Dark Lord Day 2016

This was my 4th DLD and aside from the weather, had a great time. Had Group E tickets and came with friends with Group A, so we split up North and South gates upon arrival at 930. By 1130 I had not seen or heard from those friends since I gave him my extra poncho. At 1245 he texted me that he just got his allocation. Seems to me that if you know you're not in Group A, and every piece of information you read says don't line up in the North Gate line unless you're Group A, you don't line up at the North Gate unless your ticket says Group A. But I understand comprehension is hard sometimes. For him, and his first DLD, it set the tone for a really shitty day.
Anyway, the South Gate line was great. Met some cool guys from Kansas City that were great to chat with and some very friendly people from Michigan. Took about 2 hours to get in to DLD itself. Went straight to the guest taps and grabbed a light Caramel Apple Triple from Sun King, which was very nice. Also got to try the 2016 Dark Lord and thought it was really good, better than any fresh Dark Lord I had tasted previously. The rest of the day flew by. I was never blown away by the tap lists anywhere I saw (and let's be honest...did they really need to have 2 versions of "Gubna" on at the same time???), but always tried something new whenever I got to the front of the line. Saw that the food lines were long, but waited a little while and the lines got much shorter. Never a line for a bathroom all day. Was very surprised to see the brewery tweet out that Group E could get their allocation so much earlier than our allotted time. Thought the process of picking up your 4 pack and grabbing your variant were awesome compared to previous years. I think we can ALL agree that process is much improved!
Bottle share was great. Tent was as packed as expected thanks to the weather.

 

Ended up with BB as my variant(group B)
First time at Dark Lord and ended up meeting another member on the jaks shuttle, then met another member who was in a group that was nice enough to share pours of 2004 to 2014. Also, shared a pour of Muerte from the guest tap which I liked. Overall the only thing that could have made the day better was weather, lines, being able to use the vouchers for merch, and giving the guy that was willing to ship me a 2013 bourbon county my info before we split. Not upset about missing out on vanillas at all.

 

Templeton rye bcbs was so good. I didnt get one pour of any ba darklord (too much time bottle sharing)

 

My buddy and I had a great time, and I can' really relate to issues of getting in, or waiting for food or much else. We showed up at 6:25 AM at the North gate and were probably 150th in line... Maybe even closer. Bottle shares starting right off the bat and people were opening up Black Tuesday Reserve, VBDL '15, Prop 14 and all other kinds of heavy hitters. Got to try Other Half, Trillium, Hoof Harted and all that.

To all the kind people sharing their goodies with us, thank you!

But basically once they started letting people in, it took us maybe 20-30 minutes to get through and then were ushered into the facility. Took about 10 minutes to get our allotment (including picking up our variant), walked outside, picked up hot souce and was eating tacos with 0 people waiting in front at many food locations at that pt. We had everything major taken care of by ~11AM. We got a DL '16 and a Notorious Triple IPA from Boneyard, drank that and then waited maybe 15 minutes for coffee and glasses. Went to hotel to drop stuff of before coming back for more taps, shares, etc.

Great time!

 

Anyone come across a guy pouring imperial blackberry bu or imperial boysenberry bu?

Trying to figure what the hell happened to those two bottles

 

Best beer on tap was Jackie O's dark apparition with vanilla. Otherwise it was the beers I brought in myself. Better weather fixes almost all of these issues. Had fun.

 

Despite the shitty things that I've read about happening yesterday at DLD, I need to give a shout out to the real people out there. The people that helped the over served find their friends and keep them from losing their sh*t. The people that felt an empty glass meant you needed a whale poured into it, even though you've never so much as seen that person before. People just looking out for people.
Weather be damned I had a great time and seen many other people do the same. I was fortunate enough to sample/cross off several beers from my craft beer bucket list. The food was great and filled me up both times I ate. The lines for food were long but moved pretty quickly.
The potty scene was on point this year. I literally never waited for a potty. Not once. I even seen them being pumped out twice.
The guest tap wasn't the greatest but did have several beers that I never had on tap before that I was able to enjoy. Always look forward to having my BBPT5 at DLD.
I loved the fact that GA was eliminated, for the sheer sake of space. I was able to get in and out of our space in the tent with minimal effort. There was actually space to turn around with a filled backpack on and not hit anyone with it.
Sure, if I wanted to I'm sure I could find a few things to bitch about. I just had way too damn good of a time this year. Here's to page one of the DLD 2017 thread!!!

