(April 10, 2023) – The 33rd annual Arcata Bay Oyster Festival returns to its roots and partners with Mad River Brewing to present Arcata’s largest summertime event. The festival, returning to the iconic Arcata Plaza this year, will feature everyone’s favorite components from years past, while adding a fresh new local brew to pair with the briny half-shell delicacies around which the festival revolves. Attendees can clink their cups to the absence of entry fees at the community-centered event once again this summer.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Mad River Brewery this year to deliver the best of previous years along with something refreshing and new.” Said Gil Miracle, Event Coordinator of Arcata Main Street. “Building the event back up to a smooth-running operation requires a back-to-basics approach, which includes heavy-lifting partnerships, and Mad River Brewery is able to work with us to offer a lineup of great beers including the launch of a new beer that pairs perfectly with oysters.”
The beer, playfully named “Shuck It” for the event, is an Indigenous Ale, a new beer style spearheaded by the Mad River Brewing Company. Shuck It will be showcased at the festival as well as on tap at Arcata restaurants and bars before the event— but that isn’t all. Craft beer lovers can look forward to learning more of the story and finding the beer, made using regeneratively grown corn, on store shelves not long after the release. The official name and packaging are under wraps, for now.
Corn in the beer is sourced from the Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, with whom the brewery is partnering to uplift tribal commerce from Northern California to the Midwest. The unique partnership was announced in 2022.
“The recipe and vision for this beer is something that we have been working on for a long time. Despite economic setbacks due to the pandemic, it has been a key goal to support efforts to strengthen intertribal commerce and advance regenerative agriculture by creating wholly tribal farm-to-table products, and this is the first step,” emphasized Linda Cooley, CEO of Mad River Brewery. “We have always been locally minded, and we want to share the first fruits and the first taste with our community. The Oyster Festival is the perfect opportunity for doing just that.”
The Indigenous backstory of the new brew is right in line with the Mad River Brewery’s most recent releases, which are tied to bigger initiatives. In 2021 the brewery launched the Undammed Hard Seltzers, a tribute to the decades-long fight to undam the Klamath River. The same year MRB released the Historic State Park IPA, the first in a California State Park Series, which celebrates a first-of-its-kind partnership and the Yurok Tribe’s work telling the accurate history of their ancestral land now designated as a state park.
Providing craft beer drinkers with a one-of-a-kind experience while raising awareness and promoting environmental restoration, the brewery’s products and story work hand in hand to benefit the community.
“From the moment we sat down with Mad River Brewery it was evident that we shared a community-based vision,” said Miracle. “Our values align, and we’re whole-heartedly committed to offering the best at the festival this year.”
About Mad River Brewery
Mad River Brewery, Yurok Tribe owned women-led Independent Craft Brewery located in Blue Lake, California has been brewing best-quality beers for more than three decades. MRB employs a time-honored, cut-no-corners approach to hand-crafting the finest quality ales, receiving four Gold Medals, four Silver Medals and one Bronze Medal from the Great American Beer Festival. Home of “Humboldt’s Best Beer” as voted by readers of the NCJ, the brewery is known for their dog-friendly atmosphere and idyllic views in sunny Blue Lake. Catch live music on the weekend, monthly Science on Tap, taste the drool-worthy menu from Low & Slow BBQ, and savor the craft offerings fresh from the tap at Mad River Brewery.
About Arcata Main Street
Arcata Downtown Business Community, Inc, also known as Arcata Main Street, works to unite the local community and create a vibrant Downtown Arcata since our start in 1988. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization, our mission is to help in the overall promotion of Arcata, working to unite the local community to improve all aspects of Arcata’s downtown and central business district for residents and visitors alike. Hosting thirty-two events throughout the year including festivals, Trick-or-Treating on the Plaza, the Season of Wonder & Light, and Arts! Arcata, we are improving economic management and strengthening public participation, all while making Arcata a fun place to visit and live. We believe that a healthy downtown is the key to a prosperous city, and we look forward to seeing you soon!