Your DLD stories

I think we might have been right behind you with the guys who had BT. Did he have a Mizzou hoodie on?

 

You had already opened it so what was the problem with this? Its the same as sabering a bottle without the gushing. Am I missing something?

 

They were 750s last year as well, as can be seen in the picture posted earlier on this same page...

 

This right here. I've been to FFF countless times now, and the ONLY negative thing I have ever experienced was a bartender asking me to hold off on my food order until after he got our drinks, which was probably just as much my fault for trying to jump the gun. I wonder if some people just go into FFF expecting crappy service and therefore aren't as polite as they normally would be to a bartender/server.

 

Glad you enjoyed. Just doing my part to warm people up early in the morning...

 

We got there at 6:20ish and ended up in a parking lot down the street a smidge. First ones in the lot so we got the corner spot facing 3 Floyd's. Guy came late and was pissed it was full as it was a pay lot and someone took down the tape. We were the first in the lot and the tape was already down and we didn't notice it. Oh well. He dicked us by charging us $50 for the spot. Had a guy sharing beer with us pay for $20 of it (thanks). He made up for it later in the day by giving us a VIP bracelet so we got a little beer and food for it all. Sat in the car till the rain eased then set up the canopy with our friends. We had group B and C tixs with our friends so we hung out for most of the day. Shared lots of beer and traded lots of beer. We were the people who brought the Ghost Scorpion beer from Elevator Brewing that had the Ghost Chilli's. It made quite the sensation in line for a while with people wanting a taste and taking pics of the bottle. Hubby and friend got in line at 12:00 and it was around the corner. Got inside fairly quickly but then it was kind of a cluster F%^&. It took them 4 1/2 hrs just to get their beer and get out so we missed out on hanging out more. Plus, I had to deal with a dick of a guy thinking he could shaft me on beer trading because I was a woman. Was able to get things done with him but what a douche. My friend and I got in line for C group and was able to get up fairly close so that when they got the line going we got in fairly quickly. Only one of us got the special beer. All in all a good time. Had more fun last year but really think that was due to weather. Thinking next year I will try for group a or c tickets and skip b group. We had A last year and it went very smooth for us. This year was a little chaotic. Here's a pic of our haul from buying and trading. Hope it posts Cheers

 

YOU

you had a fun group. I was the guy that bummed a couple of tasters and promised to come back. I did, was the one who gave you 4 the 4 pack of Surly Bender. It mos def looked like you guys were doing it correctly. Was nice to meet you, and still wont say O - H - I - O!

 

Great year, great time. I'm growing increasingly fond of the Indiana BA Community as I meet more and more of them. Thanks to all for the great pours.

I also very briefly met Alewatcher under some interesting circumstances. I figured it would eventually meet him when I was at FFF, haha. He was walking down the line of cars towards the brewery while I'd just arrived to my buddy's car to get some bottles for trade. He got an awesome photo of my buddy. I was able to get my buddy safely into the car before he became public-intox bait. I missed two trades because of a dead phone. The other two were because of this:

 

I was bummed that we walked in as Powermad had just ended. It sucked to never see a time schedule for the bands, figuring with only 4 bands that they'd start a little later in the day. I was incorrect, as it was only around 6:30 when High On Fire went on. I was fine with missing Argonauts, that was a calculated risk, but I traded my Group C tickets for As specifically so I wouldn't be in the bottle line when Eyehategod or High On Fire were playing, which worked out pretty well. I'm glad that Nick, Barnaby, and the rest of the FFF crew have similar taste in music as seeing those bands in that warehouse has been pretty freakin' awesome. And while it's probably not the greatest for the bands themselves to be playing in front of a crowd that's comprised of some people who are pretty indifferent to their music, it does make it easier to get up front and not risk life and limb to do so as pit brutality is a non-issue generally. Like a small club show. Pretty rad. No complaints from me. Not catching Slough Feg/BotD due to missing tickets last year was what I was bummed about the most, not missing out on Dark Lord itself.

 

What are your future DLD plans? I think I'm going to go for Group A, get in line very early, enjoy bottle sharing, get my allotment and head home for a nap (family lives around the corner). I think I'll come back around 6:00p.m. and try to get some good guest beers and enjoy the fest. It seems like they didn't tap the good guest drafts until pretty late in the day anyway and I feel like the crown probably thinned out a lot by then.

I waited 3 hours in line for the brewpub before I was fed up and left. Two of my cousins were there and I gave them my spot. Although the barrel aged stuff in the pub sounds awesome, that line was too much. I did return to FFF Sunday morning and got some DL, BA Black Sun, and BA Ice Grille on tap. Got there before 11:30 and was let right into the pub when the doors opened.

