Dark Lord Day (DLD) 2015

My hope is that the extra property FFF has purchase will equate to more taps (if not guest taps, then at least more BA DL for all). If not, then you're right, huge clusterfuck.

I'm not sure whether to hope the weather is better than last year (which will obviously make it more packed) or around the same (which will make it cold as hell, but might keep down the lines a little).

 

By 5pm it was pretty cleared out (probably because it got damn cold).

 

for sure. I had group A and left at three. The wind picked up and it got to be downright frigid. In all honesty though, I left because I had my car and was approaching a truly unsafe level of intoxication. The only beer I drank that day was what I brought and what was shared. By the time I finished my purchases, the lines for the guest taps/FFF beers had merged into one big mass of people. My friends entered the same time as me but went straight to the guest taps and it took them 45 minutes to get to the front at which point the beers were all different than what was on when they had started in the line. I'm guessing all the GA ticketholders that decided to enter at the time the gates opened (and I'd estimate it was at least a third of them) either hit up the Dark Matter line or the guest taps.

 

I hope it's cold again so people clear out of there early. It was nice getting vanilla darklord with no line at 8pm.

 

GA tickets were 20%. 2,000 of the 10,000.

Actually less, I know two people that bought GA tix, only to later score IP tix, Im assuming they weren't the only ones.

 

Same here, we left pretty early (Had Group A) to head back to the hotel since it was getting cold. I think we passed out ordered Chinese take out and kept drinking beers in the room.

 

@Rado

 

I thought this was a pretty interesting insight:

This is the 12th year overall and 10th in bottles for Dark Lord, which the brewery bills as a “demonic” Russian-style imperial stout. For those fortunate enough to score a few bottles, Floyd recommends laying them down for a while.


“If I bought Dark Lord,” he says, “I wouldn’t drink it for probably two years.”

Not necessarily because I expected "young" DL to taste as good as old, but I think it's interesting that even Nick Floyd says not to touch the bottles for a while. As someone who likes un-aged Dark Lord, but thinks it's too sweet, this makes a lot of sense.

 

I'm not really a fan of the beer regardless of age, but it needs to be said that I feel that way about pretty much every RIS I've had. They were selling '11-'13 bottles last year and I picked up them up. So far I've had the '11 '13 and '14 and I thought the flavors were the best in the '14. I thought all were way too sweet, but some of the flavors in the fresh one were at least bold enough to compete with the sweetness. The flavors kind of melded in the older ones producting a smoother mouthfeel, but I just couldn't get past the sweetness.

 

I've sampled every year since 2009 fresh and aged. I agree that my favorite has been 2014, it seemed to have the most coffee on the aroma fresh of any vintage I've sampled. 2012 was a sweet, sugary mess fresh. I opened a 2012 about 6 months ago and it's finally turning into something drinkable, I'll even say halfway decent. 2011 has been my 2nd favorite overall.

 

That's just Nick's personal preference. Not like you have to wait. Fresh DL is always one of the first pours I buy at DLD, and it's always enjoyable.

 

I know, I'm just saying it makes more sense to me that it's so overwhelmingly sweet fresh, if the guys who make it don't even drink it that way. Like I said, I drink it fresh too (and like it), but it's about the sweetest stout I could imagine before it would be too cloying for me to enjoy.

 

Really depends on the vintage. Each one is truly different.

I agree with Nick on the '12 though. Those bottles needed 2 years minimum. I wonder how it's doing right now.

 

Had a '12 a couple weeks ago and I swear its getting sweeter.

 

what is the price difference between group tickets and general admission? do you get to choose which group you want?

 

Group tickets you get to buy 2015 Dark lord, and get a chance to buy a variant. There are 5 different groups A-E, each with a 2 hour window to purchase your dark lord. The various groups are used to control the line, otherwise all 10,000 people would attempt to get in line at the beginning. Yes you get to choose your group when purchasing.

General Admission does not allow for buying 2015 dark lord, or "winning" the opportunity to buy a variant. You do have access to everything else, like the speed metal bands, the beers on draft, and other FFF bottles for sale (which last year included 2011-2013 dark lord bottles).

Last year when the tickets went on sale, they had not yet announced the GA tickets, so you could only buy the group tickets, a few days later they did an online lottery for the GA tickets.

 

I missed this somehow. Where were they selling dark lord bottles?

 

In the building where they were selling all the other non-DL FFF bottles.

 

Although the building has since been torn down and is part of their new construction project. Right now no telling where the non-DL bottles will be sold this year. In the 3 years I have been there, the location of the non-DL FFF bottle sales has changed.

No telling if this will happen again or not, they have also changed what they they sold as well. In 2012 they had some barrel aged Alpha Klaus variants and Baller. Nothing noteworthy in 2013. In 2014 they had 11-13 DL.

 

Weren't the BA Alpha Klaus bottle leftovers from the in-person ticket sales?

Also, they suckered people into Baller every chance they got until it sold out.