VT HopJam 2016

I was regretting not attending this event this year ... but that was before I read these posts and everything on social media today. People calling it a waste of money, a joke and the "worst beer festival ever."

They had a lot of negative comments via visitor posts on their Facebook page as well. I just went over there again now to see if any more had come in ... and all of them are missing. It's certainly possible that folks deleted their posts, but I wonder if the Facebook page admins for the Hop Jam page had something to do with that.

They can't get rid of the comments on Twitter though and those are brutal too. Kind of shocked the organizers haven't posted anything themselves on social media all day.

 

I am now officially worried about Copenhagen.

 

Please no! That one I am actually going to ...

 

Same organizers?

 

No. The company putting on Copenhagen is the same company that does Boston Calling. As far as I know, there is no connection to the company (Meg's Events) that put on Hop Jam.

 

Mount Snow has a pretty good beerfest on Labor Day.

 

Then it's unfair/irrational to worry about Copenhagen because of this. There are also plenty of extremely well run beer fests...

 

So, a day later I can look back and say I had a pretty fun time. It wasn't what i expected, I didn't do what I hoped to do, and I paid way too much and won't do again. But I caught a good buzz and met some nice people. My goal was to try Trillium, Tree House, Bissel and Foundation. I did get a Foundation, but never even sniffed the others. I lucked out with the Foundation, if I got in line two minutes sooner I would have been shut out of all four of the breweries I wanted. Once I got over being pissed off and settled in I made the best of it.

For those who don't know how this works, and I didn't even know when I was in line for the first time-you get in a 30 minute or so line and make your way to the front where I believe six (or eight?) offerings are being tapped. Unless you walk to the front of the line to see what's
being tapped, you don't know whats being offered. And it doesn't matter since there will be different beers by the time you get there. There is a "gone but not forgotten" board outside the tent listing the kegs that have been kicked.

Main problem was everyone wanting the DIPAs for the hottest six or seven breweries- including the breweries I mentioned. So as people mentioned - people at the front of the line started stalling, waiting for a keg to kick and hoping for a better keg to be tapped. I have to admit, I can tell you it was a lousy feeling to get up there after waiting half an hour, look at the choices, and actually consider buying a Sierra Nevada or Otter Creek pale ale -nice beers but I didn't pay $43 (with no beer tickets) to get beer I can get anywhere. Especially knowing a beer you've been wanting could be tapped as soon as you leave and would likely be gone
before you get through the line again. I was half way through the line when a Bissel DIPA was tapped but I didn't even get close. Especially when people started buying two, which I did after a while. I'm not even sure if that was legal, the whole thing was confusing.

I had a Lawsons, a Foundation, two Singlecuts (which were best of show in my opinion and got me out of my bad mood) and Two Masterminds which were much better than the cans I've had this year. All in all a nice afternoon of drinking. I stayed for three and a half hours and the crowd was getting pretty buzzed - the line manipulation was getting worse. Maybe things got better later. The bands were good. The food decent. Employees nice. Good beer, good buzz, but next year I think I'd rather drink at the Waterbury bars. I just don't think the set up they have going will please most people.

 

More posts on this shitshow please.

I skipped this year because last year had too many cons (for me) to go again

BIP last year was nice (Good Morning) but the same type of thing happened with line-campers/cutters.

I don't understand why they stuck us on a tiny patch of hillside, was not comfortable

Also, the vans home were way late and oversold

Sounds like the right choice to skip this year

 

Not the Coornhagen organizers, but they are the organizers of Siptemberfest.

 

Great so Tree House pulled out of Copenhagen for another one of these guys fests?

 

Very happy I didn't go this year. 2014 was a great fest: bands, beer, were all great and a BIP ticket meant something.

Last year the it felt like the only thing the BIP ticket got you was a T-Shirt.

The organizers didn't send out an email to me announcing the event this year, which I think was the start of their problems.

They've lost me for future events.

 

I live 30 minutes away and didn't know about it until this week. And I'm a beer guy.

 

Was a rough start to the event. I think the only thing that didn't need improving was the dumplings. Oh, weather was perfect too. Everything that wasn't right is VERY easy to fix for next year. Workers were awesome, but didn't have the proper guidance.

I did mange to use all my tickets. Still up in the air whether or not I go next year. Organizers, feel free to shoot me a message to get my $.02 on improvements I see.

 

That's unfortunate. I hadn't heard they dropped out. Still plenty of other great breweries though that I usually can't get in Mass.! Looking forward to it.

 

The big problem from my perspective is the same thing was said after Hop Jam 2015. Based on what I've seen in this thread, those issues didn't get better or even stay the same, they apparently got worse.

 

So now imagine how you'd feel if you bought BIP tix, still didn't get the beers you mentioned you wanted and could not order 2 beers at a time like the GA side was able to do. Zero benefits to buying a BIP ticket.

 

Unless each brewery has it's own line, I won't go back. The idea of waiting on line for a half an hour with a high risk of having to buy a beer you don't want or not buying a beer and getting back in a half hour line (and risk getting chumped again) seems ridiculous.

I'd also limit one beer person at a time. This may actually have been a rule but it wasn't enforced. I say this after I got two Singlecut DIPAS and two Masterminds that absolutely saved the show from being a real dud for me.

And I have no idea where my $43 went. Even buying tickets was a long process because only a few people were selling tickets.

 

I saw plenty of people in the BIP area getting two at a time. For a while I thought that was a BIP perk. I don't know if anyone knew the rules, or if there were any.

The BIPs did seem even more angry than the GA commoners though. Plenty of them jumped in the GA line.

 

We came from Tennessee. Got shut out on everything we really wanted but Headroom, which was so great it almost made up for standing in line for hours. The food, location, and bathrooms were fine. We met lots of wonderful people. But, as everyone else has said, the beer distribution plan was just awful.