Exclusive: RIP Hunahpu’s Day – Will Go In Distribution Next Year
The Full Pint just received the following word from founder of Cigar City Brewing, Joseph Redner in regards to future Hunahpu Days.
“I have always tried with these releases to balance fairness with the reality that some people will always try to get around your best efforts at fairness because they personally deserve more. This year they got WAY around my pitiful efforts.
I am acknowledging defeat. That was the last Hunahpu Day. The beer will go into distribution next year and hopefully spread out among many accounts it will get to consumers more fairly.
To those that got shut out this year we will be working on another batch.”
Stay tuned for recap of Cigar City Hunahpu’s Day 2014 with Pics.
5 Reasons Why Tampa in March is Awesome. Like, Really Awesome. From Way Up High
March 7, 2015 @ 10:48 am
[…] Looks like Hunahpu’s Day is no more. But don’t worry, beer week lives […]
5 Reasons Why Tampa in March is Awesome. Like, Really Awesome. | From Way Up High
March 3, 2015 @ 7:01 am
[…] Looks like Hunahpu’s Day is no more. But don’t worry, beer week lives […]
Rarity and Releases | Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine
March 19, 2014 @ 6:14 pm
[…] am acknowledging defeat,” Cigar City founder Joey Redner told The Full Pint. “That was the last Hunahpu’s Day. The beer will go into distribution next year […]
March 11, 2014 @ 9:01 pm
To hell with all of you people that are bitching like crazy and bashing cigar city. Yeah the event got big and there was a glitch in the system. And $50 for all you can drink- pricy sure but still worth it. At least they’re making good by it. Blame EventBright if anyone. And “Mark” that commented on March 10th you can personally drive up to northwest Indiana and open wide for deez nuts.
March 10, 2014 @ 7:28 pm
Keep the faith Joey.. CCB is one of my favorite places to visit when down seeing the folks in Bradenton. You guys have upped everybody’s game in the craft beer business and I’m sorry this HD went down so bad…
March 10, 2014 @ 3:58 pm
Shame on you render!
Shame non you for blaming the fans and customers of cigar city brewing for your inability to host an event properly!
This is entity your fault.
It has been obvious for a few years now that hunapus day was getting too big to handle. And then you make a dumbass mistake like allowing people to easily counterfeit the tickets. And you blame that on us too!
I am not paying $10+ a six pack for your beer anymore.
Your incompetence and showing of ass on hunapus day I can forgive. But your lack of accountability and the fact that you throw your mistake in our face cannot be forgiven!
I’m done with CCB at least for a while.
What is so goddamn hard about renting a proper venue!? Especially when you charge $50 a head!
Sincerely Your Ex biggest fan.
March 10, 2014 @ 12:14 pm
Cigar City Brewery and Joey, Wayne and the entire crew at CCB brought the level of craft beer in the Tampa Bay area up to what it is today! From the 1st event in ’10 to the size it has grown to now. There is no way the brewery could ever expect that many people to show up! The tickets were sold through a 3rd party – EventBright who allowed you to print your ticket – the problem was you could print your ticket more than once and some greedy criminals printed lots and lots… CCB did not sell more than 3500 tickets – If you didn’t buy your ticket from EventBright then you probably have a duplicate… Joey has stated there will be refunds, he is brewing another batch to make sure those with wristbands get beer. He threw a party that had some of the best beers in the world and if 1000’s of people who shouldn’t have had tickets didn’t show up, you’d say this was the best event ever! I am sure people got burnt flying or driving from far and for that I am sure Joey is sick about, but think about who caused this fiasco, it was not Joey Redner. He did not counterfeit tickets. EventBrights system was flawed – and if you bought tickets from a 3rd party waited in line for 1.5 hours and then was told at the gate your ticket was not valid, how would you react? The people on the gate were probably overwhelmed. It makes me sick to see so much hatred being spewed – I don’t blame Joey for not having an event next year. Maybe if there was more support for the brewery you all love instead of pages started on FB to sue ccb there might be one next year. Joey Redner is doing what is right by offering refunds and making more beer – maybe if there are indictments handed down to those who cheated – you’d realize who is at fault.
March 10, 2014 @ 11:45 am
Whale releases can be orderly. Reference 3Floyds Dark Lord and Founders KBS (along with other Backstage Releases). Name on ticket matches person holding ticket=no reselling. Simple. MEGA-demand? More days to pick it up. Simple.
Hold a beerfest apart from the bottle release and see how much easier life gets.
CCB has created a good thing and just needs to figure out how to make it manageable. I think they just took one large step in the right direction.
