aiptasia
Well-Known Member
I'll be there. How bout ya'll?
Hunahpu Day Meetup
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
March 8th. Ticket sales to the general public on the 20th this month.
It a lot of money for a bottle of beer, not to mention the drive time and gas (@ < 10 mpg from about 80 miles away ).
I would like to try it, but what are the tickets, $50 and the bottle 20-25$? I've never tried it before, and might be fun to see what all the hoopla is about.
My daughter has a volleyball "tournament" that day, so I may be hosed. I may see about buying a ticket though, and if I get one, then I will try to make it.
I've heard its sort of a tailgate party campout in the parking lot the night before with BBQ grills, and beer? Is this true? I'm getting a bit old for that, and maybe hitting a hotel and cabbie ride over in the morning would be a bit more my scene. I know technically its illegal to bring homebrew outside of your home, but It would be fun to meet some forum members and share some homebrews, if this is the type of event that it is. I've never been to this before, so I'm not sure what it is all about.
TD
I would like to try it, but what are the tickets, $50 and the bottle 20-25$? I've never tried it before, and might be fun to see what all the hoopla is about.
My daughter has a volleyball "tournament" that day, so I may be hosed. I may see about buying a ticket though, and if I get one, then I will try to make it.
I've heard its sort of a tailgate party campout in the parking lot the night before with BBQ grills, and beer? Is this true? I'm getting a bit old for that, and maybe hitting a hotel and cabbie ride over in the morning would be a bit more my scene. I know technically its illegal to bring homebrew outside of your home, but It would be fun to meet some forum members and share some homebrews, if this is the type of event that it is. I've never been to this before, so I'm not sure what it is all about.
TD
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
Oh, well if it's inconvenient.....
The furthest person that I met that drove to Hunahpu day last year were from Washington state. There were a heck of a lot of snowbirds that drove down from the upper midwest and the northeast, and all over the south. People come in droves and everyone always brings something interesting to sell/trade/barter or bottle share. I bought a half case of fresh Zombie Dust for cost last year from a guy from Michigan. He brought three cases and had them all sold/traded by 3:00 am last year. It was worth it to him since 3F beers don't distribute to Florida and he was able to free up more trunk space.
Well, since you're near Orlando, i'm sure someone around has a bottle or two in their cellar you can eventually get a taste of. I'm not sure if Orlando has any regular bottle shares but keep your eye open for one or start your own. It's a great way to bring rare beers together in one place and get a taste of some things you've never had before.
Hunahpu is basically Marshal Zhukov, which is a malty Russian Imperial Stout. The treatment they give the beer in the secondary is:
Ancho peppers: A dried pepper common to Mole sauce. It imparts a complex smoked pepper depth without a lot of heat.
Pasilla peppers: Another dried pepper and renown for it's raisin-like pepper quality and flavor. It's sweeter and similar to dried raisins.
Cinnamon: A few sticks of cinnamon go in it for a tasty and fragrant back note. Not very strong on the cinnamon but it's in there.
Cacao nibs: They use crushed cacao (chocolate) nibs for that intense dark chocolate flavor boost.
Vanilla beans: Whole split vanilla beans go into it providing a vanilla balance to the mix.
Now, i'll tell you this: I have had a lot of beers in my life. I have tasted over 500 unique beers just in the past year (on untapp'd) with our bottle share and many more over the course of my lifetime. There have been VERY few beers that not only lived up to the "hype" surrounding them, but just plain exceeded them in my humble opinion.
Hunahpu is one of those beers. It's just that good. If you like Russian Imperial Stouts, you'll love this beer.
When the general sales tickets go up for sale, you better be on it. They had over 9,000 people last year and are limiting ticket sales to 3,500 this year. I know for a fact that 1,500 tickets have already been sold.
It's like a huge beer nerd party. They close the parking lot at the tap room and brewery itself, but the lot across the street at the old Sears building and in other parking lots nearby will be open (although they charge $). The brewery parking lot will contain about eight tap stations for beers, about ten food trucks, two tents for merchandise, four huge circus tents and tables/chairs for seating, two banks of porta-potties and some "state fare" style games such as basketball hoops and other stuff for people to do.
