Enlightened Despot Day (March 7th)

As someone who was there, I can confirm this is indeed was the case. People called the cutters out in front of the employees working the bottle sale, and they still sold those people bottles. I didn't see it, but I was told by good friends who witnessed it. Not sure anything will be done though, they sold all bottles making nearly 70K in just over 2 hours. The cutting was a real sore in an otherwise gorgeous day on the farm.

 

Back in my day we called that "Pulling a Captain Lawrence".

 

I was there as well. Even if one ass caused problems, the day was very well. Lickinghole staff did a wonderful job. The line was a little slow, but not unexpected. Most people were polite and did it right, don't let the one our two bad eggs take away from that. All in all, nicely done.

To Lickinghole staff, one way to improve the flow, and prevent line cutters, is to hand out numbered tickets as people arrive. The person with the ticket that is way out of order will be obvious...

 

Tickets would have definitely been great. I saw some people cut the line as well and that was pretty uncool. I got there at 12 and waited in line for 3 hrs to be turned away empty handed. The staff assured me numerous times that there was enough to go around, but unfortunately there wasn't. If anyone has an extra they're willing to part with I would love to work out some sort of deal. I'll be going to wicked weed later this month if that appeals to anyone.

 

Damn dude, that is really shitty. I wasn't able to make it down for this, but hopefully someone on here can hook you up. It's terrible that an event exclusively for people 21+ attracts people like this who can't act like NORMAL FUCKING ADULTS and wait their turn in line.

 

Based on my experience at Resolute day, I knew LHC selling variants (especially vanilla) would've caused everyone to come out early for this. I got there an hour early, not expecting, but hoping to get variants. If I didn't, then cool I'd get some of the regular ED. Other than the slow bottle line. They had plenty of food trucks. They had multiple draft lines that didn't take long to get beers. They had most their beers. I got to try their Tequila barrel lime tripel, which was excellent. Bought a couple bottles of that. Cherry pie ED was good, but it didn't taste like cherry pie at all. Rum spiced quad was okay. Wasn't my favorite. Wished they had some of their Habanero Mango Brown Ale. I really wanted to try that. I had a great time waiting three hours in line with the people around me. Based on the turnout, I fully expect LHC to decrease the limits on regular ED for next year. The amount of people was absolutely crazy. I've been to LHC about four times. Two were release days (VA Black Bear and Heir Apparent). There weren't too many people and I was able to park next to the building each time easily.

Advice for the future: If a brewery is doing a BA RIS release and they are releasing a limited amount of variants at the same time, you should get there early or you will get shut out of the variants.

 

I saw a few picks of the lines on Farcebook, and while that is awesome for the brewery, it gets pretty frustrating for people that make a decent trek to LHC to be shut out by a few of RVAs "finest" BAs who think they are entitled to first pickings from anything VA beer.

A simple ticketing policy or numbered wristband and brewery staff that don't always have a separate, friends only line out the back door would make the whole experience a better one, IMO. Of course, Lickinghole could always just make more beer...

 

we hadn't planned on arriving to LHC till around 10:30-11 but we started seeing posts in a RVA forum of people already arriving by 8 so we got into the car earlier to arrive at 9:30 and wait longer... glad we did or we would have missed the variants and possibly the reg ED as well.
had more issues with the lack of a parking plan considering most people weren't in 4x4s (and even many of those who were still got stuck...). as for cutting, it didn't help that the pour lines intersected the bottle line way up near the front giving many the simple opportunity to just "stay" there. people were even calling out the cutters but nothing was being done.

 

Man, I took my full allotment. 11 of the regulars are already spoken for (I am sharing with regular trading partners). You are welcome to the 12th. Send me a note. I am in Centreville, maybe we can hook up.

 

Any word on how the variants taste? Had the regular one last year, and thought it was pretty good.

 

I have only tried the coffee so far, but I thought it was great. Its got a LOT of coffee, and its that deep, roasty coffee that beers have traditionally used, not like the fruitier african coffee that BCBCS has been using. It goes very well with the unique taste of Despot though. I had a Vanilla Black Bear (Black Bear is the base beer) last night and thought it was great as well, so I am very excited to try the Vanilla Despot. I'm just excited about this beer in general though, I think I have to say its my favorite BBA Stout, and one of my favorite beers of any style. Its very different than BCBS and most other takes on the style though.

 

we opened both the Coffee and Vanilla on saturday night.
I was in the minority but didn't get much coffee from it. Vanilla was my favorite (some people who tried pre-release bottles said it had no vanilla and that the coffee was great - I felt the reverse...)
ended up trading my extra Coffee for another Vanilla

 

I heard some people say that they got very little vanilla in the Vanilla Black Bear, but to me its almost a vanilla bomb.

 

Does the regular version hit distro? I'm guessing no due to the limited run

 

The regular version sold out on Saturday.

 

I was told by one of the volunteers that some of the regular version did hit distribution. I didn't ask for details since I don't live in VA and wouldn't likely see it anyway.

 

Their words were something like, if there is any left, it will hit distro, but they say they sold out. Unless a few cases were "conveniently" kept back.

 

what lillitnn92 said.
if some does end up in distribution there will be a lot of really pissed off shut-out people from saturday!

 

anyone else find it funny they numbered the 2500 ED bottles but not the 500 Hug or Awaken bottles?
when asked, they said something along the lines of "why bother when there's only 500?"

 

It wouldn't be very convenient since they'd make less money on them. I really don't think we will see any in distro. I'm sure there will be kegs on tap, maybe that's what the volunteer was confused about.