This was my first time to attend the Hilo Brewfest and I had a great time. I had just been to the Honolulu Brewer’s festival a couple months before and there are a few comparisons I would like to make. First, I had predicted that the average age would be askew by about 20 years and I was right. Honolulu was mostly the young professional type and Hilo, the middle to older age group. Honolulu had no view even though it was very close to the ocean while Hilo had the best view of the bay and surroundings one could ask for. Honolulu had a large trailer type porta potty and Hilo had real bath rooms that were nice and a part of the executive center where the venue was held. Honolulu had one hand pump, warm drinking water station and Hilo had Pepsi handing out free, chilled bottled water and soft drinks. Honolulu was more expensive by about $40 a ticket but did have $20 ticket for non-drinkers which Hilo did not. The band at Honoulu had no sound man and was murder on the ears. Hilo had it properly balanced and the three bands were good and thankfully, no Jawaiian reaggae, which I hate. Two were rock bands and the middle band was country. Hilo won the comparison!
All in all, I enjoyed my home town event a lot more than the Honolulu festival. When the clouds came over about an hour in, the shade made it cooler and nicer than the heat we endured waiting to be let in. The VIP’s got an hour head start for the extra $30 per ticked and they kept the rest of us out in the heat until the very second the clock hit 2PM.
The food booths had some very interesting offerings and I think we tried them all. One favorite was Aloha Monday’s, where we frequent often in town. It is a take out only, changed weekly menu, with a great chef at the helm. I plan to do a piece on them soon.
The beers were well represented by local brewers and imports from California and Canada. Sapporo was there too but in bottle form for Sapporo USA [made in Canada].
I had some favorites but I didn’t take pen and paper to muse on the nuances of flavor and aroma. Too many beers and too muddled in the brain after a few good ones, to be so anal about it. I of course took good pictures of the write up and glass for each. I found one great double stout that I tried and liked but poured out after a few sips. At 9% abv, it was just too hard on the bod at that point to finish. I took my wife, who doesn’t drink, so I had double the tickets to play with. I could afford to dump some and still get all the ones I wanted to try. Those are the basics and I will continue next time with the pictures and reviews of the great beers I tried.
Here is some video from the brewfest.
[s3vpp id=8542a52a3a42c4a39f756f9361b03ee4]
[s3vpp id=a32b323b5d568559ec843561cdf2f5a7]
Leave a Reply