Hunahpu Day 2016

Is this based on years prior to the 2015 edition? Because if so I'd caution you (and anyone else) against judging what Hunahpu Day now is or could be based on what happened in previous years.

Did you attend Brewvival this past year? I went to both, and everything at Hunahpu Day was better other than the amount of time it took to get in, if that provides any context.

 

So I've never attended one of these, and my girlfriends family lives in Tampa so I have a place to stay. There are a lot of mixed reviews. Overall is it worth a fast weekend trip driving from Raleigh,NC?

 

Score! Looks like I'll be at the Lightning game the night before; thanks for the heads up. Staying at Embassy, essentially same price.

 

Knock 2 birds out with one stone, let her visit her family and you go to the festival.

 

Agreed. Huna 2015 was by far the best year since it was a tiny thing no one had heard of. I'm happy to have people stay home and leave more beer for me, but I expect this to be great.

 

Do they have a DD ticket option?

 

I think that, since they're moving it to an entirely new venue, it'll be very hard compare the 2016 version to those of previous years EXCEPT for the fact I truly believe CCB tries its very best to put on a first-rate event. One thing that hasn't been discussed yet is whether bottles will be distributed at an off-site location. My bet -- which is worth nothing, to be sure -- is that they won't be.

Hunahpu's Day has been a lot of fun. I'd say that it's a great weekend to come down -- especially since you have a place to stay -- since it's the tail end of Tampa Bay Beer Week and you can't throw a rock around here without hitting a worthwhile event. Look forward to seeing you!

PS -- As far as DD tickets: No idea. They didn't do DD tix (at least as far as I recall) when the event was on-site; perhaps the new arrangement (particularly if bottle sales are divorced from the festival itself) will be more amenable to that idea.

 

100% agree with the above, and even the year before which was deemed a big failure in many peoples eyes CCB provided a refund and still plenty of beer. I've been to the last 4, and the crowd and demand was getting out of hand each year and CCB just didn't figure it out until it was too late for the 2014 edition. But this past one was awesome. The cost of the ticket, eliminated a lot of the complainers and people who just wanted to "be seen". And that left a bunch of awesome people and the best beer selection at a festival I've seen. It was still crowded, and a couple of lines to wait in briefly, but you also 2 minute waits to get phenomenal beers. I hope that they don't make it too big this year and keep the all inclusive price and try to land the same quality beer. I wouldn't shy away based on previous reviews.

 

I'll be happy as long as the lines look like actual lines and not clusters of people. Some of the flows of the lines this past year looked like Disney had a role in creating them. Other than that, it was fantastic. So glad it's going to be in a much more open space.

 

I hope they don't have a smelly tent in the back again this time. My husband dragged me to the back for all the bottles that people brought. It was cool tasting them, though I'm still not sure why people would bring beer to a beer festival, but it smelled awful in there!

 

I apologize for that. I suspect it was the Hunahpu cookie.

 

Would you say that Hunahpu day was vastly superior to Brewvival? I've always had an excellent time at Brewvival and feel it is one of the better fests I attend. It's a 5 hour drive for me and I don't think twice about it.

 

It was way better. The only real lines at Huna Day were for the total whalish stout ticks, so if you didn't care about that you could drink to your heart's content. And the selection and overall quality of the beer was far superior. The no-lines booths at Brewvival were for the mediocre SC breweries like River Rat and shelf junk like Coronado. At Huna Day you could drink stuff like Boneyard Notorious, Kane ANTEAD, stuff from Lost Abbey, all the non-barrel-aged CCB, etc. with zero wait.

 

Most of the barrel aged CCB stuff had little to no wait as well.

 

Yeah I imagine so, I just didn't venture into that area until way later in the day. There were still a few things on. Heck, even the 3 Sons wait never took me longer than about 15 minutes, and Wakefield never more than 5. At Brewvival it was like a 30 minute, 300 person line for 2oz pours of CBS.

 

Yeah, when the worst lines all day are for Toppling Goliath, 3 Sons, and CCB for DB Huna and other assorted barrel aged rarities, and those lines are like 15 minutes, that's a pretty great festival in my book.

 

Agreed. Hope they don't ruin it by making it bigger. THAT would suck. They should be a little paranoid after their past history........unless they want to see more of the famous "Cigar City Sucks!" video.

 

Any idea on the cost for 2016?

 

Nope. They truly haven't released any information other than the date and location.

 

You've sold me @PurdueBrewCrew. Thanks for the input!