DLD 2013 retrospective

I had a blast! Very well run much better than previous years. I tasted so many awesome beers!

That I can remember : vanilla bourbon DL, '11 BA DL, DL de Muerte, '11 DL, coffee bcs, bramble bcs, cherry rye bcs, kbs, black note, stone whiskey barrel scotch ale, heady topper, pliny, cantillon lou pepe kriek, cantillon oude gueze, supplication, beautification, flower child, sour in the rye, and the wild one.

My favorites being: lou pepe, beautification, sour in the rye, vanilla DL and'11 DL.

All of those were pours from generous people! Thanks a lot every one can't wait for next year!

 

I posted this in the "main" thread too, but my thoughts were similar:

I gotta say, after all the horror stories from years past, and this being my first DLD, I thought it went off amazingly well. It was very... un-FFF-like. Well-organized; plenty of space; short lines (except for the vintage and Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Lord pours and the allotment lines, of course); plenty of staffing; friendly; etc. Not sure where they were hiding the usual FFF employees, but these people were very friendly. It was, actually...extremely enjoyable instead of the seizure-inducing stressfest I was expecting.

We had Group C tix. Got there about 7AM. Street parking was gone, so we parked at Centennial Park; next year, we'll just hold our noses and pay the ridiculous prices to park in one of the closer businesses selling parking.

The line sampling/trading was phenomenal; good peeps everywhere, low bro/hipster-quotient, high Beer Advocate-quotient, mostly 35+ beer nerds (like us); lots of trading (both pre-arranged trades with Beer Advocate users and spontaneous); it was terrific (frankly, the high point of a good day).

Line to get in moved quickly as staff were checking tickets and handing out wristbands through the line about 1/2 hour before entry. We were pretty close to the front of the South Gate (I'd imagine the North Gate line was much shorter as that's not the usual approach to the brewery), but the vintage and Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Lord lines were already a lost cause. Swag lines and regular Dark Lord lines were short, though, so we hit them up first.

Dark Lord needs some time on it (shockingly sweet fresh) and the Cat Claws (or Cat Tails or something) was very nice. After that, we hit the guest taps and the non-Dark Lord FFF taps (mostly the guest taps, though); lines were never longer than 5 minutes -- good for avoiding standing in line, bad for regulating beer intake!

When 1:30 rolled around, we got in the allotment line and it was long, but moved pretty quickly all things considered; we were in line with some great people, though, so that helped; all told, it was probably 3:30 by the time we got through the line and were headed out with our Dark Lord, Bourbon Barrel Aged Vanilla Dark Lord, and various others.

All in all, it was an amazing day that I'd do again in a heartbeat! Would absolutely suggest doing Group C; get the partying in before grabbing the allotment, and then hitting the road after getting it.

 

Big props to biglobo, backfat, hannydawg, alewatcher, turdfurgison, mnbearsfan, spdkilz, Bonus Beer Bob and many others!

The increase in price was worth it for the added organization. It was the smoothest DLD yet. C did take almost two hours to get through but I didn't have to wait on anything else all day, except for a brat.

 

The increase in price was worth every penny. Easily the best beer event I've ever been to. And frankly, better organized than most outdoor concerts I've been to. I didn't stand in the Dark Lord tap line, but I couldn't believe how short the guest tap lines were. Had some amazing stuff on tap with zero wait. The portapotty situation was worth every extra penny this year alone. The Dark Lord line itself was long, but the buying process took about 30 seconds.

All in all, pretty amazing event. Thanks to Three Floyds, and to the Chicago Beer Bus/Chicago Beer Geeks crew for getting me there and back (and sharing your Pliny).

 

speaking of shares and guest taps, did anyone get Rufus from FW? holy cannoli!!!

 

Missed last year's DLD, attended the previous three. Our best experience yet. We got there about 8:30 and got into the line for the north gate entrance. It was already down the cul-de-sac north of FFF. No worries, as in previous years, always fortunate to be around good people who share. Made for a quick pass until 10:00am. A bit of an organizing snafu, when gates opened and people who were standing in line were told it was the "Group A" line, and had to move across the street. More signs FFF, more SIGNS!! Once in, it was exceedingly pleasing to have space to actually set up a folding chair. Now THAT is a beer festival!! In previous years, there was no/little insentive to say, once you got your allotment due to it feeling like the set of Soylent Green: bodies everywhere. Having access to DL on tap ALL day was a BIG plus. Was not my experience in previous years.

I can't praise enough the benefit of having more space. Coupled with the outstanding weather, made for a reason to stay (and yes, spend more money...). Note to self: Bring sunscreen. Who would have thunk we would need that. Two years ago it was Icy hots..

