Darklord Day 2017

I know there was an article released around the end of April last year that listed some of the variants. They were, obviously, a bit more tight lipped this year. I'm not going to speculate as to the reason, but it is a bit disappointing to see this information released the day before onsale. I'm still at 50/50 trying for tickets as my normal group isn't going this year (and I don't know if I can be trusted to be responsible the day before mother's day).

 

It's evolved into a NE Style Imperial Stout. Some people might very well pass on the BA variants with that characterization.

 

I've had an '07 in an '07 '09 '10 '15 lazy vertical...it was sludge. It still tasted relatively pleasing, but it was weird, might as well has been a cookie ingredient.

 

I can corroborate that. Had a full vertical (04-16). Everything pre 11 was not great by consensus of everyone.

 

I keep a vertical of Dark Lord, and I refuse to keep any bottle longer than 5 years. Honestly, after the 5-year mark I feel like the beer turns into the soy sauce-y mess that everybody is describing.

I currently am keeping 2012-2016 as my vertical, and come this year's DLD we will be popping that 2012 bottle. In my experience, it keeps the bottles still in the sweet spot prime for opening, and keeps a hold on my vertical becoming a beer horde.

 

I've got to be honest, the 11th hour change in variants has made me have 11th hour second thoughts. If I can't get in the first few groups, I may pass or buy a single ticket.

 

Sell or trade it. Shared a bottle at Mornin' Delight in October and it was awful. But you can still get value for it.

 

I know this is crazy, but maybe they have enough variants but they also have a bunch of vintage bottles. So possibly they are giving people the option instead of choosing a variant they aren't interested in. Just a thought.

 

Yeah, vintage 2017.

Let's not forget, vintage means nothing without a year next to it

 

One might think that, if the verbiage on the website wasn't clear, but.. it kinda is.

They're expecting to run out of variants, and when they do, they'll give you 2 bottles of old DL instead.

 

It's pretty clear that that they don't have enough variants because:
"A variant will not be guaranteed. It will be a variant or 2 vintage bottles of Dark Lord beer."
Otherwise they would say you have an option of either or.

 

I had been looking forward to this for the longest time but the uncertainty behind how many people get stuck with 2 vintage bottles and them changing the wording has put a huge damper on it for me. I'll have to go through a lot of trouble to make it to the event and unless I get session A I may be passing this year.

 

Damn, didn't see that part. Was wishful thinking.

 

From the FAQ page:
"Once variants run out, you can choose 2 vintage bottles of Dark Lord."

This is the key- it's FCFS of the variants and when exhausted the vintages will be an option. If they have variants left, you won't have the option. Vintage DL will only be put out at the end.

 

I don't know about that. Last year a handful of the available variants were leftovers from
The previous year, were they not?

 

My thoughts:

This is a kick the the nuts.
I personally enjoyed the vouchers last year, it was easy to hand over a wet slimy voucher than getting my wallet and handling cash while being 4x over the legal limit. I do not want to have $100 or more of cash on me for food and pay for every beer. That being said...
Last year was $200
This year $180
The tickets for this years event shouldnt be this high with the cuts of other things. Where are they getting $180 from? With no vouchers and no guaranteed variant

4 DL=$100
1 BA DL= $50

Or

6 DL=$150

Anyways 2 regulars don't equal a variant, as said by many if I can't get A-C, I'm not going...I'll come for a line share tho!

 

I was already slightly turned off by the price change. The variant shenanigans don't have me stressing getting a ticket this year. I'm A or out. This would be the first year in 9 that I haven't gone.

 

You're right, there were.

In 2016 they had 3 variants from 2015, I believe, which implies to me that FFF even then didn't have enough of the variants for that year and they dipped into what they had left from the year before. This year, we see the same: not enough 2017 variants for everyone attening the 2017 DLD event, hence having to dip into vintages (maybe ran out of all the variants they had from years prior).

Back when they did the scratch off ticket, the approximate odds of winning were 1 in 8 (or 1 in 4... cant remember, but in either case) which meant they didn't need to brew as much of the variants for every winning ticket to receive one. Now that they are saying 'everyone' gets a variant, their target was set at 12,500 variants (the number of people at the event). Maybe that's more than they can handle right now and their targets were too ambitious to guarantee everyone a variant bottle right out of the gate.

Or they just brew an X amount of variant beers and the rest they just decide to fill with random vintages to fill the gap.

 

It would be easier to lower the price of E and say they don't get a variant, but that's not metal. ... Perhaps sticking to the two variants that people like would make producing them easier.

 

If they have enough variants from previous years to offer them again the next year, how is it exactly that there aren't enough variants?

I mean if that's the case again this year, then technically, there are enough...