Hill Farmstead thread

[JulianB1]

i wasn't there so i can't say for certain but it seems each year the increase of attendance has been steady.. maybe next year should see a reduction in available tickets?

I'm sure it is hard when demand is high to say.. hey that is it, no more people can come...

I for one don't like a lot of people in one spot.. just not my thing and when i saw pictures of past fests it always looked like it had the right amount of people and would be a fest i could handle but maybe with weather and more tickets sold this year (if that happened, i don't have any clue) that it got too large

anybody have an official count of people? seemed like more then 300 less then 600 ?

It felt like more people than last year to me, but I don't have any hard evidence that's true. It's harder to compare with 2 years ago because of the different setup and also the different weather, but 2016 and 2017 both had in common rain and having all the beers under one big tent. In 2016 the only big line for most of the day was at Side Project, and a lot of HF beers had no line for the first hour or so (CD15, BA Dorothy, etc.). Later (i.e. once SP ran out), HF had the one big line for Sarrasin, Flora BBR, etc., but it was still really quick to get stuff like the shelf saison vintages. Whereas this year there were the two steady, big lines for SP and HF. So that's just my mental perspective.

 

[user 312341]

that's the catch though... I had plenty of fun... I just stayed away from the chaos apparently...
you would think that people who don't like standing in lines would avoid them...
and if you went to a beer festival and chose to stand in a line, you'd be okay with it

I think it always comes back to the same thing... some people are just never happy... you can't fix them... and you can't worry yourself trying to appease them

sadly, some of those folks ruin it for others... but if people like that can ruin your good time, then maybe you should know to stay away from "events" with a lot of people...

I don't even know what I'm saying anymore... I just don't think there is a correct answer.

So much this. Do those people even beer fest, bro?

Stay the hell home and stop clogging/cutting the line for those whale ticks. Sheesh. ******* gonna bitch. And this is coming from me, haha.

BTW, I would have LOVED to have seen Shaun dancing to White Buffalo (and berating people for not doing the same). One day I will have my chance... after exchanging cat pix, of course.

Best part of the whole week was ticking so many TB folks (skrip, BravoDawg , raginasian238, burntfoot, Don, theLostWizard, Mikecap, SecretSquirrel) among others. Looking forward to next year!

Yes! Great to meet you too. Thanks for not running away from me!

 

[seedavid]

I do think it's worth pointing out that, for all the nitpicking and back-and-forth that we're doing over things like waiting in some (relatively short) lines, the "issues" (if we can even call them that) at FoFA are incredibly mild in comparison to what occurs at a lot of other festivals. In the 3 years I've been going, the only 2 really negative events I can recall are the domestic abuse deal this year (which is horrible and I'm glad I wasn't there for it) and the dog fight last year. Compare that to fests where people are getting black out drunk, getting into fights, puking, shitting themselves, breaking bottles in the parking lot, stealing bottles and bags, etc. and it's evident that even in the crazy 2017 beer scene, FoFA still attracts a better and better-behaved crowd than most (all?) big events. That says something pretty positive to me about the host, the atmosphere, and the attendees.

At the Shelton Brothers Festival in 2016 I witnessed some guy take a swig of his beer, swish it around in his mouth, and then spit it into the mouth of his female companion, baby bird style. it wasn't a one time thing either. I saw them do it a few times. I still have nightmares about it.

 

[tbub18]

At the Shelton Brothers Festival in 2016 I witnessed some guy take a swig of his beer, swish it around in his mouth, and then spit it into the mouth of his female companion, baby bird style. I still have nightmares about it.

Lol WTF

 

[indy1]

You know it's the post FoFA discussion when the planning and strategy for future events continues 4 days later.

 

[Os]

You know it's the post FoFA discussion when the planning and strategy for future events continues 4 days later.

but we haven't discussed bringing a PS4 and playing Rock Band on stage yet

 

[axeman91821]

At the Shelton Brothers Festival in 2016 I witnessed some guy take a swig of his beer, swish it around in his mouth, and then spit it into the mouth of his female companion, baby bird style. it wasn't a one time thing either. I saw them do it a few times. I still have nightmares about it.

Oh man, that makes me think of Emily's reaction to seeing them at the bar afterwards. Amazing.

 

[mateoloco]

At the Shelton Brothers Festival in 2016 I witnessed some guy take a swig of his beer, swish it around in his mouth, and then spit it into the mouth of his female companion, baby bird style. it wasn't a one time thing either. I saw them do it a few times. I still have nightmares about it.

A) Was she hot? Please advise.

B) Sorry for partying.

C) That's my fetish.

D) All of the above

 

[seedavid]

A) Was she hot? Please advise.

B) Sorry for partying.

C) That's my fetish.

D) All of the above

Both participants looked roughly like Kevin from the Office, but in brewery t-shirts.

 

[user 306926]

At the Shelton Brothers Festival in 2016 I witnessed some guy take a swig of his beer, swish it around in his mouth, and then spit it into the mouth of his female companion, baby bird style. it wasn't a one time thing either. I saw them do it a few times. I still have nightmares about it.

And I was thinking that Shelton was a decent fest save for the butts-to-nuts in the pen, JWB running out of beer in 5 min, brewers throwing **** at notetakers, etc..... this babybird **** just ruined it all.

 

[JulianB1]

Double Citra and Everett in cans today apparently.

I rarely get FOMO these days, but these HF can releases are bringing it back.

 

[MikeG1]

Double Citra and Everett in cans today apparently.

I rarely get FOMO these days, but these HF cans releases are bringing it back.

