Dark Lord Day Improvements Show Promise, Festival Still Overhyped

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 27, 2009 3:20PM

The end of the Goldent Ticket holder line. from there it was a 90 minute wait.

Beer geeks traveling in style, parked in front of the ticket holder line

This guy fought like a fish on a hook all the way to the squad car.

Just a sampling of the beers consumed in line.

LUSH Wine and Spirits Managers Erin Drain and Rachel Driver with their samples of Dark Lord.

Forget the guest taps. This man is part of a Lombard-based homebrew club called \<a href=\"http://www.theinebriati.com\"\>The Inebriati\<\/a\>. His homemade ale, brewed with cardamom, was one of the best beers I\'ve tasted all day.

Bicyclists leaving Munster after a hard day.

It isn\'t a beer fest without beefy guys in kilts.

The man in this photo came to Dark Lord Day from Birmingham in an RV. Before hitting Munster, he and his pals hit Founders in Grand Rapids, where they loaded up on the unavailable Canadian Breakfast stout, a stout aged in maple syrup casks.

A very rare bottle from Anchor

The guest tap schedule

One-half of a brew club called 2 Bald Guys that I met the previous weekend at Half Acre Brewery

Inside the brewery by the music stage.

If I never see Imperial Battlesnake play again, it\'ll be too soon.

Sybris, on the other hand, rocked me sober.

The Three Floyds/Dogfish Head Popskull logo. Unfortunately, the label is the best part of the beer.

They come in all sizes.

Now I get to eat crow. Compared to previous years, Dark Lord Day 2009 was a streamlined and efficient operation. Lines for the most part were defined and orderly. Extra tents were set up to accommodate attendees looking to slake their thirst. Even Munster's finest got into the act with an increased presence for controlling traffic and the rare drunken buffoon.

The crowd seemed to be much less than last year, when the sheer mass of people threatened to overwhelm Three Floyds Brewery and brewpub. That could have been attributed to the overcast skies, the Golden Ticket system, or both. As for the latter, it actually worked out well. My wait in line for my bottle allotment (announced at the start of the day at 4 per ticket) turned out to be 90 minutes; some volunteers were worried about remaining volume as most all ticket holders were buying the maximum allowable allotment per ducat. By 4 p.m., however, there was virtually no line for Dark Lord as most of the crowd had left either burned out from a full days drinking or to beat the inclement weather home. This prompted the brewery to put another block of tickets on sale before they finally decided to open sale of Dark Lord to all comers fifteen minutes before the scheduled 6 p.m. opening.

The last-minute sale of Golden Tickets left some in attendance scratching their heads in confusion, given that the brewery announced they were previously sold out. Which reinforces my main criticism of Dark Lord Day. Three Floyds seems determined to hype Dark Lord Day to such a degree that people who miss out on buying the beer will go to any length to get a bottle; one Craigslist poster already has a bottle of Dark Lord listed at $70, another has a set of 8 for $300. Their declarations against scalpers is ultimately empty, as the brewery recognizes that once the product is out of their hands they can do nothing about it. But it was a very good step in the right direction.