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I really enjoyed The taste of Hollywood Expo Alfresco. It certainly did not hurt that it was in my backyard; just an easy walk over. Of course I always love the opportunity to do these types of events with the SFLHops crew too!
Expo Alfresco was definitely one of the most causal laid back festival experiences. Even with tickets in hand, there were no lines to wait in. In fact, I have never seen a festival set up like this before in which anyone from the public could walk right through; it was not a gated/fenced off area. However, you had to present your ticket to receive a wristband, plate and utensils.
Everything was extremely causal and there were never any lines to wait in to receive food or beverages. I felt all of the food and beverage offerings were excellent! The value for $35 was well worth it but I would still like to see more food offerings next year.
As a beer connoisseur, I was elated to spend the majority of my time in the “beer garden”. It was funny because when I entered the festival and received my wristband, I began to ask where all of the beer vendors were. I think I only got two words of my question out before the woman pointed toward the back and smiled as she knew I was part of the beer community.
I was very impressed with the amount of breweries serving their beer at such a small festival. Definitely a great turnout of brewers and their wonderful selections of beer. The boys at Hollywood Brewing seemed more interested in flirting with the girls than talking beer, but everyone else was really great.
Descarga is one of my favorites and I always enjoy how they bring new offerings to each festival. I think they hit a home run with their Guasssaap!! guava wheat ale. Descarga always does wonderful, unique flavors with fruit and always come up with the most creative names with beers like Papi Chulo and Flo-Rye_Da.
The Orangle Blossom Brewing offerings were great too with Matt offering four varieties. Their Orangle Blossom Squared at 11% was one of my favorites of the night!
It was great to finally put a face to the name with Bobby Gordash and his Holy Mackerel beers. You can tell how passionate he is about his beers and I look forward to his opening of a brewery soon!
It’s always a pleasure to see Greg from 26 Degrees. He’s also very passionate about his beers and brewery and brought out his award winning Ziko’s Rage along with the delicious IPA1A.
The Florida Beer Company also made an appearance and you can’t go wrong with some of that Swamp Ape DIPA action!