Hey Guys, So being new to the trading game I was a bit curious with DL. I had seen people comment about how 09 is the worst vintage of the beer, is this true? What was the reasoning? I was also curious as to what the bottle counts were like for earlier vintages in comparison to recent years? Is a DL 07 valuable? Are the only DL whales the BA ones? Let me know guys, thanks for all of the information and help. Been learning quite a bit the last few weeks. -Andy-
I had an '11 back in December and had an '09 a few weeks ago and while I liked the '11 more I wouldn't say the '09 was bad. It was solid all around. As far as whale status goes the BA ones are fosh whales, beyond that the older they are the rarer they are just because there is a higher likelihood they have been drank by now
A whale means different things to different people. To some, only the BA Darklords are rare enough to be considered whales because they have the means (cellar) to trade for the regular. To guys like me who live outside of the one-off, brewery-only hotspots, regular Darklord will likely never grace my lips, so it's a whale to me.
Only the BA ones are huge whales although as someone pointed out the older the vintage of regular DL, the more value it has. I've only had '08 on, so I can't comment on earlier vintages. '08 was by far my favorite and '09 is by far my least. '09 was incredibly sweet (even for DL) which is why I personally didn't care for it. If you don't mind the sweetness, then you may like it.
'09 isn't so bad. I like '09 more than '10 and '11. As for whale, '04 and '05 are more valuable than any BA DL in my opinion. Not sure where '06 stands.
