participants will line up on Main Street, fill shot glasses with Wasatch Premium Ale, then set them on a row of bolted-together skis they’ll all be holding.

Then, when Greg Schirf, founder of the brewery, blows the airhorn, everyone will toast to the last three decades of beer flowing through Main Street.

The idea, explained Judy Cullen, director of marketing for the brewery, comes from Breckenridge, Colorado, which holds an annual shot ski and whose top mark is 881 participants. Wasatch is hoping to best that tally and create a friendly rivalry with the Colorado ski town. The brewery is aiming to have at least 1,000 people lined up on Main Street.

“It’s open to everyone, but Park City residents are really, really excited about showing up for this,” Cullen said. “There’s bragging rights at stake.”

But more than just celebrating a milestone for Wasatch, the shot ski will benefit a good cause. Tickets cost $15, and all proceeds from the event will go to the Sunrise Rotary Club, which gives grants each year to a number of Park City non-profit organizations.

Lauren Boyack, a marketing manager at Wasatch, said the brewery has always taken pride in giving back to the community. There would be no better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary than doing so again.

“We’re aware that we wouldn’t have had such success over the last three decades if it weren’t for the community that surrounds us,” she said. “It’s a perfect way to give back.”

The celebration won’t end when the shot skis are downed. Afterward, Wasatch is closing off the Brewpub parking lot for a big party. Cullen said the entire evening will be representative of the brewery’s reputation as being “a little cheeky and edgy.” And it will be a testament to the success the brewery has experience since opening in 1986.

“I think it’s really an accomplishment for any business to be going after 30 years, but especially in a resort town with how Park City was in 1986 when Greg started Wasatch, as opposed to how it is now,” she said. “He’s weathered all of those ups and downs. There they are, still the kind of stalwart at the top of Main Street, still going strong, still pushing the envelope a little bit. It’s a very important anniversary for us, for sure.”

For more information, or to buy tickets, visit wasatchbeers.com.


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