 

Got to the North Gate about 8am. We had a crew of about 12-15 and we started opening beers right away. Like crazy stuff right off the bat. Just as we were getting started we noticed that my camelbak bladder had broke in my bag. So I took it to the car and grabbed a few bottles of water. At 9am they decided that they should move everyone from the street and into the line. At 9:30 with 30 minutes before the gates were about to open I had to pee worse than I've ever had to pee in my life. We were literally trapped in those chest high barricades. I was perfectly in the middle of the crowd so it wasn't like I could just push my way to the front and see if they'd let me use a porta-potty and then back in. So I push to the end of the line and I ask a security guard what you're supposed to do if you have to use the bathroom. He shrugs at me and says "I don't know". He waves another guy over and that guy says "You'll have to push your way outta here and then you have to go to the back of the line".

So that's what I do. I push to the end of the next section where I find 4 other people doing the same thing. One dude just starts opening barricades and we cut through. I use the bathroom and sure enough security won't let me back in. So now I'm separated from my friends and at the end of the line. My friends who had been half way through the gates didn't get in until 11:00. I didn't get in until 12:00, ignoring awesome whale pours the whole time because I knew I would just have to pee again.

Once I got in I flew through the Dark Lord line, grabbed some merch, and found my friends. By 12:45 I was settled in under the South tent and enjoying some beers. People asked me what happened and as I told them I was regaled with stories of women being flanked by men so they could pee in the line, dudes peeing through fences and into any bottle they could. I don't know how anyone didn't think of this.

I agree that the guest taps weren't as good as last year but I wouldn't call them "bad". The weather can go fuck itself, the food lines were insane. I never saw them move. Dark Matter sold out of stuff in what felt like record time which is weird with how it went last year. I only ended up using 4 of my 8 vouchers. Whoops! It was still fun to drink amazing beer with my friends I just hope one year all the stars can align and we can have good weather and a well executed event.

 

They did have min-snifters until late in the day, though. I came home with a set of each, and I know I didn't have them anytime before 3. I don't really remember the purchasing process, so maybe I was jerk that just took them from somewhere, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case. I actually wanted the regular 3F mini-snifters at the merchandise tents, but they were out at that time.

I'm finding myself remembering more of the guest taps I had...just remembered I did get a pour of Huna, as well TG Golden Nugget and '16 Dark Lord. I know I had at least one other, but can't for the life of my remember what it was.

 

Compiling to one post. Taken from numbers that others gave. I hope I got it all right.

Dwarven Power Bottom: 455
Ronaldo: 422
Marshmallow: 672
French militia: 1104
Quit hitting yourself: 1384
Trump and Pump: 1286
Legio Gemina: 854
De La Muerte: 618
BBA DL: 859
Temeculan 3000: 840

 

Summing up bottle counts (still need Earl of Biggleswade and Akvavit):

Marshmallow-672
French Vanilla-1104
Ronaldo-422
Bourbon Barrel-859
Quit hitting yourself - 1384
Trump and Pump - 1286
Legio Gemina - 854
Muerte-618
Dwarven Power Bottom: 455
Temeculan 3000: 840
Earl of Biggleswade - ????
Akvavit - ????

 

Anyone try the French militia? How was it? No homerism please.

 

Ha, had the same idea. But just didn't care about aqavit or biggleswade.

 

At this point I'm just hoping Ronaldo has the lowest bottle count. Didn't seem to have the hype of Marshmallow or French Vanilla, but I was happy to be able to grab it in Group B.

