The wife and I paid (literally) a visit to Hop Juice Fest on Saturday. It was a nice day, and the new Roundhouse location in Aurora is a great spot for Two Brothers, but this thing was just way too overpriced and left me feeling very disappointed.

Two Brothers is using this event to market their products, so you shouldn't make your visitors feel like they are being gouged. $6/beer at an event where your beer is exclusively being served is just too much. The food was equally overpriced, and just awful.

I would have probably had a better time if this was a $30-all you can drink beer fest. Instead, the wife and I dropped a shit load of money, and left disappointed.

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Glad to hear she made it home on the train ok.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Wish I could have made it, but maybe I didn't miss anything. The beer cost probably offsets the fact that a lot paid only $5 admission to see the Jayhawks.

You should have smuggled in some Miller Lite.

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It seemed kind of pointless to book that "big" of an act for something like this. They could have easily stuck with all the bad cover bands they had playing all day, and still probably attracted the same amount of people. Also, we didn't even stay for the Jayhawks, because after being there for about 5 hours, we had already dropped about $80. We would have stayed alot longer if this was an all you can drink event and I would have been fine paying a higher admission price.

The other thing that kind of disappointed me was the lack of selection of brews. Yes, there was hop juice, which was damn good, but other than that, they only had about 4 other beers to choose from.

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4 beers? They probably had more at the AVN Awards.

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I was there Friday night and had a kick ass time. We did the VIP ticket route for Friday night. 55 a piece which gave us 5 beers and access to archive beers that were not available outside such as Hop Juice 2010, Sour Mash, Circus Penguin, HJ Black 2010. They had a good dinner spread as well plus desserts inside. I felt we got a good value for our money by doing that.

We went Saturday, and the VIP pack was $85, which I thought was insane for 5 beers and a buffet.

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I'd agree that I'd be hard pressed to spend the extra 30. The price seemed right for Friday.

I've been to alot of really good beer festivals/events and none of them cost that much.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Surprisingly VIP at the Wheaton Ale Fest is 75 (which sold out)

i've heard bad things about the food at the roundhouse location. idk, the food at the warrenville one is pretty good.

One of the bartenders in Warrenville told me that there were roughly 10,000 people in attendance for the two days. He said things went smoothly because off duty Aurora cops were the security.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Yes, everything did run very smoothly, and was very well organized.

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I agree though I expected a bigger crowd on Friday for the Freddy Jones band. There was plenty of room to move and listen to the music and it never seemed to be crowded even up by the stage. They could have easily supported 10K a night if they wanted.

The food on the VIP side was good but not mind blowing with burgers, french dip, pork tacos and other foods.

Talked to my Beer Guy the other day. Hop Juice distibution is apparently very limited this year. He was limiting 2 bottles/person to start even though I had preordered about 10x that many.

So, if you see some, snatch it up.

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You know me like that.

The Tap House in Warrenville will not fill growlers of Hop Juice.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Who runs that place, Michael Bloomberg?

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I cheated on my Beer Guy and grabbed 6 more on the way home from Binny's.

They had 12 left after that. I almost bought them all but I wanted to be fair.

Grabbed some Golden Monkey also. Never had it before.

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You know me like that.

Just got back from Binny's by me. They had 3+ cases sitting on the floor.

I picked up none.

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I plan on picking up a few tomorrow. I also plan on hitting the pub in Warrenville on Saturday afternoon, to get a growler of something else to drink while I watch the US Open on Sunday.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Mine is out but they have another 9 cases showing up tomorrow morning. (hint hint HV)

Just bought two bombers at Whole Foods in Wheaton.

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Hipster.

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Thanks McNown

I grabbed a case of each at HJ Festival. I actually found the HJ Black to be a more pleasing beer than the Hop Juice so if you see the HJ Black I recommend it.

That said, I'm swinging by tonight for a few more bombers.

Don't bother. I walked over last night and it didn't come in.

The Tap House in Warrenville is out of Hop Juice as of about 7:30 last night. I got there at 9.

They still have Red Eye Coffee Porter on tap, and they have Northwind Imperial Stout in lieu of Hop Juice.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Had some Hop Juice last evening in front of the fire. It was much more mellow than I recall from the festival. I enjoyed the bottle.

After losing a court battle over the name, Hop Juice will now be known as Hop Centric. The name of their fest will be Two Brothers Summer Festival. How creative.

Friday - Old 97's
Saturday - Poi Dog Pondering

http://www.twobrosbrew.com/

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Someone else had made Hop Juice?

This fest sucked last year. Wayyyyy overpriced.

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Left Coast, from California. Quite naturally.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way