Fuuuccckkk ISO

 

[nrs207]

Double Citra and Everett in cans today apparently.

I rarely get FOMO these days, but these HF can releases are bringing it back.

Yeah I saw the pics. I would love some of that.

 

[user 312341]

but we haven't discussed bringing a PS4 and playing Rock Band on stage yet

This implies you truly are going to get Rock Band. I'll be right over.

 

[gregkoko]

Double Citra and Everett in cans today apparently.

I rarely get FOMO these days, but these HF can releases are bringing it back.

 

[kzeon]

funny not so funny.

 

[skrip]

Yeah I saw the pics. I would love some of that.

post the pics if you can Nick

 

[PocketPants911]

No Double Citra pictures. Was mentioned to me by a credible source.

 

[tikk]

No Double Citra pictures. Was mentioned to me by a credible source.

 

[MikeG1]

Apparently 6 cans of Double Citra and 12 cans of Everett to go today

 

[raqnroll]

Can we take a moment from this post fofa gang bang to bring to light that through the gauntlet of the three busiest weeks of the year, there are now more bottles available in retail than there are growler lines. Unprecedented. In fact, Anna/Arthur/BroSo/Florence have been steady since at least June(perhaps earlier). If they did not run out through this stretch, it seems they are good to go to consistently have these available. Next stop distro?

 

[JulianB1]

Can we take a moment from this post fofa gang bang to bring to light that through the gauntlet of the three busiest weeks of the year, there are now more bottles available in retail than there are growler lines. Unprecedented. In fact, Anna/Arthur/BroSo/Florence have been steady since at least June(perhaps earlier). If they did not run out through this stretch, it seems they are good to go to consistently have these available. Next stop distro?

What, Willie's doesn't count?

 

[thewimperoo]

I'll finally chime in with my 2 cents from Thursday and Saturday. My first trip up to Hill Farmstead and Vermont in general.

INRAT - Lots of beers, food, tip touching and fun

Flew into Boston overnight on Wed/Thu morning. Got a rental, drove a bit into NH and slept at a rest area for a couple of hours. Woke up around 7 to start driving again. Hit Skinny Pancake in Montpelier for coffee, Heady and breakfast.

From there hit the road to get up to Hill around 10:30 or so. Pretty unreal experience with that on-site bottle list, awesome draft options, excellent service and just all in all good fun. Ann, Art Plum, and Elab 5 were my favorite. Shirley Mae Sunrise Edition is crazy good.

Obligatory sign pic

 

[thewimperoo]

Up early on Saturday to catch the 2nd shuttle from Waterbury and wait for FOFA to start. Great bus ride on the way up when our driver missed the turn for Taylor Road and had to figure out a way to turn around. This entailed pulling off into someone's dirt road and 3 point turning around. Considering the size of the bus it's not surprising he took out a tree backing up. Made for a good story.


Having never been to FOFA before I thought it went pretty damn smoothly. There's nothing you can do about the weather. It would have been great if the weather had been like the days leading up, but even still it wasn't awful. I timed food and bathroom breaks with the stoppages in rain, so I never even used the poncho I brought with. As others have mentioned, the only minor tweak would be to have each HF line be separate. If it's going to be 1 tent, maybe have 1 HF draft line every 5 or 6 breweries.


Since we weren't Collected Works and the bus got up there early, we were towards the front of the entry line. Started with Sante. Dutch Door was one of my favorites of the day. After that got in the 20 or so person line for HF and had Flora Batch 5. From there, pretty much didn't need to wait in any lines longer than to the edge of the tent until 2:30 or so when we stood in the HF line. It wrapped all the way out to the building, but it wasn't raining and you could hear White Buffalo. Actually ended up getting Marie after waiting. However, definitely used the left line for more Marie in the last 30 minutes. Had Side Project La Ruche and Grisette when that was all they had left and the line was barely outside the tent.


For the most part when it was raining and stuck under the tent, I just rotated between Brasserie Dunham and Brasserie Auval. All 5 of the beers that those 2 breweries were brewing were just phenomenal, and 4 of them lasted until the very end of the fest.


A couple of other highlights were Oxbow Momoko, Suarez 100ft, Tired Hands Through the Emptiness, Angry Orchard Understood in Motion 2, and Crooked Stave Raspberry Surette. That Blueberry Kombucha that was in the non-beer tent was awesome too.

 

[regularjohn]

AutumnBeerLove can you tell all the shitlords trying to sell their fofa glassware for $80 a pop to **** off. Thank you kindly.

 

[JulianB1]

AutumnBeerLove can you tell all the shitlords trying to sell their fofa glassware for $80 a pop to **** off. Thank you kindly.

You mean I can get 80 bucks for these rather than selling them to my friends at cost?! **** I'm playing this beer game wrong.

 

[AutumnBeerLove]

AutumnBeerLove can you tell all the shitlords trying to sell their fofa glassware for $80 a pop to **** off. Thank you kindly.

You mean I can get 80 bucks for these rather than selling them to my friends at cost?! **** I'm playing this beer game wrong.

Yeah, but I just discovered “mystery boxes” on eBay. Now go make money on your trash, people!

 

[into the white]

Woah, if Everett is in cans, does this mean...other stuff might end up in cans too? The shelf saisons in a 1 person friendly format would be fantastic.

 

[iong516]

Woah, if Everett is in cans, does this mean...other stuff might end up in cans too? The shelf saisons in a 1 person friendly format would be fantastic.

Shelfies are definitely already in a 1 person friendly format

 

[JulianB1]

HF hoppy beer and Everett cans are basically the endgame of beer for me. There's petty much nothing else I want beer-wise now.