Hunahpu Day Meetup

[sfrisby]

Rise and shine gents!

Get a big breakfast. You'll need it.

 

[TrickyDick]

Total cluster****


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[allenH]

Total cluster****


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Agreed.

 

[ja09]

Didn't even get my "guaranteed" bottles. Otherwise a good time, minus the cluster****

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[TrickyDick]

Agreed.

Check out the anger over at the facebook page for CCB.

For those following who didn't attend here is a brief synopsis of my day. I don't really want to complain, so I won't, but I will say, the event, was mismanaged and not what I expected. I showed up later than I wanted to, just before noon. Took about 15 minutes to walk to the end of the line, and waited about and hour and twenty minutes to get in. Supposedly they had limited ticket sales to 3500 I think, but there were easily double or more than that present. I didn't see bar code scanners for the tickets, possibly one explanation for how many people were in line.

Once inside, I was hungry and thirsty so I made my way through a very thick crowd to a food truck for some food. I ate that admist the maelstrom of people. Then I got in line for a beer sample from 3 Floyds, a Black IPA. It was tasty - they were out of Zombie Dust by then.

With food in belly and beer sample in hand, I entered the "line" for the bottles of Hunapu. Utter chaos - line cutters, no patroling, and no conscience of line cutters about sums it up. I stayed in the "line" until I could buy my 3 bottles, and then headed towards the front area which had partly cleared out. It was now about 3:50 or so. Sweaty, sober, and sick of the crowds, I made my exit, but not before another sample - St. Somewhere Grand Cru sour (Keg only which is too bad) it was pretty tasty, but by that time anything wet would've been good.

If I had to do over, I would have arrived Friday night, and hit the event early in the morning so as to gain admission before crowds became unmanageable. I would have arrived with a fully belly and full wallet. I would have brought a cooler ( on wheels ) with a bit of water and beer of my own to consume. I would have brought some snacks. I would have bought my Hunapu Bottles immediately upon entry and try a few of the top 10 must try beers on the tap list. I would probably also pre-arrange a get together with some HBT'ers for bottle sharing - I saw some pretty cool beers being passed around.

CCB offered an apology for the mess today and is opening their tap room for free beer tomorrow, which is classy. I think next year I'll stay at home and see what happens to improve the event before I would consider going again.

TD

 

[ja09]

Check out the anger over at the facebook page for CCB.

For those following who didn't attend here is a brief synopsis of my day. I don't really want to complain, so I won't, but I will say, the event, was mismanaged and not what I expected. I showed up later than I wanted to, just before noon. Took about 15 minutes to walk to the end of the line, and waited about and hour and twenty minutes to get in. Supposedly they had limited ticket sales to 3500 I think, but there were easily double or more than that present. I didn't see bar code scanners for the tickets, possibly one explanation for how many people were in line.

Once inside, I was hungry and thirsty so I made my way through a very thick crowd to a food truck for some food. I ate that admist the maelstrom of people. Then I got in line for a beer sample from 3 Floyds, a Black IPA. It was tasty - they were out of Zombie Dust by then.

With food in belly and beer sample in hand, I entered the "line" for the bottles of Hunapu. Utter chaos - line cutters, no patroling, and no conscience of line cutters about sums it up. I stayed in the "line" until I could buy my 3 bottles, and then headed towards the front area which had partly cleared out. It was now about 3:50 or so. Sweaty, sober, and sick of the crowds, I made my exit, but not before another sample - St. Somewhere Grand Cru sour (Keg only which is too bad) it was pretty tasty, but by that time anything wet would've been good.

If I had to do over, I would have arrived Friday night, and hit the event early in the morning so as to gain admission before crowds became unmanageable. I would have arrived with a fully belly and full wallet. I would have brought a cooler ( on wheels ) with a bit of water and beer of my own to consume. I would have brought some snacks. I would have bought my Hunapu Bottles immediately upon entry and try a few of the top 10 must try beers on the tap list. I would probably also pre-arrange a get together with some HBT'ers for bottle sharing - I saw some pretty cool beers being passed around.

CCB offered an apology for the mess today and is opening their tap room for free beer tomorrow, which is classy. I think next year I'll stay at home and see what happens to improve the event before I would consider going again.

TD

This is exactly how the event went. I feel really lucky I got in early because it was terrible after 1 or so. Still a good time and some amazing bottle shares, but I'd be very upset if I showed up a late.

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[TrickyDick]

I would say I didn't have a "good time" but I did get some bottles of Hunapu, which I've never had before. Mission accomplished. I had never been to this event before.

