Last year, Genesee Brewing Co. in Rochester decided to bring to life a college bro’s dream of what Santa’s workshop might look like by building a Christmas tree out of 300 beer kegs. The tree, which looked oddly majestic when all lit up and coated with a gracious helping of upstate–New York snow, got quite a bit of national attention.
This year, fully aware of the pressure they were facing, the employees outdid themselves and built a Christmas tree out of 428 empty kegs. Mike Gaesser, the Genesse staffer/pop artist who designed the tree, told News 8 in a news segment that featured the Chyron “Keg Tree Returns,” “You always gotta go a little better. I mean, we wanted to make sure that if you didn’t see it last year, you’re going to see an even better one this year.” He added to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle that he’s fine if the tree doesn’t get as much attention this year, because the fact remains that he just built a really big keg tree. “It was one of those things that will never happen again. If we get a third the attention we got last year, if it’s just as big locally, we will be thrilled.”
It is 26 feet, or 11 keg layers, high. The tree isn’t quite as high as the 78-foot tree that was lit up at Rockefeller Center on Wednesday, but there’s always next year.
The brewery will hold its own tree-lighting ceremony on Thursday; after the holidays are over, the tree will continue to spread good cheer when the kegs are sent back into the field to be filled with beer.
