Dark Lord Day 2016

Thanks, Tony...I think?

 

Did anyone else buy that Nordic axe bottle opener, it was too cool I had to do it lol

 

I know this will upset a few of you, but maybe next year variants are random. You would pick up your totes on the way out of the fest. Reducing the chance of dropping bottles, thieves, and eliminating the chance of missing your group A time whilst waiting in line.

 

Is that like you can try and piss on two birds but you'd have better luck just pissing on one stone?

 

I'm down for random variants if there are no sales groups.

 

I could be wrong, but I thought the lack of GA passes helped make this year better than it would have been otherwise. All the complaints about lines and such would be even worse if there were more people in attendance. Logistically, I think GA passes are a bad idea. I do however like the spirit of GA passes.

 

I don't think anyone would be upset about that if it's known ahead of time. Group assignment is essentially random anyway.

 

I know some people like to open their bottles at the fest, and this is all assuming that a variant for everyone is going to continue.

 

Yeah, I caved on that too.

 

To add to this I saw a few vanillas that people wasted know time on, on the ground, I picked up the bottle for a sniff haha

 

Nothing special but people were just sweeping up that ZD like it was the end of the world. It actually seemed like a lot of Chicagoans were there specifically for ZD. I never realized how hard a time they had getting it. We can find it on shelves semi-regularly here in Ohio if you follow the right shops.

Pretty much everything that was occupying tap space all day at DLD was on draft, so basically even though I gave away 8 vouchers I ended up spending more money on beers I could have had for free the previous day. I was glad to have tried them the next day because I wouldn't have been able to really taste much if I was just trying to redeem those vouchers. Quaanto was great, but I'm not sure that's a viable replacement for Permanent Funeral--I was really bummed it was nowhere to be found all weekend.

The best part was the food though, fancy-ish cheese curds, spicy ramen, green beans, dessert. It was all excellent.

I ran into that surprisingly often. Certain people had a lot of awareness around BCBS, Pliney, and some of the bigger Chicago area breweries, but I was surprised those same folks had never heard of Trillium, Sunday Morning Stout, Hoof, Jackie Os--with all the hype over the last year. It creates this odd dynamic where it seems like they think they are cracking whales while no one else is contributing. Oh well, thanks for at least allowing me to lighten my backpack!

To be honest, I would have spent that kind of money had I known people were willing to part with it, especially after the kind of day it was.

Good call, wish I had even looked at the merch tent. Would have definitely jumped on that.

 

That would essentially take care of the group A North gate/South gate debacle. Also, it would allow people to line up to get their bottles whenever they see fit and nobody would be able to bitch that they HAD to wait in line at a certain time. You could basically control how long you feel like waiting in line for bottles as you could go whenever the line is short enough for your liking. I think it would really help make the online purchase of tickets much smoother as well (No "best available" or specific group to choose from. Just select qty of 1 or 2 tix and that's it). I'm definitely all for this idea.

 

Out of curiosity, anyone come across a tote at the Speedway/White Castle with a full allotment and a Biggleswade? My buddy was in a brown out and forgot to load them in the car. He was real confused the next morning...

Also, anyone see that guy drinking Special Export in the Northgate line?! hahaaa

 

I think everyone getting a variant was the 20th anniversary customer appreciation from FFF. It could be back to the scratch off golden ticket next year where everyone wants to be in group a hoping their ticket says "yes".

 

Did anyone get shutout of Marshmellow handjee during the group a time slot or did it survive until the group b slot? I know vanilla militia lasted into group b but I don't think it lasted too long

 

I just got a tracker thing at an event I went to, that would be interesting for sure.

 

Group D. I think that FFF put on a great event. Big thank you to the beer distributor who pulled out a 14 BVDL. Enjoyed many different pours and gave as good as I got. Personal highlight was being asked by my best friend what variant I picked. I grabbed his arm, hit him in the face and replied, "Stop hitting yourself." He doesn't remember. Good times.

 

I was Group A and got my bottle of Marshmallow at 12:25. They said they were on the last five cases, so I'm guessing it was probably gone in the next few minutes.

 

Agree about not knowing what HH and Jackie O's...brought some of both and early in line at 8 a bunch of people never heard of it...then they tried SoE that got their attention. Luckily met a few people later, who when finding out I was from Ohio, said they want to try HH. To their surprise I pulled it out made them happy. Which made me happy because I was excited to share that stuff. And yeah ZD can be had but I went Sunday and got some of that and Wig Splitter mainly because I was there, why not?

And I was offered $250 for my hanjee immediately exiting the brewery, declined. We hung out for a couple hours then took them to the hotel to make sure they were safe and returned later.

 

They could go back to scratch offs and still not have groups. I'm sure that would create a mad dash to get in the bottle line right when the gates open but the scratch offs are completely random anyway and there's no guarantee of you winning a variant. Personally, I would just wait and go when the line was short enough for my liking and if that means in the middle of the afternoon or early evening than so be it.