Hunahpu's Day 2017

Xpuic stole the show for me. Baked was good. Double barrel sum was pretty good as was BA German chocolate. Was bummed with manbearpig.

 

This is probably a nonsensical question, but here goes...What do you guys think was the best, most widely available beer at the show?

 

I meant it was ridiculous to me how authentic it tasted to the real thing.

 

Other Half Double Mosaic was incredible.

Joosy Fruit from Tampa Beer works was great.

Jackie O's vanilla coffee BA dark apparition was fantastic.

 

Other Half Double Mosaic might be the best IIPA I've ever had and that includes the best from TH, Trill, etc. If you love Mosaic, this is your beer.

 

You are the first person I've ever heard say that Bake was not one of the best beers they've ever had

Edit: Have had Bake 3 different times including Huna Day and thought it was incredible and the best beer I've ever tried every time

 

it tasted like every other big stout with those same adjuncts thrown in, which is to say it tasted exactly like 30% of the offerings at the event

 

First time at the fest and it was great. Definitely trying to make the yearly trip. Everything was awesome; the food, bottle pick, entry, selection, people, etc. I have no complaints. As it was our first time we decided to skip the whale hunt and not spend more that 5 minutes in line for anything. Missed on MBP, 3 Sons, and a the others but still got too try a lot of awesome stuff. Cognac Strawberry, and Rum Coconut Huna were my favorites. Last Buffalo, Desperado, Medianoche, Mexican Siberius, Lambent, and There are Rules were great too. Tried a bunch of the Mazurt stuff near the end and it was good but I couldn't get the hype. All the Berliners, Juice is Loose, Mind Games, and Tropicalia in between stouts was the best part though.

 

You must know a lot of people that all "know the hype" I'm guessing. I was really disappointed and the 3 other people with me (one knew about the beer in advance) said it was just ok or too sweet. Funny what the mind and hype can do to a pour.

Wasn't top 10 for any of us at Huna (for stouts). Neither was ManBearPig. (2 of 4 dumped)

Opinions are fun!

 

My brother went and said the same about MBP

 

We used the waiting in lines for the bigger names as a breather from drinking. Otherwise, we just went up and down each side of the tent, stopping at anything that sounded interesting

 

I drank a ton of OH citra and double mosiac, and I had a few cans still in my fridge at home but still worth the fills at the fest with no lines. Probably the only great IPAs I had all day.

Ccb needs to can skittles Berliner before another brewery does. It's fantastic, especially in the hot sun.

I had the 3 taverns Sherry coconut which was very good, slighlty under carbed but really close to being a knockout. I stopped back to have the double barrel version and it wasn't as good.

I thought db summation and fundamental summation were good but not great. I'd rather have the originals and scoop a la mode was a bit of a muddled mess.

BB Zhukov with no line is delicious as well.

 

I had far too many stouts (if that's a thing) at the expense of other styles. Props to my home state's 3 taverns and Mazurt. Was surprised by 3 taverns as they speaclize in Belgiums. It was my first time having Mornin delight, it was sooo sweet. I wouldn't mind drinking it again, but certainly wouldn't go out of my way for it.

 

I've also had bake, at least 12oz at wakefest and twice from bottles since wf... it is not the best beer I've ever had. Not even close.

I believe it is a lot of hype mixed with that .rar factor.

 

Agreed. I'm looking forward to the survey again this year as they've still got room for improvement. If they want to have this many or more people next year, they really need a bigger venue. The tall grass, fancy bark mulch, and other more sensitive landscaping features got totally trampled by the end of the day, yet just across the street, the Lightning crew got all "get off my lawn"--kind of ironic.

Anyway, if CCB wants to keep it at Cotanchobee, they need to reduce attendance or have this over two days, which I'm sure no breweries want to do, as that might require twice the beer, which wouldn't fly with some of the breweries that were acting pretty stingy.

Especially considering the hassle to get to the line in time, and the long wait for it, (and any of the poor guys that traded dozens of top notch bottles for one MBP) agreed. Glad I had friends elsewhere that were willing to get pours out of less busy booths and bring them to me while I stood there waiting for just another BA stout.

The Funk Factory options were my favorite tastes while I ultimately waited for that Voodoo hype train in my mind to derail. Guess it's partly my fault. But I blame you all equally!

Agreed. All of the "Coffee Mate" stout options out there are starting to get tiring. I'm glad I'd already had some 3 Sons/Cycle brews previously, because that could have taken another hour out of my day teaching me the hard way that just because a bunch of flavorings are put into a beer or barrels doesn't mean it's going to be any better than a simpler take. Mazurt also falls into that category for me flavor-wise, probably because of the stunt they pulled last year with the coconut, but at least they were cool and they were still pouring beers throughout the whole day. They felt bad, for some ungodly reason, that they brought too much beer--likely because all the cool kids kicked very early. I gave the Mazurt guys major props for not limiting accessibility or trying to play into the hype game any further.

Regarding the whole festival in general, there were a couple things that definitely smoothed out the experience from last year in my opinion.

