Despot Day 2017 (March 4th)

Guaranteed allocation pre-sale tix go on sale this morning at 11am EST. Info and BPT in the link below.

http://www.lickingholecreek.com/despot-day-2017-saturday-march-4th-2017

 

Group A (12-2) just sold out. The other 3 are still available. Surprised they lasted this long but last year regular was a 6pp limit so either they made less or lowered the limit so tix would last longer. I know the variants sold out but they still had regular unclaimed after the last group closed in 2016 and released those to anyone around 7pm I think.

Hide was awesome. Had my bottle on NYE. Awaken was killer too. Hug was lacking on the vanilla I thought. Challenge hopefully will not have too much cinnamon and the apple will come through. It was one of their pins last year so it must have received good feedback.

 

I am thinking about going out on Sunday. I didn't purchase a pre-sale ticket since I would expect them to open up sales for non-presale holders late in the day Saturday and all day Sunday. Last year I think variants sold out Saturday but they still did have it on draft as well as regular bottles available for those who showed up in the evening on Sat into Sunday. I think their plan is to sell bottles only to pre-sale tickets but since they do have remaining slots in Group C (4pm-6pm Sat) and Group D (Sunday) I fully expect them to release that and open it up to others at some point. Since I'm going Sunday I am pretty confident in even coming away with variant bottles if I want them. If not then at least I'll hopefully get to try them on draft. "Hide" was was absolutely fantastic but not sure if I want to drop another $30/bottle this year and not a big deal about no draft again on that one now that I have had it. As much as I would love to spend an extra $10 knowing it's all going to charity if they have it and I do decide to get 1 bottle of each I'm already dropping $108 + tax.

Overall, I'm not a big fan of huge Resolute so not big deal if I miss bottles. It's a good solid RIS but as others have said, too bitter for my taste and I like to drink beer relatively fresh. I don't want to sit on bottles waiting for them to mellow down. My plan going into Sunday is I will try what they have left on draft and if it blows me away and they have bottles left for public sale then I'll grab what I want.

 

In case you have not been following their event updates here is the pin, draft, and guest draft list for Saturday.

Enlightened Despot Pin List 2017 (Tapping Time)
Glazed Donut (12:00)
Chocolate Jalapeño (1:00)
Vanilla Hazelnut (2:00)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch (3:00)
Coconut (4:00)
Salted Caramel (5:00)
Maple Bacon (6:00)


LCCB Draft List:
Enlightened Despot
Hug the Despot
Awaken the Despot
Challenge the Despot
Nonesuch DIPA
Passionfruit Pony Pasture Pilsner
Heir Apparent
Bourbon Barrel Coconut Delight
...More Info to Come on the Draft List

Guest Taps:
Legend - Bourbon Barrel Brown Ale
Hardywood - TBD
Ardent - Double IPA
Triple Crossing - Paranoid Aledroid -(Hoppy Wheat Ale)
Midnight - Wee Heavy
O'Connor - Heavy Footer Double IPA
Kindred Spirit - Orange Dream Cream Ale
Strangeways - Wake Me Up Before You Gose
Steambell - Grisette
Brothers - Good Adweiss
Extra Billy's - Citra Ass Down IPA

Not much info for Sunday yet but LCCB did post there would be a Strawberry & Cocoa Nib pin. I'm guessing the draft lists will be whatever is leftover from Sat.

 

I'm just happy they have started to have guest taps at many of their bigger releases. While it's Despot Day and not Guest Tap Day I'm fine with the offerings outside of LCCB beers. With how the cops have been showing their presence more out there over the past year or so I'm just happy to see more than just the high gravity LCCB beers. That's been my biggest problem with traveling out there. All but a couple of their beers are often >10% quads or stouts and with them not doing small (4-6oz) pour options there's only so many of those I can drink with them being in the middle of nowhere. I'm not a fan of Pony Pasture and 'Til Sunset and that seems like the only offerings they've had before guest taps came on.

 

Still tix for Group C (4-6) and Sunday so appears like there's a pretty confident chance they will have bottles for public sale to those who did not do the pre-sale. I saw a couple posts on their event page of people asking if they have a conflict with their Sat. time slot can they pick up earlier/later in the day and even on Sunday and LCCB said that was fine.

 

Similar to me last year. I had a 4-6 ticket and we just happened to get there around 3pm and there was hardly a line. I asked if I could grab bottles now and they were cool with it. Great because I could enjoy the rest of the day and could be early to grab the pins I wanted without having to monitor a line deciding when to go grab bottles but not miss a pin. but it was so chill last year I could walk up a few minutes after a pin tapped and it was a short wait without missing out on any.

 

Additional LCCB Bottles Available This Weekend:
- Kentucky French Toast
- Nasty Woman - Tequila Barrel Tripel
- Bourbon Barrel Chocolate Obsession
- Bourbon Barrel Blueberry Obsession
- Bourbon Barrel Coconut Delight
- Virginia Black Bear
- Vanilla Virginia Black Bear
- Chai Tea Virginia Black Bear
- Coffee Coconut Virginia Black Bear