Coming up on June 18 will be a new festival for the Tampa Bay area, the Hoptomic Bitter Beer & Food Festival. The venue will be the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts (formerly the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center) in downtown Tampa. The man behind the festival, Matt Abdoney is currently lead account manager of craft and specialty brands at distributor JJ Taylor.
Matt said he began is “heavy beer-geekness” in 2001 on the RateBeer.com site, researching the beers he found tasty and interesting. He soon befriended the owner of RateBeer.com and offered to help administrate the Southern U.S. “for content and authenticity,” he said. “Pro-bono of course.”
In 2003, Matt accepted a sales position for Unique Beers, a small independent wholesaler of craft and specialty beers and one of only three such distributors in Florida at the time. His sales territory stretched from Pasco County to Naples.
In 2007, JJ Taylor purchased Unique Beers, and that’s how Matt arrived at his present position.
“J.J. Taylor’s Craft & Specialty beer portfolio is truly one of the more amazing of any one wholesaler in the entire country,” Matt wrote in an email. “I do consulting for hundreds of On-Premise & Off-Premise retailers to help them better embrace and educate their staff and Craft & Specialty beer consumers. I also assist J.J. Taylor FL in the prospect and attainment of new Craft & Specialty brewers for distribution in Florida; and serve in the success of growing and building brands in our marketplace.”
Matt was kind enough to answer a few questions about the Hoptomic festival.
Beer in Florida: How did the Hoptomic Festival come about?
Matt Abdoney: I have been involved in organizing several dozens of beer festivals for upwards of 11 years. I have been working with and around major “hopheads” every day for these many years. I see how passionate these hoppy beer adoring folks are about their craving. Thus, I began working on a hoppy beer festival concept in my head and slowly putting onto paper over the course of several years. Hoppy beer sales; IPA and Pale Ale particularly, have been leading the craft consumer trends for many years, and the integration of local independent retailers was the natural fit. I have long envisioned using Tampa’s STRAZ Center as the venue and philanthropy to donate to; it is a remarkable venue and a critical part of the Bay Area’s community. Then at last, JJ Taylor FL gave me the green light to move forward.
BiF. Landing Sierra Nevada as the major sponsor seems to be quite a coup. What’s the story there?
MA: Sierra Nevada Brewery was certainly the most natural fit to sponsor HOPTOMIC 2011. I work closely with Sierra Nevada every day and we have a great relationship together. They are one of the largest craft brewers in America and in JJ Taylor’s beer portfolio. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was an enormously revolutionary beer. At 37 IBUs, it was considered an “extreme brew” when it was first brewed 30 years ago! Pale Ale was followed by brews like Bigfoot Barleywine, Celebration, Torpedo IPA and their fresh-hop Harvest brew. Sierra Nevada is just a remarkable and time-honored, trend-setting brewery. For all intents and purposes, we asked Sierra Nevada very nicely to be the HOPTOMIC 2011 title sponsor, and fortunately for us, they accepted.
BiF: When attendees walk in the door at the Straz Center, what will they see?
MA: The Straz Center is a beautiful venue; a large open area, glass walled from floor to ceiling on the west side along the river. There will be nearly 40 booths pouring beer and/or serving small portions of food all along the perimeter of the venue. Hoppy beers will be flowing en masse, and a live band will fill the air with some bluesy rock tunes. There will be a fantastic tented area outside along the river as well that will be a staged area offering more HOPTOMIC beers and restaurants. Many brewery representatives will be in attendance to answer questions about their beers, and the volunteers will be in bright green Sierra Nevada shirts. The first booth you will encounter when you walk in will be non-alcoholic offerings, water, boutique sodas, teas, etc., as well as information about how to obtain a cab if needed. We do ask that all in attendance be safe and know their personal limits when sampling.
BiF: There will be a lot going on at the festival. What are some of the “can’t miss” activities?
MA: The key activity of HOPTOMIC is the appreciation of the 65+ hop-forward beers and the sampling of small parings of food. The local restaurants and specialty markets have not principally paired the food with any one particular brew, but have focused on the essence of what hops add to beer; the aroma and bitterness. Some of the beers will be in shorter supply than others due to their very limited availability, so I might recommend starting one’s sampling with the brews that are least common to him or her.
BiF. Will this become an annual event, or is it a one-off?
MA: The consumer will be the one that will help us decide if HOPTOMIC has the legs to take stride in future years! Tampa’s STRAZ Center for the Performing Arts has asked us to help make HOPTOMIC an annual philanthropic event for them, as all net proceeds are being offered to them. We at J.J. Taylor are very excited to have created this not-for-profit event, and help bring further awareness to our local craft beer retailers and participating breweries. We are very optimistic for future HOPTOMIC endeavors.
BiF: Are there any discounted rates for attendees at downtown Tampa hotels?
MA: Yes, in fact we have $65 room rates for Saturday 6/18 at Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel, which is directly next door to the STRAZ center. (111 W. Fortune St., Tampa) When you call the Howard Johnson, 813-223-1351, remind them of the $65 room rate; it is booked under HOPTOMIC Beer Festival. It’s about a 60-second walk from the event – can’t get much better than that!
BiF: Anything else you would like to tell Beer in Florida readers about Hoptomic?
MA: If you are an admirer of Humulus lupulus, you will certainly be in heaven attending HOPTOMIC Bitter Beer & Food Festival! Be sure to hydrate your body a couple days in advance and prepare your palate for HOPTOMIC detonation! Please consider taking a cab to and from HOPTOMIC for safe measure.
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Tickets for the Hoptomic festival are $58.50. Here’s a link to its beer list.
For more information on the festival or to purchase tickets, go here.
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