Attended the 2nd annual "For the Love of Hops" festival in Warrenville at the Two Brothers Brewery lot in June and it was as successful as the first last year. This year was an option to pay a little extra and become a VIP, with a few perks including indoor seating and bathrooming, buffet and dinner. Looked good but seemed to take away from the idea of a festival-enjoying the festival itself. For this I did not partake.But it was enjoyable for me to sample the Hop Juice plus a few extras I had not tasted yet. I started with Hop Juice, then I tried the Long Haul, an English style session bitter, followed by a Resistance IPA, another oak foudre beer, followed by Domaine Dupage with a Cane and Abel mixed in the middle. I was not so turned on by the Long Haul but I was pleased with the others, especially with the Hop Juice. It was high in alcohol and long on hops, but with a pleasantly sweet taste I did not expect.
We camped our lawn chairs at the end of the lot just past the wash-up sinks because they were the only shaded areas there, and this came in especially handy later when it started to rain. Plus, we didn't want to blow the smoke from our big stogies in everyone's faces.
Note to myself for next year: walk around the other side of the fest for food and don't settle for the soggy black bean nachos that were kind of gross. The brats they were cooking around the other side looked rather good.
Glad I went but wished it could have lasted longer. What a great thing they have going down in the SW suburbs.