Curry brats were the food of the day for me. Had at least three orders

Nice set up with the Merch tables. Much more room, thus increasing the liklihood the people would spend more money

Guest taps were ok, but nothing that would pull me away from on tap DL. Afterall, that's why I came.

First year we were not in Group A. The line was horrid. Two hours to get to the front. Granted, got fortunate and scored a Port BA variant. Needs some continued thought on choke point management. Having only one guy (at least when we got there) handing out and scratching you golden ticket really slowed down the mass of humanity that crunched down to that portal.

Overall, I'll give it a B+.

Great to see continued improvement towards a Festival environment.

Signs FFF, more signs.... Oh, did I mention, more signs?

 

I didn't see it...this was the list I saw. Was there another one somewhere?!

 

I had a great time yesterday at my first DLD. I met a ton of awesome BAs that were extremely generous. Most memorable beers were definitely 2006 Dark Lord, Rare, King Henry and Fifteen. Huge thanks to cuzco and Montrose79 for inviting my friend Garrett & me into their group. Additional thanks to Biglobo, leschkie, fastpass17, MegDuf32 BeerMeFitz, dman127 and so many others that made the day awesome!

 

Life. Changing.

 

A beer festival headlined by High On Fire is basically infallible. Great time, had several beers throughout the day that I quite enjoyed. FFF's Cat Moves was an early highlight. Drinking 20+ oz. of Napa County Bourbon County toward the end of the night did me in and was a terrible idea, but a great beer. Drinking Deesko much of the day at $5 a pint also somehow made me feel like I was getting over on the world.

I don't disagree that the food situation could have been a little better. Paying $10 for a small portion of the smoked meats, much of which was just fat, kinda sucked. Regret not getting the tacos. But otherwise, the whole new setup was great, I never felt like a fat, bearded sardine at any point in the day. I enjoyed the band lineup, appreciated the signage everywhere, and generally felt like most complaints in the past had been addressed and corrected. $30 for the ticket was totally fine by me after seeing how much better run this year was.

The one incident - and there's always one - that I just remembered that could have been bad was the old dude waiting in the unlocked portajohn that my wife opened who was waving his dick at her (or any other woman that was about to enter, I guess) and said, "No, you can come in." Could have been bad in that if I'd been there I'd likely have been thrown out for knocking the crapper over face first. I'm assuming this guy thought he was advocating craft penis, but wrong fest ol' bro.

But anyway, the changes FFF made were great and greatly appreciated. Already looking forward to next year.

 

This years even was run extremely well. MY only recommendations to improve it are:

1. People cut in line like crazy at the taps where DL variants came out. This area needs some type of organization.
2. I don't know how but speed up the bottle allotment process. There were people waiting 3 hours to get their bottles it was a little crazy.
3. Get some better food! It was ok but cold the second I got it

 

Guest Taps were OK.......OK???!?!?!?!??! I dont think you saw what was getting tapped throught the day. Mikkeller BA texas ranger, BA texas ranger with raspberries, BA mexas ranger, two different sponanta series, GI napa county stout, flat 12 Pappy BA double IPA, FW parabola, scuba, RUFUS, CCB cucumber lager, hunahpu, leon (BTW-my buddy got a glass from when they switched the keg from huna to leon and got an amazing accidental blend)..... those are just the ones I remember I drank. There was like another 50 and I think the word OK only applied to about 10 percent of what was on tap. Oh and did I mention that most of those amazingly strong beers were 5 bucks? OK..... no way.

Side Note - Did anyone else besides myself and Tiny Paramids notice something called "Mikkeller Double Black at 18% abv"? I think there are 3 things wrong with that beer description.

 

To the dude who just straight up gave me a can of Heady Topper in the group B line, you're the best.

Hill Farmstead Edward was absolutely fantastic. As is my sunburn today.

 

I can't comment on any of the food other than the tacos. I ended up getting 3 orders of those throughout the day they were so good.

One thing i did not like was the guys in yellow shirts controlling the lines. Most of those people were alright, but there were some that were power tripping assholes. One guy in particular forcefully pulled a guy out of line by his collar after he had come back from the bathroom. The same guy wouldn't let me walk through the line to get to the bathrooms...saying 'thats what you get for waiting so long'.

 

Was a blast hanging with you, Scott, Backfat, Markinthar, Shaggs, Abe, etc. that I don't get to see regularly. I thought the organization was very well done (granted I was group A so I was in and out of there fast). The $5 sub they were selling was actually pretty damn good for the price, and the guest taps sick. So many good beers poured, and so many generous people.

One of my favorite beer events I have gone to.

 

Do you remember what these were? I remember getting a glass of one of them that started with a "V," but I can't remember the word.