The Props and Hops Craft Beer Festival has been put on by the Palm Springs Air Museum for a decade. The idea behind it was simple and interesting: Organizers invite breweries from all over Southern California, get food trucks from the area, line up bands and entertainment, and have a great event—all as vintage aircraft take off and land, with the airport and the mountains as the backdrop.
There has also been a special rare beer flight conducted on a vintage plane for each of the festivals. The first was conducted by the then-owner of the late, lamented Schmidy’s Tavern, Brent Schmidman. Schmidman would be joined by the late Erin Peters (aka The Beer Goddess, a longtime Independent columnist) and brewer Chris Anderson, among others, to organize the festivals.
The first few years of the festival were a lot of fun, with many breweries attending, great food and music, and, of course, the vintage airplanes. It was, as claimed on its website, “the premier craft beer event in the valley.” The local homebrew club (which I was a member of at the time) even got a booth there to educate people on homebrewing and serve some of our creations. The atmosphere, the beers, the planes—everything about it was well conceived.
If the story ended here, I would be a happy man. However, this is a column about beer.
After missing some of the intervening years, I attended this year’s Props and Hops in my capacity as a certified cicerone at Babe’s BBQ and Brewhouse.
On the website for the 2022 event, much was promised. Some 20 breweries were listed by name, with the words “many, many more” underneath.
The logistics of the festival were well-handled. Everyone knew where to set up; there was plenty of ice; all the staff members were helpful. However, only about half of the breweries mentioned on the webpage were actually present. Among the most notable absences were more than half of the breweries here in the Coachella Valley. I don’t exactly know the logistics of the festival, and what is required from each brewery to attend, but it seemed odd to not have four of the seven local breweries there. My biggest personal disappointment was seeing neither Firestone Walker nor their Barrelworks offshoot (which makes excellent sour ales) there as promised.
When the doors opened for the VIP hour from noon to 1 p.m., there were just 11 breweries in attendance, along with the booth for the Inland Empire Brewers (a homebrew club just outside the desert). It’s fair to say that if I’d paid for a ticket—never mind a VIP ticket—I would have been a sad panda.
Once the VIP hour had passed, and the general-admission ticket holders started pouring in, a few extra canopies and tables popped up—each of which was eventually occupied by one half-barrel keg. One was Blue Moon (which already had a table); another was a Pizza Port Brewing keg of Chronic Ale (a fine beer); and the third was a keg of a Stone Brewing beer I didn’t bother checking. They seemed like somewhat random kegs placed there as a sort-of apology for the lack of breweries in attendance.
Am I being a beer snob? Certainly. I understand that the festival’s beers are not the only attraction here. Also, let me be clear that I have nothing negative to say about the Palm Springs Air Museum itself. It’s a great place, and I love seeing the old planes flying above me when I’m hiking around the valley. This is my assessment of the beer side of the beer festival—and on that side, the fest overpromised and underdelivered.
When the doors opened for the VIP hour from noon to 1 p.m., there were just 11 breweries in attendance, along with the booth for the Inland Empire Brewers.
There were some good things about the beer side. For starters, 8 Bit Brewing out of Murietta brought four great beers; I liked the German-style pilsner best. Coronado Brewing brought only one keg, but it was a solid IPA. I tried a nice, dry Irish red ale at the IE Brewers’ booth. The newest Double Down DIPA from Babe’s debuted at the festival and was excellent (yeah, I am biased, as I helped plan it, but it features a hop without an official name that I adore, HBC 586). The new kid on the local block, Luchador Brewing, brought a brown ale with coconut and macadamia nuts that I enjoyed.
Again, none of these criticisms have any bearing on the Air Museum—and I’d love nothing more than for Props and Hops to succeed. My friend and former co-worker Justin Moeller returned to conduct the rare beer flights on the vintage planes; the music was great; the food I had from my friends at Big Easy Sandwich was great. Most importantly, the people who showed up seemed to have a good time.
But Props and Hops is a craft beer festival where beer is not focus—and you won’t see me spending money to attend until that changes.