 

The hospitality tent was a joke. You're welcome 3 Floyds for selling your beer. For now. Talk to me next week.

 

First time going and had the greatest time, despite being soaked as the day went on. Thanks for all the tips on this thread that helped make the festival more enjoyable. Love craft beer and I really enjoyed sharing with complete strangers. As a newbie in line at the south gate getting rained on and nobody was really sharing outside there immediate group my buddy and I decided to crack a bottle and started pouring into anyone near us with an empty glass. And as one of the tips on this thread, I didn't give a crap if anyone poured anything back in return, just wanted to enjoy and share great beer. But of course it was reciprocated and pours came back of some of the most amazing beers that we have never had and been hunting for. Love it! Did this several times throughout the festival grabbing something out and joining a random group.
Just great people and great beer, what more could one ask for. Yeah, true better weather but I didn't mind the rain.
I am not complaining when at one point I was juggling 12' Dark Lord, Backyard Rye, Cognac Abyss, BCBCS, & Black Note!

 

That was my biggest complain was the food/beer lines all day. I wanted food in a bad way later in the day but had no interest in waiting in those lines in the rain when I was with a group in the tent staying dry

It was annoying that we stood in the cattle lines for so long not moving at all but once we started it was a mad dash getting all bottles which was great, they definitely have that process down! I was Group B & got Vanilla Militia

$30 unspent due mostly to the food/beer lines combined w/the shitty weather. I would've used it all if it wasn't raining but there were too many in my group trying to open their bottle next underneath the tent

Fucking \m/

 

If you'd asked me while I was walking out yesterday I would have said never again, and there were plenty of people saying that while walking out, but today I realized it really came down to two big problems - the weather and the entry lines. Otherwise things weren't too bad and even pretty good.

Even knowing what the weather was going to be and thinking I was prepared, I wasn't. I was a chilled drowned rat.

I was in group C and ended up in the entry line for 2 1/2 hours. The FFF workers and volunteers were friendly and were trying hard, but the planning and execution just weren't there. I've volunteered at FoBab a couple times, and before the doors open we go out all the way down the line, check ID and tickets and get people their wrist bands. Even then I know people have waits but you get as much stuff done as you can before they actually hit the front door. To actually get the vouchers, get badges scanned and have the bags checked at FFF took hardly any time at all - the holdup seemed to be the wrist bands. They needed more people actually walking down the chutes and doing bands - there were a couple of guys doing this but not until the last chute. By the time people go in a lot were already pissed off.

Past that...

Porto-potties - no problems at all getting to use them.
Guest taps - rarely waited more than 5 minutes. Selection wasn't the greatest but i could generally find something I wanted to drink. Too many 3 Floyds shelf beers.
Food - the lines looked bad but I think I was only in line about 15 minutes which isn't that bad. My main gripe was the burger was cold and there was no place to set your food while you eat.
Dark Lord line - blazed through in no time at all. i didn't get the most sought-after variants but didn't expect to in Group C.
Vouchers - I like the concept but didn't use them all.

Final comments - I know a lot of people say DLD is what you make of it but for $200 3 Floyds has a responsibility more than just to provide an opportunity for people to stand in lines and share beers. The wait to get in was just too long and it seemed to be from a lack of planning. 3 Floyds got a lot right this year but still had a major hitch.

 

Overall thought the organization was better than last year. Bottle lines moved much faster with the voucher system. Food lines got ridiculously long later in the day. Need to have more trucks if each person is going to have $40 in vouchers. Weather sucked again, but didn't prevent me from having great times and great beers with friends and new friends.

To the scumbag who stole our variants from the tent by the north entrance, I hope your karma catches up to you.

 

This was by far the worst part of DLD for me. I was grabbing my A ticket when the line started moving and barely had a chance to grab bottles from my cooler and get back in line with my crew.. That north gate line where you couldnt get out of the barricades to use the John was pretty miserable. After 45 min of holding it I did have the greatest piss of my life but there were a few times i thought about just pissing right there in line. I know of a few people who did just that.