Portland sees its first full scale fresh hop fest, and well what do you expect, they oversold the hell out of it. I think the organizers grossly underestimated turn out, and if they didn't it was a cruel joke.
Me, being the beer geek I am, always show near opening, so thankfully they had everything still available. Sadly anyone arriving at, well lets say a normal beer drinking hour (maybe you had lunch first and arrived at say 2pm), arrived to empty taps and long arse lines. I just don't understand advertising a beer fest and running out of most of your beers half way through, poor planning? or were they thinking.. the hop heads of Portland probably won't turn out for a hop festival? come on really... I hope they refunded people.
I'm an introvert and don't like crowds, I show up opening day to festivals so my agoraphobic tendencies don't get the best of me, and I could only stand about an hour of this fest, even at opening, people crammed into the front parking lot showing all to well the desperate need for a full on fall beer festival between OBF and the Holiday Ale Festival.
Sure there were some nice beers, most of which I had the Hood River fest, I thought the Laurelwood Fresh Nuggs really stood out and the Deschutes Fresh Hop Mirror Pond was very subpar. Overall I just want to see a fall beer festival on the size scale of Holiday Ale or Spring beer... Please?
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