However, I was thinking that from what I had heard, that last year was similar, and the tickets this year were supposed to correct what went wrong last year. Had I known, I would have taken measure I mentioned above. The other thing I would have done - sunscreen....

TD

 

[cmoewes]

I am so glad that it wasn't just me being whiney. After and hour and 3/4 in line just to get in the gate. It took another 45 minutes to find a place to sit and get some food. We left before I even tried to get in line to by my bottles.

 

[allenH]

I got there at 10:30 and pretty much walked in. Got in line for Bacon Maple Coffee Porter, then hit J Wakefield and had about 6 other samples by 11:45. Got into the merchandise line to buy a snifter and found out they were selling leftover el cat beers there as well. Grabbed the snifter and a couple el cat bottles and then went and filled my allotment, dropped them off at my truck and walked back in by 12:45. I thought everything was going great until about 1, then you couldn't move at all. I could hardly find a line to grab a beer. So at 2:30, I got back in the bottle line and made it to the front at 4:15. People were freaking out, the line cutting was unreal, shouting, chanting, shoving. I did manage to grab additional bottles, but I made for the door after that. It sucks that people didn't get their allotment. Why in the hell were there that many people in there when they said over and over that it was capped at 3500?

 

[sfrisby]

I heard there were photocopies of tickets that were used which is why the scanners "weren't working". I heard the lines to get in we're so unruly, they just let everyone in regardless of tickets, which is how you get 9000 people there. No idea if any of this is true.

Next year, I'm sure they will do 2 things: after $175,000 in refunds, they will hire a company who knows how to manage this and they will require your ID at the door matches the name on the ticket.

If it had actually been 3500 people, it would have been perfect.

 

[TrickyDick]

I heard there were photocopies of tickets that were used which is why the scanners "weren't working". I heard the lines to get in we're so unruly, they just let everyone in regardless of tickets, which is how you get 9000 people there. No idea if any of this is true.

Next year, I'm sure they will do 2 things: after $175,000 in refunds, they will hire a company who knows how to manage this and they will require your ID at the door matches the name on the ticket.

If it had actually been 3500 people, it would have been perfect.

Can't have been far from the truth even if unconfirmed. There were far more than 3500 people in there. at least double or more I would guestimate.
Anyway, at least I was lucky enough to score 3 bottles, though truth be told, I was hoping to be able to buy more, as well as enjoy some rare brews being served.

I hope this helps to turn around the event into a positive experience. Maybe they need to do two days instead of one and your ticket is good for just one day. Clearly if there is demand enough for 9000 + people to come to this event, limiting it to 3500 seems inappropriate. I think it is pretty classy of CCB to give refunds and open their tap room today (did anyone go there BTW?).

 

[Tinhorn]

Went with some locals that felt there were more folks than last year
My guess is close to 10k
Most folks were nice but it was so crowded and disorganized that the a holes seemed to be multiplying
Got my three bottles but mostly hung out with the homebrewers as it was almost impossible to walk around

All that being said had a decent time and met some great folks and had some amazing homebrew and a few others that folks were sharing

Also find it very hard to believe that 5k extra folks bought scammed tickets off Craig's list or knew they had fake tickets and would wait in line for 2 hours to find out

Suprised the fire Marshall didn't shut the whole thing down



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[aiptasia]

Yep, it sucked worse than last year. Just too many people and too many taking advantage of the event. We did get there early. It wasn't our first rodeo and after weathering the storm that was last year's hunahpu, you always get there early no matter what CCB says. We drove down Friday, bottle shared at the HoJo with a bunch of guys from Pennsylvania and elsewhere and I went down at 7 am to get in line with a friend of mine. They turned us away and said, "Don't come back until at least 10 am." So, I went to the dennys up the street and ate breakfast with my Wife. We went back to the hotel for a bit when we got a text from friends saying they were in and had a table under the tents, and the line was growing. We got there at 9:30 am and waited twenty minutes to get in.

At that point, they were still scanning tickets with their cell phones (lame) and the lines were moving. We got in, we sampled about 20 beers and grabbed a huge tasty french dip sandwich. There were around 20 of us at two tables near the band and we just shared beers from the lines. When they started selling bottles at noon, we all got our 3 each and some teku glasses. No idea they had the DB BA's for sale so we missed out on that. I'm not butthurt about that but I know a lot of El Catador members that are. As the masses got nasty, we just bottle shared at the tables with everyone around us. This made it a much nicer event. We had our beers, we had shade and a seat and aside from the first band (they sucked), the bluegrass and the ska bands were good. The ladies danced, we drank. Fun.