People will start lining up the night before to get in. Expect people in sleeping bags, lawn chairs and all manner of camping gear to be camped out on the sidewalk. There's really no need to do this as anyone with a ticket is guaranteed to get in and guaranteed the opportunity to purchase at least two bottles. People generally do it for fun and it turns into a huge bottle share and tailgate. The staff will start arm banding people at 5:00 am while taking a headcount, and then they'll start letting people in around 11:00 am.. At 1:00 pm, the three hunahpu sales stations will be open and you can get in line and get your guaranteed number of bottles. Bottles cost $20 each, cash and carry, no sales tax.
After that, you're encouraged to hang out, drink 2 oz. pours all day from any of the tap stations, listen to a band or two play and just enjoy yourself. My friends and I will be there and we always stay at the same hotel, which is literally about two blocks away from the brewery. We just arrive the Friday before, park our cars in the hotel parking lot and walk everywhere or take cab rides until we leave on Sunday.
Actually its starting to sound like a lot of fun.
Any tips on how to ensure I get a ticket on the 20th?
TD
Any tips on how to ensure I get a ticket on the 20th?
TD
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
You'll need to be all over the Eventbrite ticket page on Monday (tomorrow) at 12:00 pm (noon) on the dot. What I would do is if I really wanted a ticket would be to get my credit card info handy and then open a window to the time.gov website and use their atomic clock to count down the time until noon.
At five seconds to noon, i'd open the link on this page and click the purchase link the second it becomes active. Keep hitting refresh until you can click purchase button and move fast. You'll have five minutes to fill out the web form with your CC info and finalize the purchase. Tickets are instant and downloadable as a PDF file. I highly recommend you print the tickets instead of storing them as a mobile app file on your cell or tablet.
If you see this message "Pending...." it means that over 1,000 people have beat you to the punch and are currently in that five minute window to fill out their info. If that happens, don't give up. WAIT FIVE MINUTES EXACTLY (12:05 pm on the atomic clock) and refresh the page and try again. With about 1,000-1,500 tickets going up for sale, you know some stoner dufus is going to have forgotten his wallet and CC, their two year old will pull a header into the fish tank or diarrhea will strike. So just wait and try again after five minutes.
If you can't get in no matter what, watch the Cigar City facebook page and/or twitter feeds for events where you can purchase whatever tickets they have left directly from the tap room. That would involve a drive for you from Orlando to Tampa but hey... at least it's one more opportunity.
I'll be coming down Thursday from Atlanta. 3rd year in a row. Can't wait.
wobrien
Well-Known Member
If you buy a ticket and can't go, can you give it to somebody else?
Yes. They said the ticket won't be tied to any individual.
wobrien
Well-Known Member
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
Got your ticket? If not, today is the day. Security is going to be beefed up this year as i'm sure a lot of people are just going to "show up" like they did last year, and won't get in.
Definitely. Give it to your trustee, your S/O, your grandma, your hollywood crush, anybody. No ticket? No entry. Period.
This.
Tickets are on sale at 12:00 pm on the dot. I can't stress this enough, it's going to sell out fast. No ticket, no entry. Get a ticket.
I'm just waiting waiting waiting for 11:00cst to buy my ticket.
I'll be in Tampa (Palm Harbor technically) the whole week for Tampa Weer Week this year.
I'll be in Tampa (Palm Harbor technically) the whole week for Tampa Weer Week this year.
Well both myself and a friend bought our tickets. So now all I need to do is get a way to shirk off the Volleyball tournament. Worst case I'll have a couple tickets available for sale. Hopefully I'll be there...
TD
TD
Woohooo.. manged to get 2 tickets.
Can we bring Homebrew to share or is that illegal?
Never been to a beer geek event before like this (well except the brews guild party in SD last fall for beer week kickoff but that was a while different vibe).
Never been to a beer geek event before like this (well except the brews guild party in SD last fall for beer week kickoff but that was a while different vibe).
Absolutely!
Cool! Assuming I can make the trip, I'll bring some brews - maybe we can swap some.
I'll have some triple, Dopplebock, Pliny style IPA, and AB clone (not truly cloned) in bottles. Might have some brown ale also. Talk about All are pretty high in ABV so will have some fun, for a little while at least. Might bring some All Citra IPA/APA if I can get around to bottling that too...
TD
Wait... I'm supposed to let other people taste my beer??? Not sure I have that much self-confidence yet.
Up here (Minnesota) we have Darkness Days (@Surly) and people line up all night and bring the most outrageous stuff for bottle share... I assume that this is very similar. Except for the lining up ALL NIGHT... oh and it's not cold.
