Dark Lord Day 2016

Just as a reference for others, here are the things I'd personally do differently:

1) We planned to get there just early enough for those of our group in group B to get in line by noon. We had D and E groups in our bunch, so we knew we'd be there late. Next year I'd plan to get there an hour before it opens to try to find a sweet spot between time in line and getting in as early as possible.
2) Limit bottle shares to when I'm in lines. We had a spot near the SE corner of the north tent and I largely hung out there sharing. Next year my "free" time will be spent pursuing the taps and food.
3) Bring better beer. I was told people would enjoy getting non whale locals, but I literally had to shop it around. On the other hand, I really enjoyed cruising the north tent with a bottle in hand meeting people. I did that several times and it may have been the highlight of the day. But people shared great beer with me and I want to reciprocate next year.

Other than that, thanks to advice from this thread, our group pretty much nailed it.

 

I might have to agree with this, especially if there are vouchers involved. I did love the sharing, but I also feel like I missed out somewhat on taps (and I didn't eat any of the food while I was there...just the stuff I brought) while inside the tent for so long. I'd still want to share some inside during free time, but I'd scale it back by at least one bomber compared to what I brought this year.

 

I brought too many as well, and not enough people wanted them so my pack stayed too heavy even though I consciously tried to make sure I wouldn't make that mistake again. smh

 

I really enjoyed the bottle share and camaraderie of the line to get in. That was half the fun of the event. Maybe could have done with a couple of port-o-potties accessible from the line because I had a tough time holding it for 2+ hours.

I was prepared for the weather, drank in moderation, never had a bad beer all day, enjoyed as much of The Beast as I could stomach and had a great time.

 

Gold and Silver snifters are available on Dark Matter's website.

http://www.darkmattercoffee.com/collections/drinkware

 

And the spending continues... Had to get a bag of the blood lord coffee since I missed it at the fest. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Has anyone tried Blood Lord and Unicorn Blood, and is the difference substantial? Descriptions welcome.

 

I brought both home and I can tell you the differences are night and day. Unicorn blood is shockingly smooth and creamy if you will. To me at least I would have a hard time believing they are the same base beans....

Upon edit I will admit that I did enjoy blood lord alot more as an expresso rather than a normal cup. It's good as a regular cup but having it via expresso it's lights out..

Cheers!

 

I did the same but felt like the bottle share was WAY more sedate this year in general. I couldn't find empty glasses to pour things into! I'm thinking maybe because so many people knew they had to burn vouchers in taps this year?

 

Man I know this is super ambiguous but there was this really cool dude that had a BCBS on hand as I'm walking towards infamous cluster of porta-potties surrounded by what appeared to be the everglades less any alligators and all I remember from our encounter was him with a big ass smile on his face pouring that BCBS for anyone passing by and he just takes me under his wing and says: "You're empty dude let's fix that." F*ck DLD, already can't wait to go back....

 

We were there an hour before it opened and in line at the North Gate and made it in just barely before noon.

 

Do you remember what this guy looked like? What year was this bottle?

 

Location of ISIS- staged executions deep in the heart of Syria? Nope, the FFF's "appreciation" tent for distributors and investors. It was an completely dark, mud and garbage filled very small tent. It's hard not to conclude that FFFs hates its distributors and investors and hopes that they all just f' off.

Here's what surrounded the "hospitality tent." There was no way in or out without transversing deep and slippery mud or walking on ridiculously slippery and rickety wooden pallates. Just after I took this pic, some poor soul wiped out on the wooden walk way and did a total face plant right into the mud.

 

Bottle was a 2015 for sure. Very thin frame dude and he had the same facial features as Matt Doran also known as Mouse from the Matrix. It was later in the day around 4 or 5 pm.

 

IU fan tackling you. That's some funny shit right there.

 

Hey, if the rest of the Big Ten was in the condition I was at 4 pm last Saturday, IU would punch a ticket to the Rose Bowl no problem.

 

Man, all these stories of theft are crazy. I sat by a guy on the bus back to Jaks that got his allotment jacked. Ended up just giving the guy a bottle. Hopefully that made his day a little better.

 

Was anyone else on a bus back to Jak's around 5:30 that had the doors closed and then some guy came and banged on the door to let the driver allow him on the bus? It wasn't me, I swear. It was my buddy I was with and he told me that story, which made me wonder how much of an ass he was at the time and how annoying he was.

 

This year's hot DLD item was the rain suit.

I predict the 2017 must have item will be one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Locker-Brand-...NCHM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445390895&sr=8-1

With one of these thrown in:
https://www.thetileapp.com/

 

Wow. That sucks :-(