Improvements:

1. The Check-in
   1. This is referring to the lines prior to the actual running-of-the-bulls style crowd corral. The initial line up, wrist check and glass pick up went relatively smoothly and swiftly compared to last year. This is a major, major improvement over last year.
2. Food Aaccess
   1. This was definitely improved as well. Allowing the food truck chefs and operators to work in their 'natural habitat' created fast moving lines for some tasty stuff that hit the spot.

My complaints list may appear long, but seeing where things need improved is something I do. Huna Day 17 was by and large a lot of fun, a decent step up, and still the best run beer festival I've been to. But, they could really make it one of the best events on the planet, and not just in looking at fests exclusive to beer. Just some minor tweaks, notwithstanding the fact that they still need to maintain a strong draw for all the awesome breweries that came and have come in the past.

Complaints:

1. Pig Sty
   1. I see some folks liked the Check-in process, and I agreed above, however, the subsequent concert-style mosh pit cluster was ill advised.
   2. The first third of the corral being out in the blazing sun, with minimal if any shade for most folks, was pretty harsh. Some people were losing a lot of water over the course of two hours.
      
   3. Knowing the majority of people that line up early did so for a reason, CCB essentially provided the opportunity for everyone done with the wristband check-in to cut each other by simply walking or running faster to the barrier.
   4. Then, once the gates opened, it became clear that this was a ridiculous PR stunt that, thankfully did not, but could have gone horribly wrong. It turned into a stampede to 3 Sons, Voodoo, and J Wakefield, which were all unfortunately near each other, and were blending into each other causing further confusion and angst amongst some people.
   5. In the end, if Shelton Bros and Three Floyds can do a single file line outside, so can CCB. It was a little embarrassing to be participating in what turned out to be raining on the Fun Run festivities. With all that space under the bridge, they could have had snaking barriers for a single file line, easy. DLD has done this many times and once a gate opens, the line moves very fast with much less risk of people trampling others. Yet I still acknowledge DLD is an overall less enjoyable fest on multiple fronts.
2. Hyped Brewery Spacing
   1. As mentioned above, many of the big breweries being clustered together turned into a mess. I thought that lesson was learned a long time ago. It seems like some random thing like this always gets missed on an obvious checklist.
3. Double Lines
   1. A couple of booths, like J Wakefield and WeldWerks, did not enforce any kind of organization, and as such allowed multiple unassociated people to walk up and get pours simultaneously. This ultimately created double lines branching in two different directions, cutting off other booths in two directions in stead of one. This in turn caused lines for in demand breweries to take twice as long to inch forward.
   2. On at least one occasion, someone noticed this was occurring, and saw that the second line was shorter than the one we were in. They grabbed all the glasses of those of us in their vicinity, got in the shorter line that was a good 50 yards away, and came back to us with the beer we were waiting for. That was awesome, but...it was also ridiculous that any of that it was permitted in the first place.
4. Missing Beers
   1. As others have mentioned, some breweries did not bring the beers they previously stated they were. One brewery had a long-time Want of mine listed, and they also did not even have a line for the first 1.5 hours. That was going to be my first drink, but they didn't end up bringing it. They brought a really awesome consolation prize, but I'd already had it before and wasn't anticipating it in the same way.
5. Unannounced Timed Tappings
   1. WeldWerks listed when they were tapping brews and that was awesome, but it wasn't really a public feature of the festival, or announced beforehand. Even for those breweries that listed their tap times, failing to provide these before the festival doesn't do anything to reduce demand or make lines more efficient. If all guest beers were available at all times it would have likely prevented some lines from swelling as much, because shortly after people realized a booth wasn't pouring something they wanted, they went to the back of the most massive lines thinking that was a good sign. For some people, they ended up spending their time in two locations and getting shut out of their desired beers at both.
6. Overselling
   1. Already mentioned.
7. Tampa Overall - there is not much CCB can do about this, or is there? But I can't be the only one thinking this:
   1. Tampa Beer Week in general is already a minor attraction, and capping it off with Huna Day just makes it a marquee. However, there is a lot going on in Tampa, and I'm sure someone from the area might have inside knowledge as to why they're trying to cram everything into this period, but I can't believe it's considered to be okay to plan all of these events on the same week. It definitely showed on the highway that the city was buckling, but at least the city remained functional, so props to that. But I mean in Cleveland we had a Bieber concert and two sports games on the same day and it basically shut downtown off from anyone trying to get in for the evening. Although Tampa seems to be able to handle this better, surely they don't want it to get that bad.
   2. On top of MLB spring training, you've got these beer events everywhere that are becoming more and more popular, an actual full scale music fest, this Fun Run we totally and rudely interrupted, the Grand Prix, Spring Break (ffs), and whatever else I missed. I mean really!? It's a bit much, no? lol!!
      
   3. All of this pulling in people from around the world certainly makes everything everywhere packed. No matter where you try to turn for even a second of peace, including many of the beaches, you are bombarded with humanity!