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
9k according to CCB's official count for last year. And yes, it is limited to 3,500 this year. They're beefing up security at the entrance gate because you just know a whole ton of people are going to show up and expect to get in.
To them I say, ha ha!
Sounds good. Hunahpu's day has been a part of Tampa's Beer Week for the past two or three years in a row. I'm sure 7th Son will probably do an afterparty on Sunday, too down in St. Pete. I think they call it the Hunahpu Hangover Party.
Sure. Homebrew is fine. I brought a mixed bag of my homebrew last year and people didn't snub it, just drank it with gusto. I'm going to do the same this year with my Hunahpu clone. I know some of the bar staff and a few of the brewers and they're eager to see how close i've gotten to the recipe. It's not an exact clone because I had to sub Guajillo peppers for Pasillas and repitch with champagne yeast at bottling when the Thames Valley yeast farted out on me. But, it's still nice and rich and huna-like.
It's the same here. There will be some epic bottle sharing going on including rare stuff from all over the world. Everybody should be in a mellow beer drinking mood, so just strike up a conversation with the people around you, crack open a beer and offer people a pour.
I'm sure we'll be sharing some 2010 Maduro and dusty Jai Alai. I might even be able to trade my six year old Sweetwater 420 for something good, maybe a HOTD Dave or somthin', ya never know.
Should've saved my miserable attempt at barkshack gingermead brewed in 06' I finally threw out the last of it. Horrid stuff. I'm sure the beer zombies would've enjoyed though. LOL!
Hope I can make it, and maybe meet up with some of the HBT folks.
TD
Hope I can make it, and maybe meet up with some of the HBT folks.
TD
A tiny local brewery named Burnt Hickory in Kennesaw, Ga announced they will be pouring at Hunahpu Day. I don't know how they got an in to this, but congratulations to them. Highly recommend trying their stuff.
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
All they did was donate a keg or two. They probably still had to buy tickets to the event. A friend of mine manages a local brew pub and they have donated a few sixtels in the past to the effort. No free admission but there is a private tasting area for the brewers representing their beers usually. They'll usually have on various BA stuff for the brewers all day and they can socialize and whatnot.
The beer itself will wind up at one of several filling stations and as previous kegs kick, they'll put on the new kegs and post what's currently pouring on large markerboards. You'll have to make the rounds often at the different pour stations to see what's on tap at any given moment, or do what we do and go to H-day with a lot of friends and report back to each other what's on tap and where it is.
I announced to my wife that I will be going to this. It was a tough go, but the path is cleared.
TD
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Good job!
TopherM
Well-Known Member
If anyone is coming from out of town, come give me a shout. My homebrew club, PUBGuild, will be serving at the event! I'll be there with a Baltic Porter I just kegged last night that tastes scrumptuous pre-carb!
And they did give each local brewclub five free admissions in exchange for serving at this event!
Also, note it IS a format change this year. The last couple years it has basically been a big tailgate party in a parking lot while everyone waited to buy the bottles. This year is a full-blown beer festival, with about 25 breweries and 6-8 homebrew clubs represented, and including about 20 varieties of CCB beer on tap. It's going to be well worth the $50.00. Also, even though the bottles are $20 each, they sell THE DAY AFTER THE EVENT all over Ebay and Craigslist for $60 each, and the ones that have been aged for a year or two typically sell for $80-120 each. So, come to the fest, buy three bottles, sell two bottles, and you get a bottle for yourself and the beer fest for free!
Just to clarify, 7th Sun is not in St. Pete. It's in Dunedin, about 25 miles North of St. Pete. They also host the Hunahpu Hangover Party at their brewery in Dunedin. If you are coming in from out of town, there is LOTSSSSS more going on in St. Pete than Dunedin! Although Dunedin is a cool little town on it's own, and 7thSun is a great little brewery, there are 6 breweries, about a dozen more brewpubs, and hundreds of restaurants and shops in St. Pete, all close to the waterfront and all within about a 3 square mile area at the most. If you come to Tampa Bay for Hunahpu day, spend some time in St. Pete!
And they did give each local brewclub five free admissions in exchange for serving at this event!
