Hell is a Line at Three Floyds

The beginning of a three hour queue. (Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist)

Alex gave in to his id at the Festival of Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beers this weekend, I decided to drive to Munster, IN and attend Three Floyds 15th Anniversary party. And, while Alex followed my advice for FOBAB to a tee, I largely ignored my own experience regarding attending a Three Floyds event.

I was hoping the improved crowd control measures Three Floyds implemented for Dark Lord Day would carry over into their anniversary party. For the most part, it did. Entry and exit points were clearly defined and monitored. Problem was the staggered sale times that made Dark Lord Day such an enjoyable experience for attendees was replaced by the polite British queue that's marked our previous trips to Munster.

And what a wait it was. The line to enter took 2-1/2 hours to negotiate. Once inside, it was another hour wait to buy bottles of Three Floyds anniversary beer. Baller Stout: a blended Russian Imperial Stout of Dark Lord, Surly's Darkness, Mikkeller's Beer Geek and Struise's Black Albert, sold for $30 a bottle. I bought my maximum three bottle allotment. Or nearly $26 an hour for the privilege to purchase Baller.

The lines didn't stop there. Both Big Star and Lillie's Q had their food trucks on the scene, with waits of up to 30 minutes for tacos and Sonoran dogs. The wait for beers inside the tents was less and the tickets that gained guests the right to buy beer also allowed up to four samples. Three Floyds came correct with some rare selections along their regular brews.

But the the definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I wanted to use that to describe Three Floyds, but they're only feeding the demand. Instead, that described me and scores of others Saturday, alternating between patience and frustration to gain entry to the party and thank Nick Floyd and company for fifteen years of killer beer.

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By Chuck Sudo in Food on November 14, 2011 3:30 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Paul-David Young

@nikkos:twitter that dickhead bouncer has single-handedly ruined every trip I've ever taken down to three floyds. Once he forced my friend's pregnant wife and I stand outside in the freezing rain because there was no room in the inn.

If I'm gonna have to drive out to a brewpub I pick Two Brothers.

nikkos

Two Bros gets my vote also- no attitude, great beer, great food.

nikkos

I tried to visit 3 Floyd's, once, on a random Saturday afternoon. After waiting in line for 20 minutes under the glare of a dickhead bouncer, my wife and I looked at each other and said, "What are we doing?" We drove back to the city and had tater tots and beers at Quencher's. 3 hour wait for 3 bottles of beer? To say I don't get it would be an understatement. Suckers.

bopo

I was down there on a Sunday afternoon a couple weeks ago in a group of four adults and two babies. I guess by Indiana law you can't have a minor in a bar area, no exceptions whatsoever. The wait for the dining area was an hour and a half to two hours. We didn't stick around, and to his credit, the bouncer apologized and said they're never that busy at that time. My friend was required to wait by the door while I went to the bar to get a case.

I just realized the Two Brothers brewery is on the way to the Aurora outlets. Geographical coincidence = marital harmony, I hope.

seitz

The excellent way they handled DLD '11 is exactly why this was such a disappointment. I paid $25 for entrance to a party. But they wouldn't let me in until the bottle line allowed it, even though there were plenty of things to do inside if you didn't want to wait in the bottle line. There was absolutely no excuse for that. Add to that the fact that they discouraged people from bringing beer along, so most of us in line didn't have beer to drink while waiting.

They did such a great job in April and such an awful job on Saturday.

BlueFairlane

I make fun of whoever goes to this perpetual cluster-copulation every year, but it seems you beat me to it by making fun of yourself. I will simply never get the appeal of this ordeal. It's beer. Admittedly, I've never drank any of this beer, but it would have to taste of dew gathered from the wings of sleeping angels to justify 15 years of 3-hour lines and all the hype that goes with it.

Side note: Anybody notice that while nobody has said anything here today, people in New York have accumulated 75+ comments on the availability of marijuana in a country where they don't live? I don't know whether this says more about us or them.