History Of The Beer Knights
The story of The Beer Knights begins in 2006. Chris (aka The Blue Knight and now Sir Yuengling) had seen pictures online of people wearing beer cases and calling themselves 'beer knights'. (Truthfully, they looked more like Beer Robots or perhaps Beer Transformers...just square boxes shoved on their head or legs. Just awful.) Chris knew he and his friends could do better. So they planned to make beer armor themselves and unveil their suits at the Great Blue Heron Music Festival, a weekend of music, camping, and craziness in western New York. Although only two Knights showed up (Chris as 'The Blue Knight' and Patrick as 'The Guinness Knight'), they were very well received, often photographed, and caused quite an uproar.
The next year there were four Beer Knights at The Heron; The Blue Knight, The Guinness Knight, and newcomers The HeineKnight and The Bud Light Knight. They patrolled the festival in style and people started to remember who they were! Their legend grew. Then Chris thought, "Why just one festival a year? There have to be more..." He found Jambase.com and started scouting out new fests: Musefest, Hexfest, Aaronzona Family Reunion...the list went on and on! Every weekend, all the Beer Knights who were able traveled to a new festival. They fashioned a Beer Knight logo and created a tapestry to hang so people would know they were there. (Well...that and it allowed them to find their tents when they came back drunk.)
Then Chris got a grown-up job and moved to Maryland at the end of 2007. The winter was cold and dark for the Beer Knights.
But the next Spring, the Beer Knights returned! They made friends at new festivals and word of The Beer Knights spread. Soon they were greeted at festivals by people saying "Hey! I heard about you guys!" Some of these people became dear friends and Chris decided to find a way to keep in touch with them. He started TheBeerKnights.com, complete with an e-mail address, guestbook, and (shiver) MySpace page. (This was before Facebook got big, you see.) He used it to post pictures from festivals, give thanks to people he met on the way, and keep track of all the craziness. Then he added a page that asked people to send in photos of themselves in their own beer armor and he would induct them into 'The Order of Beer Knights'. The summer passed without any response and Chris just enjoyed the festivals before the lull of winter set in.
Life happened. Chris moved in with his girlfriend, got a job with more responsibility, and attended festivals less and less often. He started to slack off on updating the website and the armor stayed in a plastic bin in the garage except for one or two regional Burning Man type festivals per year.
Then one day he was talking to a friend about the Beer Knights and decided to show him the website. It was an embarassment. Links were broken, the Guestbook was a shambles, and who the hell uses MySpace anymore? Chris vowed to update it. While doing so, he logged into the email account he started so long...and was AMAZED!! In the year and half he'd been on hiatus, several different Knights had sent in pictures! It was incredible! Chris was more determined than ever to reboot the website and get The Order back in...well...order. Now, in Fall 2011, TheBeerKnights.com is reborn along with a Facebook page where photos from festivals will be uploaded. With luck, many more Knights will come forward in the future.
I hope you enjoy this website and take time to visit the Facebook page. And please consider creating your own armor and sending in a pic. We'd love to have you in The Order!