Mystic Woman Wins Stein-Hoisting Competition

It’s fair to say that Lisa Saunders can hold her alcohol.

More precisely, Lisa Saunders can hoist her alcohol. And she’s got the title to prove it: Earlier this month, she won the Samuel Adams Stein-Hoisting Competition at Pizzetta in Mystic and earned a place in the New England Championship, to he held in Boston Tuesday, Oct. 29.

Stein-hoisting entails holding a liter of water in a beer stein with your arm fully extended and parallel to the ground. Saunders, 52, won the Pizzetta competition by holding the stein aloft for 5 minutes, 10 seconds.

It is more than a little ironic that Saunders is moving up the ranks of a contest sponsored by Samuel Adams Boston Brewery — she is a descendant of a man who was condemned to hang for treason in 1787 by the real Sam Adams. (Really, not making this up.)

The story goes like this, according to Saunders: Her ancestor, Henry Gale, was one of the leaders of a rebellion (Shays’ Rebellion) against the courts to stop the prosecution and imprisonment of farmers unable to pay their debts, including what they thought were unreasonably high taxes. Sam Adams reputedly declared, “the man who dares rebel against the laws of the Republic ought to suffer death.”

However, with the noose already around Gale’s neck on his execution day, a reprieve letter (it eventually turned into a pardon) arrived from Gov. John Hancock. Eventually, imprisonment for unpaid debts was outlawed, and the rebellion was seen as central to the development of the U.S. Constitution.

Saunders is descended from a child of Gale’s conceived after his brush with death. 

"If Sam Adams had successfully influenced Hancock to follow through with Gale’s execution on June 21, 1787, I would not exist as I descend from a child conceived after he was set free,” Saunders said. “So, I got a kick out of winning the ladies' rounds at Pizzetta!”

Saunders has authored a book titled “Shays’ Rebellion: The Hanging of Co-Leader Captain Henry Gale.” But for now, she’s focused on the New England Beer-Hoisting Championships Tuesday at the Sam Adams brewery in Boston and winning the grand prize of a trip to Munich, Germany, for Oktoberfest 2014. For details, check out the Samuel Adams Boston Brewery website.

For more information about the New England Championship on Tuesday, Oct. 29, call the Boston Beer Company at 617-368-5080, 617-368-5000, or visit www.samueladams.com.

Lisa Saunders at Pizzetta in Mystic after winning the ladies’ Samuel Adams Stein Hoisting competition on Thursday, October 10, 2013. Photo by Jim Saunders.