Dark Lord Day '14

This x100.

 

I, too, never hit the guest taps (haven't in three years now) but still had a great time. We just set up at a business lot just outside the north gate, popped some brews, made a few trades, and just shared some food and brews. GREAT time, even for an old man like me!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't there 2000 GA tix and 8000 tix total thus making them 1/4 of the attendees? Regardless, the lines were only a cluster from 11-4. If you treat the day like a marathon and are functional for the last 4-6 hours, you will get hooked up with some amazing guest and FFF taps.

 

Oh Christ... I knew there was something weird about being offered a white cream milk stout... it was so damn good though.

 

1000 GA tickets sold. There were at least 9000 group tickets. The golden tickets were sequentially numbered. I went through late E and I have number 8869, and there were still people behind me.

And yes, the lines got short late, I got some brandy dark lord on tap, forget the time but it was just as it was starting to get dark. Walked right up to the table.

 

No, 1000 GA lottery winners who each had (read: did) the opportunity to purchase up to 2 tickets. So there were 2k GA folks there.

 

Last year was the first year of the new expanded grounds, so last year is the only baseline for comparison, and anyone who attended last year and this year will tell you that the guest tap lines ballooned 8-10 fold I would say. Last year, we spent nearly the entire day hanging out by the guest taps; rarely was the line more than 3-5 people deep. This year, you couldn't hang out by the guest taps because the entire area was a mass of people. I got one beer (that I waited 40 minutes for), got in the allocation line (which was super quick relatively speaking), and went back to @joromiller's killer bottle share.

 

I can corroborate this. My experience exactly. This year's tap lines were a shit show.

 

1/5, not 1/4. You have to add the 2,000 GA tickets in to the entire attendance number. 2,000/10,000 is 1/5. Not that any of this really matters. Beer festival = lines.

 

8000 tickets total had included the 2000 GA I mentioned, but it appears my numbers were incorrect anyway so yeah, it doesn't really matter.

 

Yep. This is what I remembered too. Went there at 1 PM figuring I'd waltz right in and out. Stood in lines for 90 minutes to share 4 beers. Parabajava ran out right in front of me. BA Indignent with Tart Cherries was very nice. Luckily someone in the group kept getting samples and bringing back to the bottle share. Got my 1st taste of Vanilla DL this way. Not complaining as I had an excellent time!

 

I was at DLD the last two years and completely agree about the difference in the number of people who were at the guest taps. Blaming the guest tap line increase on the small number of GA ticket holders is as silly as anything I have ever read on this site. Last year 1,500 people at a time were stuck in their bottle line for hours at a time, and this year the overwhelming response is that same number of people per group allotment were getting through the line in less than hour. That is a lot more people participating in the festival rather than standing in line waiting.

The reality is that a number of variables played into why that area was as popular as it was this year. Blaming that entirely on GA ticket holders is plain silly, imo. Should everyone blame GA ticket holders for the long lines at the food tents, bathrooms and to go bottles too? Where were the 8,000 group ticket holders when all of these never ending lines formed?

 

^ I think you hit it on the head. The allotment lines went 5x faster leaving more people to get in line for guest taps.

I bet FFF will address this next year as they keep on doing a better job each year.

 

Does anyone remember the guest tap line in 2012? Nobody is complaining about that because they are still stuck in it.

 

i remember 3 years ago waiting in line for 3.5 hours to get my bottles. this year, i waited literally 10 minutes (thanks to group a tickets and everyone wanting glassware/coffee) and last year i think i waited 25 minutes. Overall, the guest taps were packed, and i stayed away, but the shit is run smoother than ever if you ask me

 

that was ******ed. i didnt even bother in that line either lol

 

I dont think there was anything to do in '12 besides wait in line - bottle, brewpub or guest draft. Makes this year's coffee snifter line short and quick by comparison.

 

If i remember 2012 correctly, i went early with my parents and bought my allotment. Went home, then drove my brother and a friend back up there to hang out the rest of the day while they got theirs. As the day got older, the guest tap line got shorter and shorter. There was one point early in the day, however, where i thought i was in line for food, then ended up being at the front of the guest tap line.

 

Mid day it was well over an hour, had the gates set up so it was at least orderly. One line, one at a time at the counter for all guest drafts. If anything good was tapped and you weren't at least half way through the line you had no chance. And yes, after dark it was rather short. They tapped CBS at like 9 and I walked right up.

 

If I recall, they did guest taps single file for a number of years. 2011 was pretty bad too. I remember some guy asking each person in line around 11am, like 30 people deep at the time, if he could cut to buy the last pour of Tea-Bagged Furious, one person at a time. He jumped back in at the end where I was and shared it with me. I went back later in the day to check it out the guest tap line and it was outrageous. I'm happy they made the changes, mobbed guest taps and all. At least I was able to try some this year.