 

My friend got a pic of him too! he didn't quite fall out of the car then tho

 

After way over-serving myself on Zombie Dust last year, I took it pretty easy this year. Had a couple of Rye'd Da Lightnings, which I loved. Had a BA Yakima. But mostly just hung out in line. The only downer was the C line forming right by the Port a potties. But whatever. It wasn't that big of a deal. Many thanks to the total strangers who let me taste Cantillon and 75 minute IPA. I tried to hand out my brother's pretzels and Gatorade to even the Karmic balance.
Got a Better Half at the guest drafts right as I was leaving. Wish I'd known they were about to put KBS and CBS on. I think I literally walked out as those happened. Oh well.

 

Please send me that photo in a BM, I'd love to see it. Sounds like your buddy walked by before I got there to get him back in the car.

 

Are you sure? For some reason I remember the announcement being that they were 500ml bottles and the picture from before looks like one of those the german beers come in. If you look at it its skinnier than the new ones but I could be wrong,

 

I am 100% sure. We did a VOLTRON tasting around July last year and used 1 oz. shot pourers to make sure we were distributing evenly. Got around to 10 people twice with plenty left if anyone wanted a second try.

 

Awesome, good to know. I don't know why but I could've sworn they were 500ml bottles before today.

 

lol Nice to meet you too. Thanks again for the Surly Bender. Most generous of you.

 

TLDR follows:

wow. just wow. i had never been to a dark lord day before. i don't particularly like dark lord. i don't particularly like lines. my buddies went last year and it didn't really sound fun. so on st. pat's day, i decided i'd try for tickets. to my shock, i got them. still feeling a bit uneasy about eBaying tickets, i discussed with my buddies who convinced me that even if i hate DL, it's a great time - "the most fun time you'll ever have standing in line!"

my girlfriend and i fly into ORD around 10pm friday and book it to the marriott (with a bit of a white castle delay.) the tasting was winding down, but our arrival and setting up with a corner of beers seemed to convince people to stay. my g/f opened one of her precious cantillon rose de gambrinus, and a bunch of other cool stuff was opened. was glad to try some good beers - i didn't note what i had that night, but there were some cool sours i hadn't had before and an array of surly beers that were fantastic. my heart truly broke seeing the empty growler of HF galaxy though. somehow we got stuck with the super drunk guy who had no beer and was DEMANDING we open our rarest beer so he could drink it, but other than that, the bottle share was great and everyone was cool. jakeT469 even dropped us a daisy cutter on the way out.

our cab ($10 per person, really?) shows up at 7:30AM and we're at FFF by 7:45, back about 200-250 people in line. at this point, it had actually stopped raining, but was still cold. we decide we need breakfast and a two brothers red eye coffee porter, a kentucky breakfast stout, and a bourbon county brand coffee stout are opened and shared. we make trips around the line to share and explore. i meet up with mr. CummingsK21 to trade and my girlfriend, his friends, and I all watch in horror as the firestone walker parabola he's trading me slips out of his hand, bounces off his knee, and smacks the pavement....AND IS COMPLETELY UNHARMED! a buddy and i meet another kind gentleman who is willing to share his kate the great '10 with us, my first time having KTG. it really is perfection in a bottle.

beers enjoyed/sampled in line before gates opened:
two brothers red eye coffee porter
founders kentucky breakfast stout
goose island bourbon county brand coffee stout
troegs nugget nectar
half acre/short's freedom of '78
portsmouth kate the great ('10)
dark horse king of the forest
cantillon fou'foune (mad props to the guy who traded pours of this for the use of a corkscrew to open it!)
cigar city hunahpu's imperial stout

the gates open and the line moves FAST. by 10:30 we are in line for the brew pub, passing up the guest taps, which is unfortunate, because this meant missing out on the fabled apple brandy zhukov. my buddies remark how much better it is this year without coolers everywhere as you can actually walk around. while in line, we open a lot of great beer and share a lot of great beer with those around us. i was floored at the generosity and kindness of fellow beer advocates at this event. in particular, what stands out is my trip to the tasting tables with my almost-empty bottle of citra to share. i was going to politely ask if i could have a taste of a newly-cracked MOAS when the guy at the end of the table said "you look like you're looking for a beer!" and poured me some cantillon mamouche! he even refused my offer of citra, saying he was taking a short break. i hope the people that tried the citra on my way to/from enjoyed it!

