VT HopJam 2016

It's pretty simple, if I'm standing on line, I want to at least know what I'm on line for.

 

I would honestly love to know their reasoning behind making the single line as opposed to last year where each brewery had a tap/table

What a massive fail.

 

Not entirely accurate. I think Trillium had a booth for the first couple hours of the fest, but most everyone else's kegs were randomly tapped wherever there was an open line. I distinctly remember Maple Fayston kicking 2 people in front of me, and them putting on Sierra Nevada or something like that.

 

Thankfully I had the opposite experience. I was two people away from the taps with Sierra Nevada DIPA running. I thought I was actually going to get a beer that I could get at any Vermont gas station after waiting for half an hour. I was sweating. Incredibly it kicked and Foundation DIPA was tapped. .

 

Trillium did not have a booth in 2015 or 2014, to my recollection. No one brewery had their own section/table either of those years.

My thoughts:

I did not go in 2016. My friends and I were planning to: despite its 2014 and 2015 flaws, we had a great time the first two years as BIPs and were looking forward to doing so again in 2016. Unfortunately, Meg's Events does not give any sort of heads up to previous years' attendees, so we missed the 3/1(?) early bird BIP onsale and would have had to fork over $160 for regular BIP. Mind you, that's $160 in March/April for an August event without any knowledge of who the brewers or musical acts would be. (When I emailed this sentiment to Meg's Events in 2015, the reply was something to the effect of "Don't worry! If you thought 2014 was great, 2015 will be even better!")

My main gripe in 2014 was that all the "popular" beers went onsale early in the day and there was nothing left by 6pm--for a fest that ended at 9 or 10pm. Fine, it was their first year--I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt. They said they would improve. Exact same thing happened in 2015! They again said they would improve. It appears that the same thing happened in 2016. Meg's Events' post on FB: "We know we have opportunities to improve, not the least of which would be our lines. We are already committed to and focused on new plans for 2017." That's it. Probably 100+ complaints/posts on BA/social media and their response is "we know we can improve; see you (suckers) next year!"

For me, the above feeble explanation + cowardly removal of critical posts on FB = TOTAL LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY BY MEG'S EVENTS. Just suck it up, say you f'd up and move on. Perhaps you will regain some of the respect you've lost.

To the FL and TN guys who came up for this debacle: hope you at least had fun the rest of your trip.

 

I don't blame you for missing it - they were located all the way on the far left of the tent last year and snuck under the radar for the first couple hours. When they tapped Headroom it was done at one of the stations in the center of the tent, but before that I was enjoying literally zero line for FPPA and another beer (Congress maybe?) which were both tapped from the beginning.

 

Did Alchemist and Lawson's even offer beer at it this year?

 

The beer menu has a few offerings from Lawsons but I do not see Alchemist:

http://vthopjam.com/breweries/2016-beer-menu