March 10, 2014 @ 11:37 am
This was my third time attending Hunahpu’s Day. Cigar City and Mr.Redner got taken by the small group of BAD folks who ran the fake tickets. It was noticeable just by the sheer number of people inside the CC grounds versus just last year.
My wife and I never were able to get our beer as the crowd was getting out of control and at that point it was not worth the potential problems and the continued cussing and pushing from the chosen few who intended to wreak havoc.
Cigar City and Mr. Redner, Thanks So Much for attempting to put forth a great day, you did your best.
March 10, 2014 @ 11:36 am
This was my third time attending Hunahpu’s Day. Cigar City and Mr.Redner got taken by the small group of BAD folks who ran the fake tickets. It was noticeable just by the sheer number of people inside the CC grounds versus just last year.
My wife and I never were able to get our beer as the crowd was getting out of control and at that point it was not worth the potential problems and the continued cussing and pushing from the chosen few who intended to wreak havoc.
Cigar City and Mr. Redner, Thanks So Much fir attempting to put forth a great day, you did your best.
March 10, 2014 @ 10:43 am
The larger the crowd, the more D-bags are in it. I swear, the craft beer scene is beginning to resemble a crowd of angry moms raging to get their Beanie Babies. …or maybe it’s just a Florida thing. Many of those people aren’t even going to taste the beer they bought(or scammed). They’re gonna put it in a closet for a couple years and then try to sell it on eBay for several hundred dollars. They won’t appreciate it….they’ll just turn it around for profit like it was a baseball card. Pretty sad.
….and to the idiots who were chanting “Cigar City sucks”…..well if they suck so bad, why the hell were you standing in line for hours? …oh yeah, that’s right…to sell it on eBay.
March 10, 2014 @ 10:39 am
This sums it up right; “Hire competent organizers to run next year’s event? Nah fuck it, we’ll just take our ball and go home.”
For as much as Huna day brings in, even tossing some chump change around for better security, better ticketing scanners and a better… well, lay out that a planner would come up with, the event could go great.
And I don’t like that they’re just blaming “those scalping assholes” Who is the one who decided, after members bitched about names being attached to tickets, that it wasn’t needed? They created this perfect storm of easily replicated tickets. Not to mention what seems like an unaccountable amount of ticket sales that it doesn’t seem like they knew how many actually were sold/given to brew crews/etc.
March 10, 2014 @ 8:43 am
That’s it, move the fist fights to the retail outlets where people still won’t be able to get the beer.
March 10, 2014 @ 7:35 am
Hi guys, I’m from Pennsylvania and I’ve been at Cigar City brewery
and Love it!! Didn’t get a chance to be at Hunahpus day(no ticket for me)
but I’ve tried. All the beers are great !!
Point; maybe you know but if you guys do this event in a maner
like 3Floyds brewery do,just maybe! You wouldn’t have this problem
It’s on their website check it out. All luck to y’all and see you soon.
March 10, 2014 @ 7:32 am
You really can not blame the people at the event though. Cigar City allowed everything to get out of hand by running the event in an extremely poor manner. If only those with legitimate tickets got in there probably would have been enough for everyone. If there were appropriate lines and line management then people would not have been getting cases before 4.
The mismanagement of this event is shocking. Cigar City is simply throwing in the towel and admitting they can not run an event of this magnitude correctly.
March 10, 2014 @ 7:30 am
It is a sad day when the best intents and WORST planning allow for the disruption by CCB’s own failures and the criminal element (yes, it WAS only a small amount of counterfeit tickets, the crux of the problem is CCB’s complete failure to study past events and anticipate possible issues from masses of drunk people being denied what they were guaranteed). And to have “talented” volunteers cursing at the upset patrons? Well, let’s just add that to the list of many failures that day.
This blame here lays squarely on the pure stupidity of CCB. What’s even worse is the new jerk reaction to cancel it instead of figuring out a way to make it a world class event that could bring in tons of revenue for themselves and the city. But I guess that if CCB is truly blaming this on a few counterfeit tickets, and not their own failures, the event is best left cancelled.
March 10, 2014 @ 7:05 am
That’s too bad to hear, I will share my experience (which was 95% positive):
It was my first year there (I drove down from Atlanta), I booked at a hotel nearby, I got in line early (waited in line at 10:30 AM, got in the gate at 11 AM). I noticed their ticket scanning system wasn’t working well, but they ‘pretended’ to scan it (I think, I couldn’t really tell). They told me my 3 bottles were guaranteed until 4 PM and after 4 PM, you could buy additional bottles if any extras were left.
