You should have stayed. It was well worth it and everybody got to enjoy some great brews!
We couldn't. There were five of us and none of us had eaten breakfast we left so early Friday. We were absolutely chomping at the bit for some grub and figured we'd have at least an hour long wait in the Peg's line. We did get to try some of the rare DOS at Hunapu from all of the bottle sharing.
And the fun has begun! They had to let everybody in early as the line was so long it was blocking home depot parking lot and the cops were gonna shut it down. Good start to a great fest!
Some of the gang I went with were paranoid we wouldn't get our three bottle armbands, so we headed down there from the HoJo at 2:30 am. The first bottle popped open and 3:00 am. By five, the line was into the home depot lot and that cop that roared up to the front of the line was a complete A$$hat. He almost mowed down two people that had to leap out of his path when he roared into the gate area.
Agreed. I think the most enjoyable part is meeting, discussing, and drinking with random craft beer enthusiasts from all over the over the U.S. and the world. Always fun to chat up the homebrewers and see what they are pouring. I spoke with folks who came in from Vegas, Chicago, Mississippi, and heard rumors of someone who came in from Finland.
We were in line with a guy from Las Vegas. Wonder if it was the same guy. We also sat next to a guy from Chicago that had two cases of zombie dust and a case of long stem three floyds tulip glasses. Since we get no 3F here in FL, I was able to get a six pack from him for $10, which I thought wasn't really gouging considering the distance he drove. The rest of my crew bought him out on the balance of his ZD.
Lots of great craft beers on tap. Lovely to see a lot of offerings from TFB on draft, a rarity for these parts. I didn't stick around to wait for the 2011 Dark Lord to be tapped; I had forgotten how strong the FL sun is, even in March when the temperature is in the low 70s. They could organize it better, though, and should if the event will continue to grow in popularity -- there is no real advantage to camping out or arriving early. If you are in the right place at the right time when the three distribution points open, it negates any advantage one may have from arriving early. Numbering the wristbands, etc. could alleviate this. I wish they also would have had individual Tocobaga cans available for sale rather than the run-of-the-mill Florida Cracker wit...
Some friends of ours from Tampa had little whiteboards and wrote "Florida Cracker Wanted" and "Maduro or Bust!" on them. They were also the only ones sane of us to bring a camp stove and a coffeepot. We muled in the water bottles, they hooked us up with strong java. Fair trade.
I must've sampled at least sixty beers between the taps and the bottle shares. Got to try some bucket list beers i'd never had including the vanilla aged Dark Lord, the rare DOS fom Pegs, Bruerys white chocolate, Snack Attack, and of course Hunah's from 2009-2013.
I disagree with the arrive early part. If you want to avoid the crowd and just get some hunahpu, then yes. By all means wait until 6:00 pm or so and go in and buy as much as you want when the case sales start. But.... if you want to make a day out of it, definitely get there early. By getting in early, your crew can make it to the covered tent with all the tables. That's what our crew did, occupied two full tables and sat in the cool of the shade all day. A few of us would go off and check out the new taps as they hit, bring back extras for everyone to try, and then a few more of us would head off for other rares at the other taps. We'd just trade off whenever we wanted to. It was awesome.
We stayed right straight through to the end. By 6:00 pm, it had thinned out to about 300 people and was perfect with a slight cool breeze. On our way out, we got to speak with CCB's head brewer about the doughnut beer that 7th son had on tap this morning for the Hunapu hangover party (his Wife made the doughnuts for the secondary).
What I would change would be increasing the porta-Johns by about 3 times and getting totally different food vendors (the ones I tried all sucked). Everything else was just fine despite the crowds.
The beer itself is pretty stellar, lots of complex layers of flavor....and this coming from a guy who doesn't gravitate toward imperial stouts. It's a beer that practically begs for a cigar. $20 a bottle seems reasonable, given the high level of craftsmanship. I can't say I am shocked it is already fetching a pretty penny on ebay; personally, I wouldn't pay those kinds of prices, but somewhere, someone is always willing to...
I agree with that assessment. The beer is stellar and will only improve. I'll probably trade a few for some rares but the rest.... i'm sure i'll enjoy. One will go back next year for Huna 2014.
I did meet a HBT person but I can't remember his name to save my life. Nice enough guy, big red beard. Came and drank with us for a few minutes. Everyone was like that, mingling and drinking.
