Update: Video footage of the moment Cigar City ran out of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout.
Update 2: Now issuing refunds. See update at the bottom.
Update 3: Another video taken when they ran out.
Update 4: GoPro video showing the more docile side of the fest.
(Tampa, FL) – Nightmare on West Spruce Street. According to Cigar City Brewing, things did not go so well at Saturday’s annual Hunahpu’s Day release event.
Maximum attendance was set at 3,500 people. Anecdotally, many around social media claimed that it felt like actual attendance exceeded that.
Cigar City posted a photo of the sea of people. Instagram user, Ryan Houston, chipped in with a video clip showing what the line was like going down the street.
Below, Cigar City apologized on its social media pages on Saturday afternoon…
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So, today did not go as expected. We realize that there were a lot of issues with duplicate tickets, way too long waits in lines, and all of that. We can promise 100% that we are going to make it right, whether it be refund, or whether we brew a batch of beer that we will bottle and make completely free to all attendees that had issues today. We’re completely sorry for all issues that happened today. It really sucked. We completely understand how much it sucked and hate how much it sucked. We don’t want it to suck ever again. We will do what we can to make it right.
If you have your silver Hunahpu’s Day wristband, please save it, we will find a way to compensate you for this day.
As we figure out how to make up for the nightmare that happened today, we’d line to start with this mea culpa: all draft beer in the tasting room tomorrow will be FREE. We will not charge a dime for any beers served in the tasting room tomorrow. We are going to try and tap all of the remaining kegs leftover from today, too.
However we will still be hyper vigilant about over serving people who are intoxicated.
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Sunday Update:
Regarding Hunahpu’s Day:
If you purchased a ticket to Hunahpu’s Day directly through Eventbrite.com, you will automatically be refunded your money. We will begin these refunds starting tomorrow.
If you paid for your ticket with cash or credit card in person, please email [email protected] and we will directly communicate with you to determine the best way to get your money back.
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BeerPulse Note: If 3,500 tickets are being refunded, that is $175,000.
I was in attendance, and posted a mini-rant afterwards. It was mostly directed at those in attendance, though. While Cigar City did make some mistakes, the behavior of many of those in attendance was inexcusable.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10152255120950126&id=661360125
Great Beer, Bad Event!
I was there & my take is basically that they need to move to a bigger venue
http://knittles.ticklefish.org/2014/03/08/hunahpu-day-2014/
Thanks for sharing, Esme. Just retweeted.
This year and last year sucked
I didn’t write it up anywhere else, but here’s my experience – this was my first Hunahpu’s Day, so I don’t have anything else to compare it to, but I got a close parking space, waited in a short line to get in, and a short line to get my 3 bottles – however, I arrived at CCB around 10:30 am. Didn’t plan for it to happen that way, came up from Sarasota, had to pick up a friend and make a few stops on the way, so I left home a little earlier than I had originally planned and got there when I did. The overflow lot was already full but we were directed to a City of Tampa building about a block away and parked for free. The line to get in was only from the front gate of CCB to the corner of Spruce and Grady and it was only a few minutes to get in. We wandered the area for a little bit to see what was where since nothing went on sale until 11, and ended up waiting in the bottle line. The 3 of us had our bottles by about 11:05 or so, took them back to the car, and came back to start sampling. We avoided most of the very long lines, the longest one we waited in was for Funky Buddha’s Maple Bacon Porter, and we got right back in the same line to get Barley Mow’s S’mores Imperial Stout. Line was long but moved fast. Around 1 o’clock it got so congested that the people cutting through lines to get to other lines couldn’t move, so the lines themselves weren’t moving either. I had gotten to sample pretty much everything I had intended to try, so we headed out. Took a look at that line stretching down Grady – I don’t know what the actual number of people inside and the ones still waiting in line was, but there definitely wasn’t room for all of them to come in, whatever it was. While my experience was nothing but positive, I had to get there early, against advice, to have it, and that was honestly pure dumb luck. A different, bigger venue would definitely be a huge improvement, as well as fixing whatever the duplicate ticket issue was. Maybe making it a multi-day event should be considered as well. All in all, every beer I tried today was from a brewery I’d never had before and I got to meet a lot of pretty cool people, both brewers and customers alike. I must’ve left before the near-fights happened and didn’t observe any inappropriate behavior, but I’m not surprised that either of those may have happened.
Wow… I wasn’t happy at all with the lack of station management and poor coordination of tapping times, but it sounds like I didn’t get it anywhere near as bad as others. My girlfriend and I came for a few certain beers and not only did we not get them, we couldn’t even find them! The pourers had no idea what was going on. we asked 3 people at the terrapin station when a certain beer was being tapped. two had no idea, and one sent us on a wild goose chase with false info only for us to find out they tapped it mere minutes later. We missed it completely. Unless you showed up an hour early (which CCB said not to do) you pretty much had to forget targeting any specific beers and just get what you could. We did get our bottles, and despite missing what we came for, did drink some great beer, but after waiting over an hour to get in, it did feel like we got a bit screwed.
We, like many, drove a long way for this thing (10 1/2 hrs for us). The only reason we decided to come is because this was supposed to be smooth & hassle-free this year with the ticket situation. What wasteful nightmare this turned out to be.
Didn’t make it, as I’m currently deployed overseas, but what I want to know is, how long is this beer going to be available for, and where can I get some when I get back (Nov., Jacksonville area)?
The event was an unmitigated disaster from preplanning, through execution, to close.
First, the CCB employee who goes by Gunhaver on BeerAdvocate.com, adamantly insisted that no one should or would need to arrive early and line up for the event. Not listening, I arrived at 10:10 and was in the event (which started at 11 officially) by 10:30. Those who arrived later, as instructed, were often still waiting in line at 1:30 and 2:00, just to be admitted to the event.
The event was way oversold and there is no way only 3500 people were in attendance.
Lines were disorganized, employees rude, and no clear indicators of what was being poured at each station.
People allowed to buy full cases of El Catador releases; people unable to purchase their three “guaranteed” bottles of Hunahpu.
Total train wreck. But, at least they did have enough toilets this year.
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My take on this is that beer nerds are part of the problem. It blows my mind what people will do for a stupid special release beer. Im sure its an outstanding beer but driving 10 hrs or flying in for this event is silly.
Flying or driving 10 hrs may be silly but these people PAID for tickets to the event and should get what was promised to them, ENOUGH SAID. This is far from a case of beer nerd entitlement. If a consumer purchases a product they are by definition are entitled to said product and all stipulations along with that sale. Thankfully cigar city is going above and beyond to try to remedy the situation
This is why I stay the hell away from pretty much all beer release events. It’s almost always a clusterf—… and as much as I love beer, I’m simply not willing to stand in line for hours for a pint or a bottle or whatever. Nope, nuh-uh, no way.
Clearly, there were major planning errors here. We have a review, photos, and our perspective on some of the rumors here:
http://www.abvchicago.com/?p=357
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