I had heard that DLD was going to be held off-site this year, but a bartender at the brewpub told us this weekend that he hadn't heard anything about that and was pretty sure that it was still going to be at the brewery.

Llama wrote:I had heard that DLD was going to be held off-site this year, but a bartender at the brewpub told us this weekend that he hadn't heard anything about that and was pretty sure that it was still going to be at the brewery.

Interesting...

Scary, we're only about a month away from Golden Ticket sales!

The same rumor went around last year. They tried to move DLD but the problem was finding a large enough venue that would allow people to bring their own beer.

Ticket will be required for Dark Lord Day this year. I wonder how this is going to go down. Are they going to have police kick everyone out from hanging out on other people's property, and only allow you on 3 Floyd's property?

Sounds like a great idea to me, as long as I can get a ticket.

http://www.darklordday.com/faq/#0

The biggest change for this year is that a ticket will be required to attend the event. This ticket will also guarantee bottle allocation. Regrettably, changes have to be made to ensure the longevity of the event, safety and shorter lines. Without the ticket, there will be no admission to the premises. More information on ticket sales will be made available in the coming weeks.

I wonder if this is one of those 'now that the genie is out of the bottle' ideas - I mean, the idea is that Dark Lord Day = huge beer party. I think the party aspect has outstripped the actual beer release. Like you said, Wimperoo, how will it be enforced? Can folks still congregate at Munster Medical Supplies (made up) or the war memorial and drink up? Will the Munster police be out in larger numbers or will there be private security guards at the industrial park?

This does remove a lot of the stress, though, from the event. No more 'will I get bottles?' or 'how long will I have to be in line?!?!'. At the end of the day, if I don't get a ticket and can't get Dark Lord this year, I'm sure I'll be fine (and my wallet will thank me... at least until I find some other limited/expensive/rare/buzzed about beer to pick up - hah!).

I'm a little afraid to check in at Beer Advocate to see if the community has exploded yet. I suspect there will be a lot of locked threads before this weekend is over...

danimalarkey wrote:I wonder if this is one of those 'now that the genie is out of the bottle' ideas - I mean, the idea is that Dark Lord Day = huge beer party. I think the party aspect has outstripped the actual beer release. Like you said, Wimperoo, how will it be enforced? Can folks still congregate at Munster Medical Supplies (made up) or the war memorial and drink up? Will the Munster police be out in larger numbers or will there be private security guards at the industrial park?

This does remove a lot of the stress, though, from the event. No more 'will I get bottles?' or 'how long will I have to be in line?!?!'. At the end of the day, if I don't get a ticket and can't get Dark Lord this year, I'm sure I'll be fine (and my wallet will thank me... at least until I find some other limited/expensive/rare/buzzed about beer to pick up - hah!).

I'm a little afraid to check in at Beer Advocate to see if the community has exploded yet. I suspect there will be a lot of locked threads before this weekend is over...

There doesn't really seem to be much blowback on BA yet. I think most people are of a similar mindset that as long as they can get tickets it will be much improved.

I definitely agree that the party aspect has overtaken the actual beer release. I love Dark Lord Day because it allows me to meet up with friends that live in other states that I only get to see a couple of times a year.

The blowback will happen when people can't get tickets even though they refreshed their browser a billion times on St Patty's day.

turkob wrote:The blowback will happen when people can't get tickets even though they refreshed their browser a billion times on St Patty's day.

This is exactly what I was thinking.

I do wonder how many people that attended DLD were just there for the party, and didn't care so much for the beer? Will forcing the tickets on everyone stop these people from going, potentially making it easier on people that actually want to enjoy the beer? I doubt it, the Golden Tickets still sold out in under a hour last year, and in theory those were all people that cared about the beer; well them and scalpers.

SSDD

Three Floyds has been nominated as a Great Neighborhood Restaurant. Please discuss this nomination in this thread. The discussion period closes on March 7.

For the third year in a row, Three Floyds was named the Best Brewery in the World by Ratebeer. I thoroughly support the nomination.

Three Floyds is awesome, great nomination

I've enjoyed Three Floyd's beer throughout the Chicago-land area. I have no idea if it means that I support this nomination or not (meaning, is this the same as nominating Vienna Beef or is the actual physical brewery the place nominated?).

jesteinf wrote:I've enjoyed Three Floyd's beer throughout the Chicago-land area. I have no idea if it means that I support this nomination or not (meaning, is this the same as nominating Vienna Beef or is the actual physical brewery the place nominated?).

Hi,

I consider my nomination for the brewery and bar at their homebase. I purposefully did not include the food offered at their gastropub because it has been so variable, whereas the beers have been superlative always.

It is not because I don't like the food, I simply did not want to derail this nomination over food. Especially since it is a courtesy rather than the prime focus of their business: brewing.

Regards,

the wimperoo wrote:Ticket will be required for Dark Lord Day this year. I wonder how this is going to go down. Are they going to have police kick everyone out from hanging out on other people's property, and only allow you on 3 Floyd's property?

Sounds like a great idea to me, as long as I can get a ticket.

http://www.darklordday.com/faq/#0

The biggest change for this year is that a ticket will be required to attend the event. This ticket will also guarantee bottle allocation. Regrettably, changes have to be made to ensure the longevity of the event, safety and shorter lines. Without the ticket, there will be no admission to the premises. More information on ticket sales will be made available in the coming weeks.

Sounds alot like Half Acre's ticket only policy for their Christmas party...

