Dark Lord (2018)

cigar smoke is the worst part of DLD. this year the line cutters rivaled that though.

 

The volunteer handing out dark load asked to take a place future of my wu tang shirt.

Wish I could have parlayed into a better variant.

 

Another great pairing is beerfests and not being an a-hole. If people want to smoke cigars don't do it in a gated line where they are constantly having to blow it in someones face as they are surrounded by people on all sides.

 

also, total guess, but cigars seem like a surefire way to kill your palate.

 

almost didn't make it last minute due to medical emergency, but went and drank against doc's orders. I'm alive and got 2 hung variants. was a good day!

 

Arrived early afternoon and spent almost the whole time standing in variants lines but it was awesome that they had so many variants on tap and it was fun talking to people and sharing in line. Our first line was Bruce at 2 and it was a mess with 3 lines all in the same area (since the hanjee line was so long that it went in front of Bruce as well). Too much confusion and line cutters going on that we got shut out of FVM but Brotilla was pouring for a long time with next to no line which was awesome. Spent most of the day in that area but after the 2PM tappings enough people had cleared out that lines were more obvious, organized, and cutter free.

I didn't really witness people ordering more than 2 pours of anything, I assumed there was a 2 per person limit.

I liked the addition of tables with umbrellas out in the entry area as well as having more space under the tent. Staff was cleaning up bottles in the tent area which was nice since normally the tables are unusable late in the day. I felt bad for not checking out guest taps more but it really seems like the variants must've hurt the non-whaley guest tap sales a lot. Also felt weird that we spent almost all of our time in a relatively small area of the grounds.

Got pours of Chemtrail, Hanjee, Hung, Brotilla, and Brozerker on tap. Really enjoyed all of them other than Brozerker. Definitely prefer bourbon over the rye used in Hung but still solid. Drinking so many BADLs did make most of the other stouts I tried thin and flavorless by comparison. Hell, I'm pretty sure our opinion of Hung was hurt by us drinking the flavor bomb that is Chemtrail right beforehand.

Had group C but picked up bottles along with E since we weren't in a hurry to carry those around. Line definitely got longer as the day went on but it moved real fast so no complaints there. My wife and I both got Hanjee (despite going to different ends of the table to try and increase the chances of us getting different bottles) and immediately was able to trade 1 for a FVM & Spaceforce. Wanted more variety and was curious about Lounge so traded the Spaceforce for it. The guy I found who had the Lounge had his bottle outside the event and couldn't bring it in due to the reentry limitations but I talked with some FFF staff and a manager actually helped facilitate our trade and took my bottle out to him and brought me my tequila. Super nice guy and really appreciated it. We got a laugh out of the fact that someone offered him money for the bottle almost immediately despite him clearly being staff. Getting three variants definitely helps make up for both of us pulling vintages last year.

In general I felt it was a really well run event. About the stupidest decision I felt they made was their decision to sell Chemtrail icecream in full pints. That ice cream was intense and people did not need anything resembling a full pint; tons of people were sharing theirs and still threw out over half of it.

 

Haha yup I got a lot of compliments on the Bender hat and it def made it easier to be found in the sea of people! Was nice meeting ya and sharing some beers in the pen. I was on the look out all day for Wu gear but after so many beers I lost track of time, forgot the grassy knoll again. The mad dash was hilariously, I just walked over to CTM and was like number 40 in line while everyone ran for Handjee. Another great DLD.

 

Had a great time. Finally starting to feel a bit less like shit. Got handjee and rye, so that was cool. Didn't have cash to tip but made some friends with the volunteers by giving them pours. This poor guy could barely pour beer with all the pours I was giving him. Lol. Highlights included:

A couple of the praire Dawgs stuff
The praire macaroon thing (thank God it was just a small pour and not a glass tho)
Handjee 18- too sweet, hopefully it mellows
Handjee 17- awesome, thanks random guy
Chemtrailmix 18- amazing! Had like 6 full cups (4.5 oz), definitely what did me in.
Sherry variant - good, not my fav but I wudnt have been bummed to get it
Fvm 18- Soo good. Easily my second favorite after chemtrailmix. It was all coffee and almost no barrel
Port barrel - not my thing, not at all
Regular 18- really good, super balanced, much less soy sauce
Ronaldo- cherry cough meds in a darklord. Cudnt tell if I liked or hated it
2013 DL- good but was wrecked by the time I tried it
BBA double rainbow- not a big strawberry stout guy but had to try it. Some dude was trying to trade it for a handjee. I declined, dude behind me made the trade (he had 2 handjee). Promptly opened it and started sharing. Thanks guy!
BAA- first time trying it. I liked it alot but actually liked chemtrailmix better (bring the hate!)
Assassin 18- really really good
Tried a TON of east coast haze. Always good. Treehouse hurricane was my favorite.

