The fifth annual local breweries’ craft beer festival Props and Hops was this winter on Saturday 18th November 2016. The location in for sure not one of the most usual for a beer festival as it happens at Palm Springs Air Museum – and most people know, flying is totally a no-alchol excersize. But this location allows the festivalgoers enjoying of historic, mostly American military aircraft on display. Entry ticket price at the gate is $40 but an online advance ticket is just half of that. With the ticket you can enjoy the airplanes and receive a small beer mug and eight tickets to taste different beers on display. I would suggest to leave your car home if you consume all beer tickets because you might end up into a DUI bust.
I tasted some beers and as the best with some friends we chose the local Coachella Valley Brewery beers – my favorites among those are a white beer and a IPA. Also some good hard ciders where available, including a very good cherry cider I tasted.
During the event some aircraft will also demonstrate their flying capabilities, and by buying a $150 additional ticket you can enjoy a ride around Coachella Valley onboard a Dakota DC-3. You can sip a beer on this flight. A flight onboard an old biplane will cost more. We did go onboard any aircraft, but my first flight in mid-1950s was on DC-3 😉
Just beside us a Second World War the famous US fighter P-51 Mustang prepared for flight and made some passes along Coachella Valley. It really was impressive as this happens to be one of the fasted propeller aircraft ever built – even if it probably did not use full power in this demo flight. I shot a short video about this using my cell phone and attached it above. My pictures below with texts give idea of this very nice beer festival, in the most unexpected and impressive location. Hope I and you will have a chance to do it again in 2017.
