DLD 2013 retrospective

It might make the line for regular DL longer, but not for Variants.

 

Damn, wishing I went this year. Last year was my first year and I swore I'd never go again (even though I had a pretty good time) but this year sounds like it was epic. Three cheers for Three Floyds, always nice to see improvements.

 

I had a complete blast at DLD this year. Bravo to Floyds for making large improvements on the event. I can't say anything bad about how the event was handled. Best beer event I have ever attended. Thank you Floyds.

Thank you to everyone who showed up at around 4a with me and all the generocity you showed to my friends and I. It was great talkin beer and trying some tasty treats with you.

Thank you to everyone who showed up to our tasting table. I had so much fun sharing Rare, Henry, Loons, Utopias, and god knows whatelse at our table. Everyone was awesome and willing to open anything with us. Thank you.

Special thanks to the guy who sold me his exta 3F mini snifter for $5. You rule. Also a huge special thanks to the guy who opened bourbon Vanilla DL just before gates were opened on the north end.

It was great seeing you, weaksauce and your crew again. You are always generous with your beers and a lot of fun to hang with. I'm glad we were able to keep the Rare tradition going.

Overall, everyone I enjoyed everyone I met at DL, very generous and easygoing people, with the exception of one guy. It's extremely poor form to attempt steal bottles from friends and aquitances, and even more so to ask for more beer after attempting to steal 4 bottles. You will not recieve any of more of my beers or kindess.

Thank you again to everyone who made DLD so great. I'm glad I was able to share some great brews with you.

 

What happened was that the company running the line was full of inept clowns who had no idea what they were doing or how to run and organize a line. I was in Group C, waited in line 3+ hours. Some friends of mine were group D, lined up at the correct time, asked several "event planners" if they were in the right line and told "yes", and then were pulled out of the line by the event planners and threatened with expulsion and arrest because "not everyone from group C has gone yet". Then were escorted by police to the back of the E line. We were told that "the website is misinformation" and "anything posted or said by FFF doesn't count, the line is not their event".

Additionally, I witnessed an attempted sexual assault and physically interfered with another. No security or cops to be found.

Extra space was awesome, guest taps were great, FFF taps were great, food was good, merchandise table were full of great stuff, stage and music was outstanding, and all of the FFF volunteers were especially helpful and friendly. So basically the parts of the event ran by FFF were awesome and those that weren't were terrible. Go figure.

 

This may have been me -- college kid in a Northwestern sweatshirt & coffee hat? If so, thanks for sharing the great stuff while I was at the table!

 

dear: asshole who stole the HF fear & trembling (and three other bottles)

plz kill yrself.

love,
person who sent MDunk the fear and trembling

 

We had 3 bottles of '13 go missing too. No respect.

 

missed out on wooden hell, ann, deviation, and loerik, but hey i had some m, cable car, and ddg. FAv beer was Duet though which had to be one of 5 or 6 beers that wasn't a new tick for me. Teh WWBV is fucking awesome, start the hype now. Only shitty thing was someone hacked a mini intelligensia snifter form me in the time it took to go to the guest tap and back at a table in the tents.

 

Too many people to thank for a great time at DLD this year - you know who you are. Also, thanks to everyone on the shuttle and for your patience at the end of the day as we waited for a few stragglers.

Fantastic beers all around with amazing weather, food, etc., with an interesting surprise here and there thrown in - yet-to-be-released Crooked Stave Violet and KBS Devil's Cut smuggled out of Founders in a 32 oz. growler were interesting surprises and very tasty. Apparently I missed M while waiting in the Group B allocation line, which was a bit of a bummer.

Had an attempted theft of Nooner thwarted, but had a CCB Ghost Stories stolen out of the tent we set up, which was disappointing, but it certainly didn't take away from the great day and the superb improvements FFF and the event management company made to the event, with the obvious exception being the bottle allocation lines.

Having spoken with the self-proclaimed head of the event from FFF while waiting outside the warehouse, the decision that he made to allow for those in each Group to go through the line before the next group was driven by "only two people working the table handing out tickets" to which I asked if it would be possible to have one person work golden tickets with 'A' on it, one with 'B', etc. to prevent bottlenecks later in the day and he stated that there wasn't enough manpower to do that and it would get to be too complicated. Sorry to hear about those waiting an egregiously long time at the end of the day - I'm confident the right changes and tweaks will be made next year to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Cheers to everyone who was exceedingly gracious with pours. Highlights other than those listed above were BA Abraxas, BA Behemoth wick Cherries, 2009(?) Bourbon DL (it was late in the day), Vanilla DL, and Mornin' Delight along with every Loon.

 

Had a great time yet again this year. While the lines were a bit crazy, sharing some beer with the lovely couple in front of me was nice. He had a 2010 DL and I had a Lawsons peril IPA. Both were great. Once inside my scratch off did not win, but one of theirs did. They didn't want any of the variations that were left so they gave me the ticket! What an awesome gesture.

Wyatt, was a great guy as well. Thanks again for hooking us up with the guest passes. Biglobo, mnbearsfan, alewatcher and everyone esle @ our table were awesome. I know I met more of you guys but I forgot your BA names already. Sorry. The weather was excellent. People in line to get beer were nice as they walked by. I was pouring lots of heady topper in empty cups as they marched by waiting to get their DL bottles. Got to try crazy beers and best of all, I am NOT burnt to crisp. SPF 50 applied hourly was a great idea.

Best DLD yet IMO and already looking forward to next year.

 

Was my first one and I had a great time. Got to sample alot of great BA FFF beers on tap. A lot of standing in line but looking at all the rare empty bottles and chatting with other beer geeks made the time fly. Cherry on top was I got a bottle of BA vanilla!

 

Had a lot of fun with my tasting group, as usual, as well as all the guys and girls at the middle table in the tent. Highlights were H.ertie El Sol (Uli blend!), Cable Car, SNR 10, 09 vanilla DL, tons of other stuff. Crazy table.

I thought the food was pretty good, taps were generally great, and the space was perfect.

I'd love to see pictures of the 3L Supplication/3L Temptation pouring, as well as a certain shirt near a certain man...

 

it was labelled "mikkeller black albert" and the 18% abv listing was correct. was sober enough to realize "that 18% abv beer is probably a very bad idea right now".

for all the people talking about '09 bourbon DL, was this on tap or bottle?

also, when was rufus on? totally missed it.

 

It was '09 Bourbon Vanilla on tap.

 

This DLD was exceptionally well coordinated. Kudos to FFF for blocking off such a large area and making so many guest taps so accessible. But it's the other attendees and the beer sharing that make DLD what it is for me. There were so many cool and generous people around, thank you all.

 

I'd say on a whole the event was well organized and the bottle sharing was great! Leon on tap was a gem, got a chance to split some great bottles with good people so what else can you ask for?

Towards the end of the night saw some less than acceptable behavior, one guy threw a full bottle of darklord at someone and Munster Police almost tackled him.

 

Was surprised to see so many people with only marginal interest in beer. We were offering people all sorts of Cantillon and Bruery one offs in line to get in and the guys directly behind and in front of us didn't want to try anything.

I heard about the pedo guy at the porto potties but outside of one giant guy who thought we cut in line because he was too drunk to recognize us waiting behind them for an hour in a half in D group everyone was rock solid.

It was amazing. They tapped it two or three times and I was lucky to be at the right place at the right time on two of the occasions...