As if I wasn’t a bit sad already about missing Phish’s Halloween festival down in Indio, California, known as Festival 8, Sierra Nevada has brewed a special beer just for the shows. Pretty cool idea, in my opinion.

Here is the press release from beernews.org:

FOAM is a German-style pilsner beer that we are brewing specifically for the Phish Festival. Phish have been longtime fans of Sierra Nevada and after talks with the band, event organizers, and management, we agreed to brew this beer for the festival.

A lot of us here at the brewery are Phish-heads, including several of our master brewers, and it only seemed natural to team up with a great band and a great California festival. This is a fun way to offer fans a liquid souvenir and to show our support for the music scene.

For the beer itself, we were looking for a lighter style with a lot of character. Here at the brewery we occasionally brew different Pilsner-style beers throughout the year, and decided a special Pilsner would be just the thing for this festival. We brewed 150 kegs of beer, all of which will be sent to the show. This is a draft-only product and we do not expect the beer to be available outside of the event.

Come out to the Phish: Festival 8 and hear great music and enjoy great beer.

Foam is a German-style Pilsner, light bodied and easy drinking, yet loaded with flavor. Brewed with a mix of European and American malts, balanced by a spicy, and herbal hop kick. Brewed specifically for Phish: Festival 8, Foam is a crisp and refreshing traditional pale gold lager beer. In the words of Phish—“I’m looking through, And it all would be, So crystal clear, If it wasn’t for the foam.” Great music, great beer, and good times.

For those of you that don’t know Phish (most of you, probably), Halloween shows are always a special treat. Phish usually plays a very long three set show, and they pick a “musical costume” for the second set. Meaning, they pick an entire album to cover for from start to finish and play it on Halloween. My first Phish show ever was on Halloween (10/31/95) at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, and I had the pleasure of seeing them cover the Who’s Quadrophenia. They’ve also done the Beatles’ White Album, the Talking Heads’ Remain in Light, the Velvet Underground’s Loaded, and Pink Floyd’s the Dark Side of the Moon (11/2/98). This year’s festival will mark their first Halloween show since 1998.

OK, enough of my Phish talk…come back soon to read more about beer.