Once in the gate at 11 AM, there were some long lines (Toppling Goliath and a couple others) but not many, most lines were immediate. I was able to have between 30 – 40 sample beers between 11 AM and 4 PM (plenty for me), and many nice random strangers were sharing bottle pours with me all morning. I was having a fun time!
I got in line to get my 3 Hunahpu bottles at 12 PM, strategizing to go in line while some people were at lunch. The line was only 5 minutes long and I got my 3 bottles easily for $60 cash. I went in line again at 4 PM and got 1 more bottle, the line was 40 minutes long at that time.
The only DISAPPOINTMENTS for me were MINOR, and were as follows:
1) In the afternoon, people were getting a little rowdy due to the sun and the increased crowd size (and the alcohol, of course).
2) Many special releases I was looking forward to were held until 1 PM
3) Of the 40+ cigar city beers on the list, I only had about 5 of them. I couldn’t find the other 35, and Cigar City was the main reason I went to the festival. Perhaps a cigar city (ONLY) fest in the future would be worth going to, and it would be nice if they published how many bbls / kegs of each beer is present, so guests can strategically choose what they want to wait in line for and what they want to give up.
4) The crowd seemed larger than 3,500, which means someone probably made beaucoup $$$ reselling tickets.
5) I wish I had known the tasting room was open and free on Sunday, but this is not something I can ‘expect’ – and even though I missed this I think it was very generous of them.
Normally I’d be more upset about #3 above, but I had so many other amazing beers that I couldn’t have possibly had any more.
I would definitely go back. Perhaps those who are bitter should consider that someone is refunding 3,500 tickets * $50 ($175,000). Any brewery who hosts thousands of people for free beer and ends up choosing to leave $175,000 on the table is humble and is good in my book. In fact, getting $50 back that I didn’t expect to get back is icing on the cake for me.
Overall, the experience was great – it was the best beer festival I’ve ever been to. I especially liked that I got to try many sours I never would have been able to try otherwise.
March 10, 2014 @ 6:58 am
The beer scene in America has gotten big, and anything that gets big in America always seems to be taken over by hipster dbags. The beer scene is getting stupid. If you feel the need to scam a brewery just so you can get a beer, you’re a pathetic human being. I don’t blame Cigar City for doing away with this event. America has an amazing and vibrant beer scene that came out of nothing. But of course, as a society we’ll ruin it because that’s just what we do. I’ve noticed that for forums on Beeradvocate have been mostly taken over by hipster dbags too. Trying to trade beers these days is a terrible experience.
March 10, 2014 @ 6:55 am
There was a LOT of issues that should have have taken place at an event of this caliber. Tickets were not scanned for starters. My QR code ticket was looked at and they let me pass. I don’t know a single human being that can LOOK AT A QR code and know what it represents…….
When myself and others in my party got our wrist bands we were told to come at 4pm to get our three beers so we wouldn’t have to carry them around all day. MAJOR misinformation that a staff member, volunteer or otherwise, should not have been telling people.
From what I saw, and others told me, there were people getting their three, then waiting in the front of the line to then get a case. They should have been going to the back of the line so others could keep getting their three. There was little to no line management, and nothing was sectioned off to show where a line should have been.
It really seems that a lot of the basics of running an event of any magnitude were completely ignored. How can you completely skip over ensuring only those with legitimate tickets get in? How can staff be so ill informed that they pass on bad information? How could there be no guidance on how to wait in line?
March 10, 2014 @ 6:45 am
Carol, that’s the problem. They used volunteers for an event that brought in 175k in ticket sales alone.
There was no order to the chaos, not even simple line ropes. People got cases before 3pm, they could have stopped that.
There were about 4 cops total, they needed more security and organization and none of this would have been nearly as bad.
March 10, 2014 @ 6:42 am
Thanks a lot all you aholes who screwed this up….hope you are happy….actually that’s not what I hope but I figure that wouldn’t get published
March 10, 2014 @ 6:36 am
It is a sad day when the best intents and best planning are disrupted by the criminal element (yes, it IS criminal to counterfeit tickets, and jump over fences to get into a paid event!)
I was there and coordinated some talented volunteers alongside of a dedicated Cigar City Brewing team of staff who did a yeoman’s job of ensuring that the behavior of the burgeoning (and increasingly drunken) crowd did not result in injuries or death. I, for one, will continue to support Cigar City Brewing and the Tampa Bay brewing industry – it could happen to any group planning an event where free flowing alcohol was involved.
Thank goodness this was a TASTING event instead of full pint pours, who knows what might have happened.