In any case, as far as CCB actual, they really seemed to downplay their presence at the fest this year. It's not a complaint, but their trailer was almost shy, like it was hidden, yet they had some unique, tasty brews--many once in a lifetime tastes, for those of us that don't live there. I forgot to seek them out until later in the day because they were so sporadically interspersed, with their main trailer being in a weird corner. Staying at a hotel by the brewery definitely made up for it, (Trousseau especially knocked my socks off for a barleywine--really complex and delicious), but I still enjoy having a few beers from the actual brewery at the fest.

Anyway, enough of the pluses and minuses, onto the awards, and other TBBW, non-Huna day related stuff.

I figured I'd save this for the end, as only certain people will have had the patience to last this long:

I am really, really, curious about this. Is everyone okay with this? You can't tell me everyone here on BEER ADVOCATE is happy or even just fine with a MEADERY winning best BEER AND BREWERY. LMFAO...FLORIDA! What else will you bring us? I get it, in warmer climes, lighter, brighter beverages are preferred. But this is why the Florida consumer still comes off as so confused about whether they like actual beer, or just cocktail- and milkshake- flavored beverages. With the huge popularity and footprint of flavored Berliners (which I loved, don't get me wrong), and all the bourbon barrel stouts with all the added flavorings just exploding in that scene, there's not much room left to argue about best actual brewing of actual beer. Sure a better base makes for a better finished product, but there's a ridiculous amount of masking going on with some of these beers.

I mean, are you, or anyone else, under the impression that HONEY WINE is the same as beer, and should be judged as such? Come on. It should automatically by excluded from the vote for best beers at a beer festival. I mean they're not even able to be added here on BA, if that says anything at all to you.

I'm just glad I left to pick up my bottles before they started announcing that because I would have been making some noise about that silliness. Mead has almost nothing in common with beer, and Garagiste doesn't even offer any beer, at all. Give me a break. Good for them for producing a tasty, adult peanut butter and jelly, though.

This leads me to my next question: Who votes, anyway? I really want to know. I spoke with at least 30 people while standing in lines with them, chatting over tapas, or swapping beers and taking notes, whatever. None of them voted or were even planning to. Few of them even knew about it. Most were there simply to enjoy the fest, not even caring about specific beers. It seems to me over the years these votes have leaned heavily local, and I'd hazard a guess that they mostly rely on local industry vets and patrons of these small businesses that are hoping for that shot of notoriety by "winning" at a big name event. A "competition" that really is a very minor side attraction to this event. I wonder how many votes there actually were, really. It's still odd the full list isn't out yet. I thought I remembered seeing pictures relatively soon after last year.

Agreed. We stood patiently in line for two hours and missed on everything, partly due to not wanting to cut, while watching others actually cut. If they're going to tap everything essentially on the street and actually tell everyone they're doing it, they need a better way. It's unfortunate that you can't simply taste a weekday beer when you strike on a bottle too. Was there for Friday at 9AM and was only a few people shy.

Anyway, all the Berliners--at the fest, St. Pete, and elsewhere--sure were fun and refreshing. I saw someone mention elsewhere that Ecto was done with Arkane. From what I understand, last year's CCB Taste the Rainbow was as well, and calling it Skittles is a way of trying to separate it from Arkane. Regardless, this just serves to mention that Arkane had some fucking amazing sours, from the mango hanabero Gimme Swelter, which was a bit too sweet for me and not spicy but with a nice little kick, to the black currant Disco Bloodbath saison, which I had later at their place. That blew me away. As a sidenote, it's not as though any of the traders in Florida can't already get it at their whim, but it was very similar to Arial Rubicite if that means anything to you. Not quite on that same level, but also not far off. Big compliment indeed.

 

I'm happy that Garagiste won best beer and brewery because:

1) I'm not pedantic
2) it was the best beverage I had that day

As for how to vote... you may want to sit down because this is sure to raise your ire - you voted by using the Huna day app.

 

Lol

INRAT

 

lmfao, I understand how the vote occurred. I just found no one that actually cared to do so.

Yay for best mead at the beer festival though. Woo. Go peanut butter jelly time.

 

This is March in Tampa, everyone has decided this is the month to do events. Even without events it is just busy as you have Baseball fans, spring break, and snow birds all visiting the region. But Hunahpus Day was originally scheduled to coincide with the RateBeer Winter Gathering, obviously it grew a little from that small event but the timing just never changed.

The other big events came after Hunahpus day(and some after Tampa Beer Week was started). Grand Prix use to be later but they moved it and now it happens the same weekend. The Gasparilla Music Festival was started on that weekend a year or two after Hunahpus Day started to my knowledge. Even the PGA tournament this past weekend bounced around dates before ending up around this weekend in March.

As for Beer Week, some have said it would be nice to have a different time of year but this past week just fits best. It starts off with the Florida Brewers Guild Festival and Brewers Ball(Both predate everything I said above by a long time). A great start to the week with many from the Florida beer industry coming to Tampa for the week. I have always enjoyed that weekend to catch up with friends from around the industry that I may only see once a year. And then Hunahpu's Day fit as the conclusion of beer week.

I get what you are saying but for some reason both beer people and other groups seem to keep picking this past weekend as the best date to schedule their event.