Event: Dark Lord Day 2008
I am back safe and sound from another Dark Lord Day at Three Floyd's brewery. I've been looking forward to DLD pretty much since last DLD. I am a huge fan of Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout, but I am a bigger fan of just hanging out with beer people and having a good time. I've said it before, but beer people are almost always good people.
I got there about 8:30 (and a huge THANK YOU to Mike and Gina from Hoosier Beer Geek for spotting me) and I couldn't believe a line was already forming at the door to get in. I hate to talk about the "last year" but last year there was so much more interaction between people at the tasting tables. I heard some of the conversations going on around me, and the vast majority of people were there to have a good time at a beer festival, but I also saw/heard people that didn't understand what they were getting into or just wanted to put up their bottles on Ebay. That was quite upsetting. Below is what the line looked like when I got there, and the line that stretched past the fire house.
I also met up with a Mike from STLHops who brought along some amazing homebrew and some tasty beer from O'Fallon and Schlafly. He gave me a Pappy Van Winkle from O'Fallon that is hand bottled and numbered. I can't wait to give that a whirl.
The line was out of control. I figured there would be a mad rush for the door once it opened, but it wasn't a bad as I thought. Last year there were only three people taking money rather haphazardly, but this year there was a long table with six or eight people taking cash. I bought my fill of Dark Lord and got a bottle of Hvedegoop that is a collaboration between FFF's and the guys from Mikkeller. Below is a shot of inside right near the tables for Dark Lord. To the right of the picture is where the guest breweries were, and the stage were the bands were playing.
The real fun of DLD happened after I got through the line. I met up with Mike again and hung out for a while just tasting beer and discussing all things beer. I had to leave more abruptly than I thought I would have to, but I still had a great time. They had to turn away many people on Saturday, but I think the number of people that showed up took FFF's by surprise. As you can see in the picture the line for DL stretched a good five blocks down the street. HBG's have a great map of how far the line went. I am not sure what else could have been done except for offering less DL to the masses.
FFF's are taking some heat right now at the major beer websites about how things were organized, but given the lines that I saw I don't really see what else could have been done. Even limiting people to two bottles of Dark Lord I think they would have run out. I certainly would like to see somehow though the Ebayer's get weeded out, but that is just wishful thinking. It just irks me that good beer people were turned away because of people there trying to turn a profit.
I had a great time, and I will certainly go back again next year.
Cheers!
Matt
8 comments:
This was my first time but I was kind of amazed by the line and how slowly it moved. It seems to me that six selling stations and a cash-only system should have been able to move the line more quickly than they did. I guess any improvement to their distribution system and any increase in production was completely obliterated by the increase in the number of people that showed up.
One thing that I thought was a little ridiculous was that they opened the doors at 11 and then started setting up tents and tables around the parking lot. I know there were thunderstorms that would have prevented setting up the tents the day night before, but there's no reason they couldn't have been getting ready earlier in the morning.
Given the crush of people, I suppose everything did work relatively smoothly. At this point, though, they have to assume even more people will show up next year. Is there any way they can continue to host this at the brewery/brewpub?
Orginally it was set up to be the Hammond Civic Center, but that fell through, and I assume there were just a multitude of problems with that.
I would hope they might go to some type of wristband system. Let's say the first people in line that morning get six bottles, and the next group gets five, the next, gets four...etc..etc. That would make the tasting tables be the prominant thing going on and would help things move in better fashion, or you have to get free tickets from FFF's website the month in advance.
I've read alot of frustred posts on other sites, and hopefully this year may have been the climax and things will taper off.
Nice pictures! I forgot my camera in my hurry and had to settle for the GF's camera phone.
I missed out on the early stuff, glad you did this write up.
They were trying to set up tents all morning but the weather would not allow it. It was far too windy until around noon when the sun came out. I watched them for two hours try to put up the one by the portapotties as it kept blowing away/over.
Mochunk -- maybe you had a little too much Vanilla Bean Dark Lord, because my recollection is completely different than yours:
1. It arguably became MORE windy as the day went on, not less.
2. I was right by the parking lot and I don't remember anything being set up until 11.
3. They began setting up a tent right in front of the brewpub as soon as the doors opened at 11.
When I got there at 8:30 they were trying to set up a tend right next to the porto johns, but they gave up about 9:30 or so. They came back about 11 to reset up the same tent.
I shouldn't have opened my mouth! I wasn't there at 8:30, so I never saw any tent work. Some truck arrived at about 10 that seemed to have all the tent equipment, so I just assumed that was all the tent stuff.
Yeah, so Garber and I decided to do the '07 and '08 vertical tonight. Simply put, it was amazing. Such a complicated brew that's so layered in its' flavor. It was hard to believe that it was the same beer. God, Matt, you should really give this a try. It'll give you a greater appreciation for the Dark Lord. Plus, the '07 is all kinds of awesome right now. Then again, so is the '08, it's just a little different. I love beer.
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