If I ran into any of u and we shared a pour, thanks! Super time .cant wait for next year. Can one of the time travellers hook us up with the variant list early? (Like nowish)

 

Another great DLD is in the books. It was great meeting some of you. And a BIG thank you for to those who allowed me to leave my backpack at the table so I could walk my wife and our allotment out to the hotel shuttle bus.

 

Yeah I was being sarcastic, their comments sounded like they were trolling hard

 

yum yum tent. they rotated all day, a lot of turnover ~12. the good ones didn't last long.

 

Nothing like a post DLD sauna session and sweating out the Dark Lord Demons

 

Well I had another fantastic DLD! I'm not sure I was a fan of them announcing the variant schedule as the lines were pretty ridiculous, but at the same time I got to try way more variants on tap than ever. I was able to try Chemtrailmix, Handjee (FINALLY!!), FVM, Brotilla, and Brozerker. I think I would rank them in that order, but I thoroughly enjoyed them all. Also got to try Quit Hitting Yourself, but since that wasn't an '18 variant I didn't want to rank it. Concerning FVM, I thought this year's was way more coffee/chocolate heavy than the last two and would put it between '16 and '17 as far as ranking it. Got a Brozerker as my variant, and I am ok with that! Highlight of the day was Chemtrailmix! Was able to grab a couple pours at the 9am tap, and then went over and shared it with people in the Dark Matter line while I waited for my buddies to get through that line as well. Not sure if I met anyone from here (wasn't advertising that I was a BAer), but I was the guy with with the Ice-T/Ice Cube shirt. Great time as always, and can't wait to make it 6 years in a row!

 

I got food at the Doner truck & there was a tip option for them after they scanned my wristband so it should be easy for FFF to add it ti the POS system

I opened my bag & was standing there while the guy was yelling at people on line to keep filtering down to the end. He looked down at me, not my bag, & said "oh sorry you need to go down the table to the next guy". So I go to the next guy & before I can open my bag he says "wristband?" so I show my wristband, he scans it & no one ends up looking in my ag even though I was actively trying to show it to them. Clearly the 72oz was a scare tactic so people would bring less & buy more taps. I didn't buy any taps because the couple of lists that I checked out were standard FFF stuff & I was not waiting an hour in line for a variant

 

This is definitely a DLD for my record book. Easily my favorite since my first. Finally got pours of the elusive Chemtrail Mix that’s always dodged me (it was ). Second straight year of meeting at least one BAer (@toolbrew). Ate the super delicious chicken and waffles (that hot sauce was on point). I didn’t dig All Hell that much but Pig Destroyer was very good. To top it all off I scored a Marshmallow Handjee as my variant.
Now that we’ve all gotten used to the latest festival map it’s onto a whole new set up (I’m assuming) with the upcoming brewery mega-expansion. Everyone thinking it’ll still be exclusively outdoors or a mix of both?

 

Had a great DLD, as expected. Saw less DL Zombies than in years passed.

I want to give props to FFF, not only for a great DLD, but for the fact that really came through for me. They always seem to get a lot of crap on the customer service side of things. So, I go through the bottle pickup line and as i'm walking out I check my variant. It's just a regular 2018. Quickly scan the case in the bag, maybe they just got shifted around. Nope, 5 regulars. By this time i'm almost out of the door. I talked to the police officer really quick so that he can be proof that I didn't leave the 'secure area' , swap bottles and come back in. A worker was down the way a bit and I talked to him. Some back and forth on the headset and he tells me there's nothing they can do. I was pissed but didn't want to be a dick so I just walked out. Ended up talking to someone else he suggested go back to the line and see what they can do. So I go back, talk to the volunteer guard, he gets his boss, I explain the situation, he says he heard it come over the headset and he goes and talks to his boss. After a few minutes, they bring me back in to the bottle room, I show him the 5 regulars I had he takes 1 and comes back with a variant. I don't even look at it, just thank him and stuff the bottles back in my bag. So i'm happy. Check the bottle after I get out and it's a Handjee. Not sure if it was 'random' or not but it was very much appreciated. I would've been happy with any of the variants. This bottle will be shared with friends when we get bac together for our 6 year vertical tasting.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to make sure FFF gets its proper recognition.

 

A big thank you to my wife this morning for handling the first driving shift back to Columbus as I was still resting off an epic list of samples + Quannto + DL 2018x2 + Handjee 2018x2...you get the idea.

Over the two days, I sampled (and subsequently checked into Untappd) 50+ unique beers. My wife asked me which one stood out and honestly, so many good ones amongst the lot that I don't think I can pick a favorite.

 

the zombie dust they had on tap was some of the best ive had in ages. was really great stuff.

 

So how long were the waits for variants? Was it usually the case that if you were willing to wait it out, you could get some?

 

We were like 30 deep for 2017 Ronaldo and it blew before we got to it. That was disappointing.