Most of us were staying at the HoJo just down the road at Dale Mabry, so we knew about Thai Terrace right there in their parking lot. By 4pm, we were all craving phad thai and a quiet, uncrowded place. The lines were long and surly, people were getting drunk and pissed off. Bottles were being dropped. People were raiding coolers left and right, so we knew it was descending into a bad scene. We left and were back at the hotel by 4:30pm, which was around the time they sold out of all of the hunahpu and the cops started kicking people out.

It's ******** like this that completely gamed the event that kinda piss me off. It's why everyone didn't get their three bottles, silver bracelet or not. The word has come down from on high that 2014 will be the last Hunahpu day. Cigar City plans to brew up another batch immediately for those that didn't get their bottles and next year's release is going to just go through distribution channels. They're tired of the BS and I don't blame them.

 

[Pilgarlic]

I went to Hunahpu's Release Day for one reason and one reason only: to pour our club's homebrew to a huge crowd of beer lovers. Our booth was in the back and around the corner with the four or five other homebrew clubs. We had about ten volunteer pourers in our booth and 12-13 kegs. I got there at nine to set up and left at six something. During those nine hours I spent maybe fifteen minutes outside of our booth. We had ten taps going and poured every drop of our 65 gallons about two ounces at a time, and we had a ball. Lots of attendees hung around our booth pretty much all day long and I can say that they had a great time too. We made lots of new friends from around the country, and I'll miss this event next year. It is Brandon Bootleggers Homebrew Club's most enjoyable pouring event every year.

 

[TopherM]

+1, I was a couple booths down from Brandon Bootleggers serving for PUBGuild. We had 7 people manning our booth, and about another 20+ members and friends of the club attending the event. As the crowd started getting too big, most of our people just came and hung out on Homebrew Row with us. The lines for the homebrews stayed reasonable (only about 12-15 deep at most), and we were largely unaware of any of the problems going on around the corner, beyond everyone doing some rough common sense math and realizing there were way more than 3500 people out there.

BTW, our club went and bought all of our Hunahpu bottles between 2:30 and 3:00, and there wasn't even a line at that time. It was also very clearly marked that the 3 bottle guarantee went until 4:00, at which time they opened it up for everyone to buy cases until it was gone. The problem is that no one wanted to carry around bottles, so about 1/3 of everyone there procrastinated and got in line at about 3:45. Obviously the counterfeit ticket issue contributed, but CCB did nothing wrong when it came to the Hunah sales, beyond the fact that they could have definitely anticipates that lots of peeps wouldn't use their wristbands before 4:00, then been pissed off when they all got in line at the same time and there wasn't enough beer to accommodate.

Like someone else said - rare beer is big business these days, and it doesn't matter what it is, when there is a rare commodity up for grabs some people just emotionally lose their sense to grab their piece of the pie.

The moral of the story, go to more homebrew events or always hang out with the homebrewers at the festivals - some of those bottle sharers are just out of their friggin mind!

 

[TrickyDick]

BTW, our club went and bought all of our Hunahpu bottles between 2:30 and 3:00, and there wasn't even a line at that time.

If that's true then they all cut line and pushed and shoved their way into it, or else there was a second secret line that I didn't know about. There was a huge mob of people that were all "in line" waiting. I gained entry to event at about 1:20, got a bite to eat, grabbed, a beer sample and then immediately got into line for the hunapu. There definitely was a huge mob/line of people waiting to buy their Hunapu between 2:30 and 3:00. At any rate,

I wish I had known what to expect about getting there earlier than 11, and also wish I knew where the "booths" and homebrew row was so I could have met with some of you.

TD


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[TopherM]

I may not have been exactly 2:30-3:00, but it wasn't much longer before that, and I walked straight up to the garage and had two people in front of me. The other guy that I drove did the same thing about 15-20 minutes after me, and again, no line to speak of.

I may be off on the exact times (beer time), but it was definitely during the latter 3rd of the day when we went, and there just wasn't really a line at all at that time.

To give it some perspective, the infamous "closing the garage bays" video from YouTube making it's way around happened at about 4:30. I've also seen a few sites reporting that the big lines started about 3:15.

I'm just saying. For the vast majority of the day, there definitely wasn't much of a line at all.

All spilled milk at this point!

 

[cmoewes]

I managed to get over near the homebrew area and did get a pour of something but it was so crowded that I didn't try to ask where any of the hbt people were.

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[CrystalShip]

There definitely was a huge mob/line of people waiting to buy their Hunapu between 2:30 and 3:00.