I'm thinking of braving DLD this year. Does anyone know of a bar (preferably north side chicago) that has sponsored a bus to the event in the past?

champs2005 wrote:I'm thinking of braving DLD this year. Does anyone know of a bar (preferably north side chicago) that has sponsored a bus to the event in the past?

Quenchers

Awesome! Quenchers is perfectly located for me. One more thing: In the past, did Quenchers offer a "full package" that includes bus and the DLD ticket? FWIW I have emailed Quenchers with these questions but no response so thanks for your getting back so fast!

The only way to get a ticket in the past has been to buy it online from Three Floyds, and they sell out fast. I'm sure it will be the same this year. I wonder if any bars will have buses this year since tickets are required.

Right! DLD was free before and you only need a golden ticket to buy the bottles of Dark Lord. Hmmm this year's "everyone must have a ticket deal" might make it tougher for bars to run the buses. Unless the bars are allowed to buy a bunch of tix or maybe the bars say everyone with tix sign up for the bus. the plot thickens...

I sure as hell hope there will be buses!

I, for one, don't want to drive back from there. I don't think I know anyone that would be willing.

Considering we're a couple weeks away from a possible ticket sale I'm surprised there hasn't been any official word from 3 Floyds...

I'm not. They're really bad at sending out an "official word"

According to 3floyds twitter: "We are finalizing ticket sale details. Everything will be released later this week. Golden Tickets won't hamper your green beer day."

So keep an eye out for a DLD ticket sales announcement this week. And I should be able to pick up my friend from the train station on St. Patrick's Day without worrying.

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:According to 3floyds twitter: "We are finalizing ticket sale details. Everything will be released later this week. Golden Tickets won't hamper your green beer day."

So keep an eye out for a DLD ticket sales announcement this week. And I should be able to pick up my friend from the train station on St. Patrick's Day without worrying.

Hopefully they go on sale at like 4 or 5 in the morning like the first time. Then I don't have to worry about it while at work.

From the blog.

Tickets are $10.
Tickets go on sale Saturday, March 19th.
Tickets will be sold through an online ticket broker.
The link to the ticket site will be posted midday on the 19th on our blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
Tickets will be required to attend. Police will be enforcing a no loitering policy in the industrial park.
The admission ticket also guarantees your allotment of Darklord during sales hours.
You can buy two tickets per person, but remember tickets are admission tickets as well, and allocation is per person not number of tickets.
When purchasing tickets there will be three time options for bottle sales. (morning, afternoon and late afternoon)
ABC groups

So even if you buy 2 tickets, the allotment is for you only. So if I buy a ticket for a friend, that person can't buy Dark Lord.  That kind of sucks.

Interesting on the shifts for purchasing. Hopefully that will eliminate the need to stand in line at all. I'd still pick the morning one just in case their math ends up being bad like it has been in the past.

Will you only be able to hang out during the time that you selected for purchasing? Since it sounds like they are enforcing the no loitering if you have no ticket concept, that means there really isn't that much space to have a party. 800-1000 seems like the absolute max that could fit inside and outside on 3Floyds property. Way less than the estimated 10-12k that were there last year.

the wimperoo wrote:So even if you buy 2 tickets, the allotment is for you only. So if I buy a ticket for a friend, that person can't buy Dark Lord.  That kind of sucks.

If you buy two tickets, you are entitled to two allotments; one per ticket. If you buy a ticket for a friend, that allotment transfers to them, am I missing something?

Interesting on the shifts for purchasing. Hopefully that will eliminate the need to stand in line at all. I'd still pick the morning one just in case their math ends up being bad like it has been in the past.

I pretty much agree with this.

SSDD

I read it as being allotment per person - say you buy two tickets, you will still only get one person's 'worth' of DL. The bonus to buying two tickets is so that someone who could not buy a ticket him/herself is able to attend the event at all (and buy DL).

I suspect, sadly, that everyone will be attempting to buy two tickets which may be a problem insofaras not everyone will actually need two tickets. Say a group of 8 people wants to go - everyone buys two tickets in case they sell out so fast, others get shut out. However, luckily enough, everyone is able to walk away with two tickets. Then what? On to the secondary market where (I am certain) they will go for higher than $10?

I still wonder how large the area will wind up being for the event. Factoring in food/guest draft tents and porta-potties, there isn't a lot of square footage left in the parking lot (and while large, the brewery kind of has a lot of, well, you know, brewing equipment in the way). I'm curious about the total number of tickets available.

I'm curious how the new rules and spread out purchasing will impact the beer drinking aspect of the event. My attraction to Dark Lord Day has always been more about meeting other beer lovers and sharing interesting brews. It seems to me that this new format will change this dynamic, I fear for the worse.

Also, say you have a ticket for the afternoon. Can you show up in the morning to hang out?

You have been able to buy two tickets for the past 2 years. Each ticket allowed you to buy a certain number of bottles. I don't see why they would change that aspect of it, especially without saying so.

I'm willing to bet that the morning/afternoon/evening are only for purchases, and not for entrance into the event. Hopefully, they'll have different colours or special markings, so that you cannot get into the line UNTIL it's your time to get in line.

Most of the people hang out outside. The sales generally take place on the north side of the brewery - there are usually bands in the southwest corner of the brewery, guest drafts and merch on the southeast corner.

I wonder if, with the hard limits they're placing on the number of people in the brewpub at a time (maybe because of a crackdown from the fire marshall?) will they be doing the same thing with the brewery itself?