my girlfriend and i have group B, so we leave the brew pub line to head over to the bottle line, which was a bit of a bottlenecked trainwreck. somehow we get through it in an hour, with one win and one lose on the golden tickets (bought bourbon vanilla.) the zombie dust stand in line was a nice touch. wish there was a port-o-john in this line area, as there were far too many dudes just pissing on the ground. anyway, we get back to the brew pub line and see that it's grown to 10-15 people wide with line cutters. really wish the line could have been barricaded/organized better to prevent this sort of asshattery. nearly five hours later, we get into the brew pub. we have to leave our backpacks (well, we have to leave "alcohol" outside, even FFF alcohol) outside where anyone walking out of the pub can grab them. made me uneasy, but after five hours, i was going in. we get in... NO barrel-aged DL on tap. none. staff don't know when or if it's coming back, but claim "several" kegs are in line before that. utter disappointment. get some food and respite from the cold, a round of FFF beers (i try this year's DL. still sweet and gross), and head out. luckily there was a lot of cool shit we did in line, but can't help feeling a little swindled. i wonder if everyone in line knew that barrel aged black sun is the only BA beer on tap and that's what they're waiting over 5 hours for. probably won't brew pub next year, my time would have been much better spent going through the guest tap line once or twice.

we take a food break and notice the overall drunkenness of festival-goers had increased significantly, and not in a good way. i love beer, and hell, i love being drunk, but this is a day-long drinking event - you should know your limits and not exceed them. i saw five broken DL bottles in about 15 minutes. my g/f and i are more sober than about 90% of the people here, supplementing our tastings only with an occasional zombie dust. in one memorable occasion, we step out for corn dogs, come back in, and some drunk bro with his g/f helplessly following after him keeps trying to take a bite of one of them, noting that i'm an "asshole" for not letting him eat my food. i walk in the general direction of security and let his g/f know he's dangerously close to a bloody nose.

we hit up the tasting tables as my buddies attempt to navigate the clusterfuck of the "C" group line, which had to contain a good amount of A and B people. it wrapped farther than the B line ever had, coming around the port-o-lets and to the tasting tables! some of my buddies urged the group to cut, while the kinder soul in the group decided they should wait in the end of the line (by the tasting tables.) about 10 minutes later, i see them hopping the barricades from a tasting table. stay classy, guys!

they get their DL and then the best part of the day happens. the crowd had thinned out a good amount, and there was a group of maybe 20 people going through the guest tap line (around 8:30PM.) we get a sucaba and better half and head to the table and crack a baller stout. a great cheer goes up from the guest tap line. BCBS cherry, KBS, and CBS were all tapped within 15 minutes of each other. our tasting table had a couple CBS, BCBS cherry, better half, baller stout, sucaba, and some FFF beers on it at once. absolutely crazy.

the end of the brew pub line didn't even get in as the brew pub and industrial park close around 9:30PM. dave/dlello2 drives our group back to the hotel, which was awesome, thanks again. we head upstairs and crack a fou'foune to end the night (and order edwardo's pizza.) what an amazing fkn day. we'll be back next year. earlier.

DLD (post-10AM inside the gates) beer list:
three floyds zombie dust
jackie o's bourbon barrel middle of nowhere
alchemist heady topper
kern river citra
cantillon mamouche
three floyds baller stout
goose island rare bourbon county brand stout
three floyds zombie dust
russian river beatification (batch 5)
three floyds dark lord ('12)
pelican mother of all storms ('10)
founders curmudgeon's better half
three floyds baller stout
goose island cherry bourbon county brand stout
firestone walker sucaba
founders canadian breakfast stout
three floyds dark lord ('09)
cantillon fou'foune

props: three floyds for mostly running this event smoothly, beer advocates everywhere for being generous and open and friendly - especially the gentleman who shared KTG, all the guest tap breweries, south park for providing the musical inspiration for the weekend.

slops: line cutters, drunk assholes, the lack of the allegedly standard barrel aged dark lords in the brew pub/lack of tap list information, having to leave backpacks outside brew pub for poachers, jackass in "B" line discussing with his girlfriend the optimal time to eBay all their bottles.

next year: if it's not raining, we'll be in line at 4:30 with those of you posting stories from the front. the line to get in seems to be the best part!

 

My highlight was meeting all the awesome BAs like Rempo, Injuredreserve, dlello2 etc I know I met more but it was a blurry day for the most part.
<---- this is me at 630am

 

It was great meeting you too! The Bender was greatly appriciated! See you next year and we will bring more goodies for ya to taste. O-H-I-O!