HOP
JAM
2015
More than a beer festival
By Phill Andrews
Photos by Kelly Brinza
B
en Franklin once said, “Beer is proof that God
wants man to be happy,” and the weather for
the 2nd annual Hop Jam seemed to echo those
thoughts precisely.
Hop Jam returned to Bolton Valley, VT on August 22, 2015 for a second round of good tunes, great
food and amazing beer.
The sun baked off early morning clouds and the
day stayed cool enough to enjoy all those high-alcohol super hoppy IPAs without feeling like you were
going to pass out. The music was as eclectic as the
beer offerings, and Hop Jam 2015 kicked off with
Rough Francis, a high-energy punk quintet from
Burlington.
Rough Francis’ groove was actually far more
intoxicating than those early afternoon pints.
The sound was immediately gratifying, with hard
charging bass riffs and air-drum inducing percussions; their music is incredibly raw yet polished
enough to start the festival off.
To call Hop Jam a beer festival is a little mistaken. Despite having libations from over a dozen
brewers from Vermont, Massachusetts and beyond,
event organizer Meg Shultz of Meg’s Events envisioned a music festival that had great beer, rather
than a beer festival with music as an afterthought,
or a great music lineup with overpriced pints from
one or two vendors.
Shultz said, “I would rather have a great festival
than a large one.” Schultz reported that last year
Hop Jam sold about 800 advance tickets online,
while this year the number grew to 1300.
“We just came to drink beer with our fellow brewers and friends from Vermont and Massachusetts,”
said Matt, a brewer from Trillium. “We’re not looking to break into any new markets; we can’t even
keep up with demand where we are, but a beautiful,
sunny day in Vermont with great music, how can
you pass that up?”
One of the improvements made over last year
was the addition of “beer curators.” Each of the
brewers loaded all of their kegs onto one truck, and
the curators and the excellent volunteer staff handled the rest. The curators worked carefully to keep
Russ Lawton of Soule Monde
Ryan Montbleau and Friends
36 • CIDER MAG • cidermag.com
Winter • 2015