I was in this exact mob and feel lucky that I got my three bottles. The enitre event was a huge mob. I felt the only way to cope with it was to get nice and drunk. it worked

 

[aiptasia]

Looks like Joey is going to do a "Fest" for the hunahpu re-brew. No bottles, just open taps so people can get to drink the beer while taking the secondary resale market/bottle hoarding out of it. No growler fills either. Of course, they totally DON'T have to do that and have lost a good bit of money by now anyway.

I don't blame CCB for putting hunahpu out to distribution from now on, but sad to see the fest ruined like this by a few thousand ********. It used to be such a cool, mellow event.

 

[Tinhorn]

I hope they do a fest as I had a blast at TBBW and hope to return next minus the douchbaggery and riot like crowds


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[aiptasia]

Next year, stogies and stouts.

 

[sfrisby]

I hope they do a fest as I had a blast at TBBW and hope to return next minus the douchbaggery and riot like crowds


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Your wish is Joey's command! All you had to do was ask.

 

[TrickyDick]

Probably should start in different thread, but, Why is it so difficult to get CCB beers, the rotating, and special limited stuff? I called a place I go to nearby to buy beer, and the owner was upset about not being able to get much. Several other mega chain stores in the state seems to have spotty availability of even their year round stuff. I'm thinking its just supply and demand, with not enough supply. I'm not sure if that's the whole story though.
TD


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[Tinhorn]

Your wish is Joey's command! All you had to do was ask.

Saw that ! Sounds like I will be back !


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[TopherM]

They are still saying Hunahpu will be a production beer....no more special release festivals. They are just saying that they still want to hold a tasting-only festival. It's a good compromise!

 

[aiptasia]

They are still saying Hunahpu will be a production beer....no more special release festivals. They are just saying that they still want to hold a tasting-only festival. It's a good compromise!

It's already a production beer. It's been in the brewing schedule for five years now. What's different is that the beer will be sold via distribution, which means that it will go out in limited supply to the regular distribution channels (Brown, Champion, etc.) as a wholesale, 3 tier beer. The only thing Joey has given up on is selling it in house where he can make more money on it (and everything else that comes with Hunahpu's day).

Probably should start in different thread, but, Why is it so difficult to get CCB beers, the rotating, and special limited stuff? I called a place I go to nearby to buy beer, and the owner was upset about not being able to get much. Several other mega chain stores in the state seems to have spotty availability of even their year round stuff. I'm thinking its just supply and demand, with not enough supply. I'm not sure if that's the whole story though.

That's about the sum total of it. It's supply vs. demand. CCB has been expanding their fermentation tanks and are just about to bring a second canning line online. Once this happens, expect to see their house brands in cans with more regularity. Up here in Jax, there's no shortage of: Florida Cracker, Jai Alai, Maduro, Cubano Espresso, Hopped on the High Seas and others. Bottle shops are pretty good at getting what supplies are available but quite frankly, several beers are very limited supply.

For example, I can still find White Oak Jai Alai here in town (if you know where to find it) and will occasionally find 750's of Bolita, Guava Grove, special treatments of Jai Alai and occasional collaboration beers. For example, I found Southern Slice on the shelf at an ABC store here in town and lacto Guava Grove at a grocery store. You just have to know where to look.

Now, there are some very limited beers that you hardly ever see in a bottle shop of any sort. Most of the El Catador releases this past year fit into that group. The reason is, they've only produced limited supplies (around 3,000 bottles of each). If I wasn't an El Cat member, i'd have never landed Life is Like, Forgotten Island, Illuminating the Path, Good Gourd Almighty, Marshall Zhukov and others. They're just very limited production and almost impossible to get if you don't have a personal relationship with a beer vendor, distributor or are the member of the El Cat club. It's just the way it is for now.

 

[Tinhorn]

Good Gourd Almighty, Marshall Zhukov two of the best beers I ever had
Just saying


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[allenH]

Good Gourd Almighty, Marshall Zhukov two of the best beers I ever had
Just saying


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Good Gourd (I didn't get lucky enough to try the almighty) and MZ are amazing. Hopefully with the upcoming change to 22oz bottles, they will be more readily available. That is the only benefit to the bottle size change.

 

[wobrien]

Good Gourd (I didn't get lucky enough to try the almighty) and MZ are amazing. Hopefully with the upcoming change to 22oz bottles, they will be more readily available. That is the only benefit to the bottle size change.

You guys gotta stop talking about how great MZ is. I'm trying to wait on mine until I get Huna for a side by side!!