Also, note it IS a format change this year. The last couple years it has basically been a big tailgate party in a parking lot while everyone waited to buy the bottles. This year is a full-blown beer festival, with about 25 breweries and 6-8 homebrew clubs represented, and including about 20 varieties of CCB beer on tap. It's going to be well worth the $50.00. Also, even though the bottles are $20 each, they sell THE DAY AFTER THE EVENT all over Ebay and Craigslist for $60 each, and the ones that have been aged for a year or two typically sell for $80-120 each. So, come to the fest, buy three bottles, sell two bottles, and you get a bottle for yourself and the beer fest for free!
Just to clarify, 7th Sun is not in St. Pete. It's in Dunedin, about 25 miles North of St. Pete. They also host the Hunahpu Hangover Party at their brewery in Dunedin. If you are coming in from out of town, there is LOTSSSSS more going on in St. Pete than Dunedin! Although Dunedin is a cool little town on it's own, and 7thSun is a great little brewery, there are 6 breweries, about a dozen more brewpubs, and hundreds of restaurants and shops in St. Pete, all close to the waterfront and all within about a 3 square mile area at the most. If you come to Tampa Bay for Hunahpu day, spend some time in St. Pete!
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
I know i'll be there.
ja09
Well-Known Member
Good to know. I'll be there and I'm just starting to look into hotels. Thinking either downtown St. Pete, downtown Tampa or along the coast somewhere.
On another note, this is my first time and I'm super pumped. Coming from MN and I'll be bringing some rarities from Surly, New Glarus, Toppling Goliath, Central Waters and others. If this is anything like the Darkness Day bottle share, this will be awesome. Just not sure how I'll still be standing after seeing the master taplist :cross:
Wait, if you're bringing MN beer what am I supposed to bring
I'm thinking we might need to have a MN contingent planning meeting to prepare for Tampa Beer Week because I keep running into people who are going to be down there.
ja09
Well-Known Member
Wait, if you're bringing MN beer what am I supposed to bring
I'm thinking we might need to have a MN contingent planning meeting to prepare for Tampa Beer Week because I keep running into people who are going to be down there.
Haha...Coordinate and compliment each others selection?! I can focus more on WI beers and Toppling Goliath. Trying to bring the best of the best rather than just locals.
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
Bring alternates, rares and whales. Trust me, there will be plenty of bottle sharing going on.
Planning meeting of course is code for drinking beer
Regrettably my cellar is still limited so my comment was mostly in jest.
But I do have a Steel Toe Lunker (barley wine) and a Pentagram(Surly) on my list to bring.
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aiptasia
Well-Known Member
Alright, so i've heard indirectly from the folks at CCB the following info. They're really discouraging lining up outside on the sidewalk this year. They will have extra security and probably local police patrolling and cracking down on bottle sharing for anyone in line or on the brewery property until 11:00 am.
Cigar City's "wet" permit is only good on their grounds between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm. Any other time, consider it dry city. They're being very serious about this because they don't want the situation that developed last year.
What this means for your bottle sharing: Save it until after 11:00 am.
So, the drink of the morning shall be: Coffee!!
The good news is the tap list is looking pretty epic. Here's a preview of what's currently going to be on tap at various tap stations throughout the day: Click here for google docs Hunapu day tap list.
Cigar City's "wet" permit is only good on their grounds between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm. Any other time, consider it dry city. They're being very serious about this because they don't want the situation that developed last year.
What this means for your bottle sharing: Save it until after 11:00 am.
So, the drink of the morning shall be: Coffee!!
The good news is the tap list is looking pretty epic. Here's a preview of what's currently going to be on tap at various tap stations throughout the day: Click here for google docs Hunapu day tap list.
I have heard that they are letting people in as soon as they arrive, for this reason. But taps don't flow until 11. I can not speak to the validity of my statement.
ja09
Well-Known Member
That would be nice for the bottle share... but holy ****... have you guys seen the taplist lately!? 169 beers and they just added Founders and FFF today.. not to mention Toppling Goliath the other day, and most likely a lot more coming from Funky Buddha.
There's just too much to try here. Anyone interested in a bottle share the night before? Maybe there's an LHBS or somewhere else that would welcome us?
I think a lot of us are at the Hilton. I was thinking the hotel so we don't gave to drive. Especially after Pegs that day.
ja09
Well-Known Member
What's Pegs?
TopherM
Well-Known Member
Cycle Brewing...known for their raredos...also a great tex next restaurant in Gulfport, a kickass little town
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