Flathead Valley Steinholding Master Sets All-Time Record
Dave Sturzen set a U.S. steinholding record during a competition in Butte and will compete against the World’s Strongest Man in an exhibition this weekend
By Micah Drew
A German man walks into an Irish pub in Butte, Montana, and asks for a liter of Samuel Adams Octoberfest. Not to drink, of course, but just to hold.
This isn’t the start of an obscure joke, but just the latest chapter in the enchanting saga of David Sturzen, the best steinholder in the United States.
The X-ray technician and Kalispell resident burst onto the national steinholding scene in 2019 at the Great Northwest Oktoberfest in Whitefish when he dethroned 10-year reigning champion Kevin Collom. The next year, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sturzen won the virtual national championship, hosted by the the U.S. Steinholding Association.
In 2022, he completed the feat in person, winning the Lenny Coyne Memorial Hofbrau National Masskrugstemmen Championship in New York with a time of 12 minutes and 37 seconds, earning an all-expenses paid trip to Germany for a victory tour.
And then he took a break.
Sturzen didn’t compete the following year, in part because of a rule that prohibits a national Hofbrau champion from taking part in local or regional competitions sponsored by the brand. Sturzen has served as a judge at the Great Northwest Oktoberfest the last three years but has not hoisted his own mug of beer at the festival where he first found success. Occasionally he would compete around the state, but he was doing little training.
But that all changed earlier this year when Sturzen was online and saw a Samuel Adams Boston Brewery advertisement.
“Do you think you can out hoist strongman Mitch Hooper?” the ad asked, showing Mitchell Hooper, named “Strongest Man on Earth 2024,” shirtless with a pair of lederhosen double fisting mugs of the brewery’s flagship seasonal brew. Interested hoisters could compete in a regional competition hosted by Sam Adams and the top three times would earn a trip to Denver’s Great American Beer Festival for an exhibition match against Hooper on Oct. 12.
“I decided I was all in,” Sturzen said. “I started training hardcore again.”
He initially worried about getting back into training, but the muscle memory created through hours of steinholding was still intact.
The training regimen — and the sport of steinholding in general — is a simple one. Fill a stein, preferably a three-pound dimpled glass one, with a liter of beer. Grasp the stein with one hand, four fingers wrapped around the handle, thumb resting against the index finger. Stand with the back straight and raise the stein so the arm is parallel to the ground, elbow locked. And hold.
Sturzen is a seasoned steinholder and trains every two days. His minimum training rep is a 20 minute hold, but he will often go until failure, take a one minute break, and start up again until his arm fails again.
The recognized U.S. steinholding record is 21 minutes and 17 seconds, set at the 2018 national championship in New York City. It’s a time Sturzen has had his eye on since he first discovered his talent for steinholding and one that he’s surpassed several times.
“In training and in some virtual events I’d beaten the U.S. record a number of times, but it was during the height of COVID so I never surpassed it at an official competition,” Sturzen said. “But I’ve had higher expectations this time around. If I’m going against the world’s strongest man, I’ve got to shoot for the stars.”
Sturzen headed to Slainte Butte America Pub, host of the the Sam Adams qualifying competition in Montana. Since the winners of the regional competitions were determined purely off time, Sturzen decided not to leave anything to chance. He was going to hoist his stein longer than anyone in America had before.
Two video cameras were set up to capture Sturzen’s posture from different angles. Clocks were brought in and everyone in the pub knew what time Sturzen was aiming for.
“We had a great group, including a lot of people who had never done steinholding before,” Sturzen said. “It was a great competition.”
After about six minutes, Sturzen was the only person left on stage, so he asked if someone could turn on a TV for something to do for the next 15 or so minutes.
When the clocked rolled passed the old record mark, the pub erupted in cheers but Sturzen kept holding. And holding. And holding.
He finally dropped his arm at 23 minutes and 22 seconds, shattering the previous record. He had also earned his chance to compete against the world’s strongest man.
The ratification of Sturzen’s U.S Steinholding record is still pending. Jim Banko, president of the U.S. Steinholding Association (USSA), is unsure whether the hold will qualify due to the difference in the official Sam Adams steins and the traditional dimbled steins used in Hofbrau competitions.
“That can really impact the difficulty of a hold,” Banko said. “Our goal is to continue building this sport and there probably needs to be a level of standardization to recognize these marks.”
Banko, himself a former national champion, has spent the last few years trying to build out the country’s steinholding competition infrastructure. He hopes to have official championships in each state and has been working with Sturzen to get Montana’s organized for 2025.
“Dave is a really special competitor. He’s so determined, so strong, but he’s also just a genuinely likable guy and has been so good for the sport,” Banko said. “I wasn’t sure he’d come back after winning nationals, so it’s great to see him competing again.”
Banko said he knows Sturzen is capable of setting the U.S. record using any kind of stein, but needs to figure out if USSA will define an official style — though the official rules currently state that “A 1L dimpled glass stein with handle weighing approximately 3 lbs must be used,” and that each competition should use the same brand and style of stein.
Sturzen knows there’s slight differences between stein handles but “I’ve got it down to a science now. I know exactly where each finger needs to sit on each stein handle,” he said. “Grip technique is so important and I have every different stein you can imagine and different techniques for each one.”
With Samuel Adams sponsoring the exhibition against Strongman Hooper, Sturzen has been primarily training with those branded steins and is ready for the Oct. 11 competition.
“I don’t know how much Hooper has specifically trained for this, but the guy is strong,” Sturzen told the Beacon a few days before he flew to Denver. “But my best time in training is now 27 minutes — I just hit it the other day — so I think I’ll be able to make it a good competition.”