Darklord Day 2017

I consider myself pretty lucky, college educated, good job, great family...but I just can't fathom what's it's like to be able to blow $500 on a bottle of beer. Let alone the amount of people who are able to.

 

I wish I could like this more than once!

 

So pretty much like NFL coverage.

 

Or any national holiday.

Effing Christmas!

 

I was thinking as well about how crazy this is, but then realized the market for high end wine can go much higher than that and I've sort of come to "accept" that (not that I'm the one paying those amounts). So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

 

As far as the taps go, our group was able to scrounge around the following:

2014 DL
17 Ronaldo
15 Muerte
16 Muerte
Chemtrail
Dwarven Power Bottom
Earl of Bigglsewade
Rud D'Floyd
Crack the Skye
BA Double Shot Double Black

I had small amounts of each except the Chemtrail and Biggleswade

I would say 15 Muerte was my favorite followed by Dwarven Power Bottom. I think time has really helped these beers. The 15 Muerte had just the right amount of heat for me and preferred it over the 16.

I was running around all day looking at the taps and never found anything intriguing at the guest taps besides the BADSDB. Sad that I missed Derivation, Assassin, BA Shake, etc....

 

You're in the midwest, give it about 6 weeks and we'll be looking at snow again...

I'm in the mindset of BAA being one of my favorite beers I've ever had. I can also honestly say that Chemtrail blew BAA out of the water, which blew my mind. That's just one man's opinion.

 

I guess the FIB's are reasonable for once! I've seen Chemtrailmix for less than that, and I routinely see Ronaldo and FVM in the 300-350 range. Bourbon is weird, I've seen it as high as 500 and as low as 250. It's also a smaller sample since there are fewer of them.

Whether those are "reasonable" is another debate entirely.

 

Fair point on the adjuncts. Wasn't sure in this case with the base being so sweet and needing to settle. And yeah, summer is an issue...

Thanks!

Pretty sure they'll like spending time with me even more when this gets opened.

 

I don't really buy into the summer thing to not be able to drink a big stout. If we're doing a share in my house it's not hot at all because I have air conditioning, so the outside temperature means nothing.

 

My DLD 2017 postmortem:

The Good

• THE WEATHER! It could not have been better.
• Bottle sharing the night before at the Hampton Inn Munster
• Bottle sharing in main tent during festival
• General friendliness and generosity my wife and I encountered from fellow attendees all weekend
• Allotment pickup...it went smoothly and relatively quickly
• Food lines and selection

Changes for Next Year (most of these apply personally to me)

• Assuming random distribution again next year, don't fret about buying a particular group ticket. Whatever comes up on eTix, just buy it.
• Spend Saturday night in Munster. Past two years, I drove back on Saturday which significantly limits bottle share / tap sampling consumption on Saturday.
• Expanding upon previous point, sample more taps. I only had FFF Permanent Funeral (very good IPA) and FFF DL 2017.
• Bring more local bottles to share and leave national brands at home. Columbus Brewing Company Bodhi and Creeper and the Jackie O's Dark Apparition varieties were easily the most popular amongst those I brought.
• When driving from/to Columbus, OH, use I-70 / I-65. Back way via Route 33/Route 30 sucked (way too many traffic lights).

 

I've had shares in the summer at my house out back on the patio and it hasn't stopped anyone from cracking open some big stouts. Of course I have the AC option as well but people preferred to relax outside.

 

Really hope that shit is cleared up by next year, but as is the case here locally, I know they have a way of stretching projects out for years and decades.

Half of those zones weren't even being worked on, and the actual construction area was like 50 ft long, but the one-lane roads leading up to and beyond the construction zones were 4 miles long. What in the actual fuck!?

Here in Ohio at least we have 2 lanes through actual construction zones at 55 mph. In Indiana, 40 mph through a complete ghost town of a non-construction zone on a perfectly smooth road through and throguh?

I really think they are trolling the DLD travelers.

 

If I was offered even half that for any beer variant, I would sell in a heartbeat. No beer is worth beyond $50 for me for a single bottle... Even that is a stretch. It's only beer and I'd rather have the money!

 

Stouts are easily my favorite type of beer, and the bigger the better . I drink them year round. Hell last year my buds and I opened my FVM on my patio when it was in the low 90s in mid-June.

 

No doubt. Summer has always been blah for me as I'm a big stout drinker and I know I'll have to wait for fall and winter to see them hitting the shelves again. I usually go through a lot of my cellar in the summer and refill it during the fall and winter.

 

Checking in on my 4th DLD. What a fantastic day.

We got in line about 5:30am, started drinking and sharing. Got into the A-Line quickly, we were maybe 50-60 back from the front. Did some nice sharing in the A-line from 6-8:45. Small quip here, we had to bust the gates open to get out to go to the bathroom.

At 8:45, our gate opened, we walked briskly to the allotment line. Shared a little in line there till it opened at 9am. Of my 4 group A people, we got 2 FVM, 1 Muerte, 1 Chemtrail.

We left that line, went directly to DM, got coffee. Shared more, got the BA Moloko with Vanilla which was a highlight for me. After DM, walked around a bit.

We then left, hit up lunch took the bottles back to the hotel, quick 30 min power nap. Loaded up the backpacks and Uber'ed back to the fest. Drank and shared the rest of the night.

Fantastic day. Nice to see Nick roaming around and socializing. I didn't think he had it in him. As with others, if it were 100% variants, I think it would have been a perfect day.

Cheers all! I hope to be back next year.

 

Just curious what was the band lineup for 2015 and 2016. I found the other years easily but those two are escaping me.

 

Derivation is love, Derivation is life. I'm so bummed I don't live in St Louis anymore and I don't know if I'll visit in time to try 7

 

I'm really surprised given the number of people I high-fived snaking back and forth in the bottle pickup line and the number of folks who either drank out of my glass or I drank out of theirs that I have not gotten sick.

The alcohol must just wipe out all pathogens. Wipe out all pathogens....hey, good beer name.