“Light the beam! Light the beam!”
With the Kings boasting a 36-25 record, good for third place in the Western Conference entering Friday's game, it is a chant that has not only made its way to national TV networks and opposing team’s Twitter feeds, but has also made its way into local Sacramento businesses.
The beam is the talk of the town and local breweries are getting behind the purple light.
Moksa Brewing, located in Rocklin, wanted to show their support for the Kings’ strong season and instantly sold out of their first batch of ‘Light the Beam’ in three hours.
"The Kings, because of the winning season, has really brought the community together and especially all of the Kings fans locally," said Derek Gallanosa, Moksa’s head brewer. "So what we did was we commemorated the victory beam with a hazy double IPA."
Gallanosa says a line awaited them when their doors opened to release their second batch.
"It was pretty crazy," Gallanosa said. "There’s 40 people outside before we open, all decked out in their Kings gear."
The beer has turned into one of Moksa's biggest hits, Gallanosa says, and adds that “people weren’t coming for one four-pack,” instead grabbing the maximum allowed of four four-packs. The brewery also currently offers ‘Light the Beam’ themed prints and shirts.
Gallanosa, a San Diego native, says it’s not unfamiliar seeing the hype grow around a professional sports team’s success.
"It’s very similar [to the Padres' recent success], just bringing in productive players, it just snowballs," Gallanosa said. "They start winning and then you start seeing the stands fill up, it’s pretty crazy. It’s very similar and the excitement in the air is awesome to be around."
Roughly 20-plus miles southwest, Bike Dog Brewing Company is cooking up its own beam-themed beer in West Sacramento.
Sage Smith, the brewery’s co-owner along with Pete Atwood and Raef Porter, says they like their west coast IPAs, which is what the ‘Beam Team’ IPA is.
“This year has been wonderful,” Smith says in regard to the Kings' season. “We started to see the excitement build last year and they just built on that.”
Smith has been a resident of Sacramento since he was 6 years old and says being a lifelong Kings fan hasn’t always been easy.
“The last 15, 16 years have been a little rough but the fans have remained strong,” said Smith.
After the brewery’s first batch sold out in a weekend, Smith says the attention grew.
“It kind of was a little viral hit in Sacramento,” Smith said. “We saw it on Reddit, people were showing how they were stacking their cans.
“Pretty much every day we have people asking ‘Hey, what’s up with the Beam Team, when’s it coming back?’ ”
While both of the breweries have been sold out of their respective Beam-themed beers, Kings fans are in luck; both will be re-releasing their beers with Bike Dog releasing theirs on March 4 and Moksa dropping theirs on March 11, with plans to release another version called ‘Playoff Beam’ soon after.
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While the breweries will be canning more beer this time around, both still recommend getting to their locations early on release day.
“It’s a galvanizing force in the community," Smith said. “It’s a little cheesy, I’ll admit, but you can’t help but love it. It’s just like ‘Let’s go see the beam.’ ”