Festival Review: Hop in the City

Ouch. Ouch. Yeah, I survived another Hop in the City and I'm aching as a result. This was probably my favorite one to date. So, let me give you the run down.

This is a festival that deals with roughly "all" the beers Schlafly will make in a given year. That may not be 100% true, because they have a lot of offerings so they may not have everything there, but they do give the choice to the attendee to enjoy over 40 beers, plus a special beer made just for the festival. We will get to the beers in just a second...

The festival itself was held at their downtown St. Louis location, The Tap Room. Making their parking lot the venue, along with some shut down streets, they had tons of room. The crowds were herded to one of four lines for tickets and age verification (which I was a part of and loved). The process was as streamlined as possible, and within the first hour of the festival being open, they sold out of their tickets (damn impressive). As they moved into the festival itself on the parking lot, patrons were able to enter a large tent and partake in the beers of their choosing.

Logistics aside, plenty of water was on hand, as well as dump buckets, for rinsing out glassware. This is something I have seen overlooked in a number of other festivals and just disheartens me: I want my samples to be as true to the flavor the brewer intended, so let me rinse out my glass is all I am saying.

I also have to applaud the decision to set up a bank of taps by the front door with fresh water for drinking. I have not noticed that before in other festivals, but it really does make sense and is another one of those simple aspects that can make a festival just that little bit better.

Now, one festival readily comes to mind where water was not handled well, and in combination with July heat, there were several very skunked and animated people walking around. This made for a rather awkward bit of confrontations, which I am still hopeful were restricted to the parking lot and not the streets. Hop in the City could not have been a better contrast to this; the people that exhibited some signs of being "buzzed" were monitored and then helped when needed. As a result of the water being so prevalent, I can honestly say I did not see any altercations or "stomach pyrotechnics."

The beer, which I grew to love dearly, was not a disappointment either. The festival beer, a pumpkin stout, was smooth and tasty. I also found the Galaxy IPA they made for the Heritage Festival (one I could not attend due to timing, unfortunately) used hops from Australia that give off citrus and fruity notes, almost a passionfruit aroma; it had a very good following at the festival.

There are number of seasonal favorites that had the crowd happy, but I found myself enjoying a variety of things as a result of the best volunteers to the volunteers, the beer fairies. They made sure we as volunteers had plenty of different things to try, and that we were always happy. A serious cheers to those wonderful ladies!

Overall, I  have to say this was something I needed: a beer festival that was well laid out, organized, and executed with the goal of providing good beer to a good crowd. Now, the only trick will be how can next year's be better?

If you would like to see more info about the festival that came and went, here is the link.

As always, drink well and be merry. Slainte!