Your DLD stories

Kinda funny that you say that actually, because when I returned from dropping off my cooler and supplies to my car at about 9:45 you came right up to me and my 2 friends telling us we were cutting and to get out of line. The same 2 friends that had been there with me since 4:30. It was our table set up under the canopy that we were all sharing bottles on.

 

Very jealous, I really should have set up a trade for a King Henry. Didn't even find anyone opening one for tasting, and I was really hoping to yesterday.

 

Oh my god how could I forget, Rempo sharing Utopias in the morning was ridiculous!

 

I have no complaints about the way the event ran.
Group A had the easiest line, by far. Group C's line was screwed up... It becomes clear that they need to have the beer buying lines queue up outside like the opening line. That was the only problem.

We brought tons of great food (including cookie tins of smoked meat and bacon) and tons of great beer to share... Everyone was generous, everyone in the line around us was cool. It was totally NOT frat party like. All of our friends were respectful and organized... The people who joined our friends must have picked up on this, because we just had a shitload of generous grown ups around us. Nothing bad... And just SO MUCH great beer.

It's a mess when you've had so much great stuff that you turn down purs of things you'd normally kill for.

File me in the category of people who hi five those around him, and FFF for nailing everything but the organization of the B and C lines!

 

My DLD experience sounds very similar to many of the positive experiences already shared here. Where do I begin?

The weekend kicked off right as I entered the Hampton Inn Friday night around 8 and walked right into an alread-crazy bottle share! I met up with my BA friends from college (too many to name individually, but you know who you are!). I was able to finally meet a former trading partner (biglobo, cheers Brandon!). The group opened a Black Tuesday vertical (personally, I preferred the '10, but I can definitely understand why people rave about the '09... SO damn smooth). Also opened some Jackie O's stouts that were all holding up very nicely. Got to try Double Barrel Zhukov's, Chocolate Rain, CBS, and some other great beers. Walked to White Castle around 12:30 a.m. and devoured some sliders with a couple friends, then decided the walk back was going to be too much so we called a cab.

Was woken up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning by clintonpuckett (who is always like a little kid on Christmas every year on DLD ) and by the time we made it over to FFF, it was about 5:30. The rest of our group arrived a little closer to 6, and brought canopy tents with them, so we decided to give up our spots to join them in avoiding the rain. Then, shit got real.

Within the next few hours, I got to meet a new BA friend (Rempo), meet up with some BA friends from Chicago (except I still didn't get introduced to SpdKilz - one of these days, Carleton!) and backfat (Dave), and sample the following beers (in the order as I best remember it...):

Chocolate Rain
Pannepot Wild
Wooden Hell
J & J Blauw
Crianza Helena
2006 Fou Foune

The rest of the day is less exciting, as I got tired and cranky from waiting in line for the brewpub and then hopping out of line about 10 people from the entrance when we heard that both the Vanilla and Oak Aged had kicked. All in all, however, it was still a fantastic day during which I got to spend time with great friends, meet some new ones, and drink some great beers! Doesn't get much better than that!

Thanks again to all of the generous BAs who poured me beers throughout the weekend. I wish I could remember every single BA who did so and list you all, but that might take until next DLD... I'm a little mad at myself for not pouring more of my own on Saturday, but I guess that means I'll just have to kill it next year

Special thanks to backfat, Rempo, claaark13, and hayesez for the extra crazy pours! Big time cheers to you gentlemen!

EDIT: Oh and by the way, in case anyone is wondering, backfat and I totally won Dark Lord Day!

 

Easy....3 warnings will put you in BA jail

Trust me...I know!

 

I hope you gave him a warning and smashed one of the bottles over his worthless skull.

 

I had an Awesome time. The event was a little unorganized. Overall i think the staff did an OK job. The only thing i can really complain about is having to leave my backpack outside the brewpub which contained my Dark lords, baller stouts, plum Klause, etc. Under the honor system. Hoping that nobody would steal my Bag. Luckily my bag was ok and i was able to drink some BA dark lord and regular Dark lord at the brew pub. about 3 hours in line but worth it. i guess i dont have anything to complain about since my bag was ok.

 

There were two of them, stealing from a group of like 15 guys. I have no idea what they were thinking. They got off pretty lucky, I think.

 

... backpacks were allowed inside, no? Fairly certain I saw at least a few people with them.

 

Nope the staff wouldnt let me take it in. There was a pile of backpacks right infront of the pub. Anyone walking out the pub could have grabbed one since security was more focused trying to control the crazy line

 

Ah, I mistook your post. I thought you meant inside the gates of the grounds. Gotcha. That is definitely uncool. Something for them maybe to consider changing next year.

 

Ok, I'll share a little more.

I got drunker than I expected to. Lots of small samples can be deceptive, especially high alcohol.
I brought some good and/or unusual beers to share, and nice people shared vary generously with me.
When in line for DL, my friend had to go pee right before we got to where the barricades start and the nice girl exchanged our tickets. I told her I wanted to wait and let people go by until he got back. She asked me to stand just on the other side of the barrier. When he returned, we went back in and I got a several minute lecture from a guy about cutting.
I lent $20 to a stranger in line near us inside the building who didn't have enough on him for some reason. On exiting, I had to pee so bad I left him with my box by the ATM and about ran to the portapotties. When I got back he was watching my beer and paid me back the $20.
My box busted open (split completely along the seam) while I was in line for food and the $50 limited edition bottle I got from having a winning ticket fell out and shattered.
My friend somehow lost his red ticket once we were in line. He got to the building and couldn't buy his allotment.
I shared one bottle of 2012 at the Hampton afterwards. I have two left. I'm unclear on what happened to #3, it was either stolen or I gave it away at the event.

 

yup. I would have neglected the line if i had known that. But after a 3 hour wait i kinda felt forced to stay and leave my bag. Luckily my bag wasnt took. i wonder if anybody got snatched. hopefully not.

 

I definitely need to mention the Michigan folks that I met up with throughout the day as well. Thanks for hanging out guys!

 

Recent haul...

Got there at 10AM, group C tickets, so had a lot of free time to wander around and talk to people! Unfortunately, while standing in line for something, I was informed that Derrick Rose tore his ACL and ending his season. For anyone who knows me, this is a big deal. Kind of put a damper on my mood (wanted to win this year, but will have to wait patiently for next year and some roster refinements), needless to say I quickly drank this bad news into oblivion.

Some great people offering pours of BT, Iced Eclipse, HF Galaxy, Rare, couldn't be luckier.

Unfortunately, after the group C soccer mob was allowed into the gates, about 20 feet from the entrance to the bottle sale area, a drunk man started urinating within an inch of my friends leg. Thankfully, there was a cop like 5 feet away, so justice didn't have to be left to the people.

After we got our beers, we started walking back to the car, where we realized that the keys to the car were no longer in our possesion. We spent the next 6 hours or so (6~11:30) looking for the key, waiting for a locksmith, sitting for an hour and a half while the locksmith tried to re-program our FOB key only to fail, and then waiting another hour or so for a different locksmith to arrive and re-program our key in 5 minutes.

All in all it was a great event that could use a bit more space for people to sit, visible lines to form, etc.

 

MITTEN REPRESENT