Dark Lord Day (2021)

I did immediately, we'll see what they say.

 

The internet is a lot like being in a car crash. Never admit you were wrong. Or drunk.

 

I definitely understand where you're coming from but I'm happy to just pay the cost of the bottles ($50 per BA and $30 for reg) this year for a guarantee at either Handjee or Chemtrailmix without the festival entry fee tacked onto it. Agreed, the biggest draw were the random beer shares with like minded strangers and using stouts to warm ourselves during a cold rainy day. But I personally don't feel comfortable to trust everyone is safely vaccinated or negative to partake in similar fashion as years prior.

 

Good news is 2020 is still available for everyone that wants a shot at the possibility of a bad variant.

 

Damn I figured after last year I’d have plenty of time to log on and snag a bag or two. My 12-year streak of allotments comes to an end. Sad.

 

Same. And even with my year with pretty good odds to finally get a Handjee (though, l know I still wouldn't get it). The drive to Indiana was my final nail in the '21 DL coffin this year. I just don't want to do it and will blow the extra money hunting down those barrel variants of BCBS as well as more Deep Woods packs.

Also was an easier decision since I had to drive my kid home from swim and forgot to log on to the site until an hour after the drop...

 

Or perhaps, as was the case my group of 5 usual DL festgoers, we all passed on the 4+1 option last year because we weren’t interested in paying that much for mostly regular with a chance at a single crap tier variant. This year we all put in max orders, given that there was half the amount of regular making up the cost, two guaranteed variants, with all tasty sounding options.

I’ll be interested to hear the bottle counts though if that is ever released for this year.

 

I’m admittedly a little out of the loop on the Dark Lord game the past handful of years. Are most of the 2020 variants that underwhelming that none of the days are sold out as of yet?

 

Most of them are pretty good actually, but there are a few that people don’t want (Scotch barrel for example) and a few that people just don’t want to drop much money on. Maybe 1/3rd of them are “worth it” to the larger audience.

I think if Handjee or Chemtrail was guaranteed along with one random other they would sell faster.

 

I’m guessing they made a lot less this year. From what I remember, the last 2 years lasted longer than 45 minutes.

 

Or they are holding a lot more bottles back for next year.

 

Just speaking personally, but I would guess a lot of people share my thoughts. I would break it down like this...

Very high interest- Handjee and Chemtrailmix

Less hype, but still good- Hellaboozie and Keyrock

Previously good demand but adjuncts probably fading a bit- Rrari and Loadstar

Mixed opinions-Lounge Against the Macromachine

Not a lot of people had it and sketchy barrels/ingredients- Sacred Sword of Jovan and Pierre's Javelin

Hard pass- My Rod is my Comfort

 

This is exactly why I did it. Happy to be here.

 

@JohnnyHopps just wanted to follow up on my own post here. In looking over the DLD 2020 bottles, I was reminded about Loadstar. This was actually the beer I was thinking of. My group of friends that went to DLD 2019 all got together right before (right as?) the pandemic was beginning and lock downs were starting to be a thing and drank all of our 2019 variants and some others. Loadstar was completely lacking coconut and was just an overly sweet stout. It was a disappointment compared to what we had on draft early in the day at DLD 2019. While 'Rrari had also lost most of the coconut, I still liked it quiet a bit. Reminded me of a Neapolitan ice cream stout. Wish I would've gotten to try it fresh, and have no idea what the 2020 was like. Either way, may still be worth trying to trade for if you wanted to take a swing at it.

 

I could be 100% incorrect (since I didn’t pay attention last year) but I believe they have so much from last year because they couldn’t sell out. I was told that they shut it down due to lack of interest.

Fast forward to this year. There are only 3 variants. They were also working at partial capacity at the brewery last year. I can’t imagine they were able to fill a lot of barrels.

 

I appreciate the thoughts on this. LoadStar is another one I considered acquiring.

 

Considering we're getting fewer regular bottles, plus still two variants, seems to me to be the other way around, in that they produced way less 2021 DL liquid than they have in the past 7 years I've been going, but had plenty of barrel stock to offer so we didn't revert back to 1 variant per person.

The scotch (My Rod My Comfort) was pretty good, which only made me more interested in tracking either mezcal variant, which has to be even better, since I typically hate scotch and love mezcal. Hopefully I get a 2020 LATM in my pack so I don't have to wonder anymore.

 

I was actually backing up my own claim that they weren’t able to make as much DL this year over previous years.

 

When does this stuff go in barrels? Did it go in fall of 2020 during the pandemic so they made less? Or did they do it a few months ago? Rev and GI have had good success with 2 year stouts would be cool if FFF put some down for the future.

 

I know we were all hoping some 2019 got stuck in barrels due to 2020, but that doesn't seem to be the case at this point. That said, I think we all generally understood this year's variants were in barrels since last year's fresh brew. Not like we have proof, though.