danimalarkey wrote:I suspect parking is going to fall into the 'known unknowns' category at this point. Given how the event has been over-hauled this year, I wouldn't necessarily count on anything from previous years still being the case. Having said that, there's a war memorial off Calumet Ave. with a small parking lot as well as another park (fka landfill!) across Calumet with several large parking lots. There's a housing development south of the industrial park where we parked last year - there were no signs about parking restrictions, as far as we could tell.
The issue with parking along the streets of the industrial park itself is that the 2-lane street gets narrowed to 1-lane. If the changes to how the event works this year are due to liability/safety issues in addition to a more general 'be a good neighbor' attitude, parking along the streets may be curtailed moreso than with last year.
A popular question on BA at the moment is how early people can show up at all - gates open at 10am, but how strict will the 'no loitering' policy be prior to that. For me, I'd just say that's another 'known unknown' and hope it works out. At least we have an answer on precisely how large a cooler will be allowed...
danimalarkey wrote:In my group, one of us is just going to drink (much) less than the rest of us.
abolt wrote:My husband and son are attending tomorrow and are in the a group. They are just now concerned with the drinking and driving situation. I saw earlier that very few bars are running a shuttle and reggie's arrives too late. How are you guys handling it? Are there any trains that will get you close enough to cab it from there? Thanks for any info.
Tape Deck wrote:Where was the VB DL, BB DL, BA Behemoth and old Moloko? Were they IN the pub?
Tape Deck wrote:That's a bummer. We waited (group A) a long, long time to get our DL, and then we waited a bunch of time to get some food outside... then a bunch of time in the guest tap line... the line for the pub was another 2-3 hour line and we decided not to wait... CLEARLY we should have gotten in that line immediately after getting our DL! Well, the most fun part of it was talking to so many beer geeks, while everyone was still mostly sober or just buzzed.
danimalarkey wrote:Figured I'd chime in and... agree with everyone else! DLD2011 was a huge improvement over the previous couple of years. I would have liked it if they had spread out some of the kegs in the guest tap tent - seeing all of the 'whales' up at 10am when I wasn't going to be arriving until 4pm was a little disappointing. Though, as I said to someone else, it's called Dark Lord Day not Guest Tap Day (still, 10oz. glasses of Bourbon County Rare for $10?!). I was also a little disappointed by the lack of variety in FFF's own offerings outside the pub. Lots of Evil Power, Zombie Dust, Alpha King and Gumballhead but I would have liked to see more random kegs get tapped (I heard Rabid Rabbit was flowing, but I must have missed that table). For next year, it would be nice to have a single table (outside) pouring Dark Lord and any variants they might have. I've heard read some reports on BA that the 2011 is tasting incredible right now but I don't know if I want to open one of my bottles.
Lots of unfortunate sunburns, though. That asphalt is a beast when it comes to reflecting UV rays!
I know they were selling bottles of Evil Power in addition to Dark Lord. Were any other bottles for sale on Saturday? I heard someone talking about Fantabulous Resplendence, but they haven't made that in years (and it's a summer release, if I recall correctly).
danimalarkey wrote:I've heard read some reports on BA that the 2011 is tasting incredible right now but I don't know if I want to open one of my bottles.
chgoeditor wrote:danimalarkey wrote:I've heard read some reports on BA that the 2011 is tasting incredible right now but I don't know if I want to open one of my bottles.
What's typically the optimal time period in which to drink Dark Lord? I ended up with 8 bottles (a good friend who's not a beer drinker came with me), so I'm tempted to open one sometime in the next couple of weeks.
danimalarkey wrote:It's tough tos say, chgoeditor. If you have 8 bottles, open one now. While not as aggressively hopped as their other stuff, Dark Lord is still a FFF beer and will have more hops than most. The hop character will fade pretty quickly so if you want to capture that taste, the next couple of weeks would be great. I was at the Black Cat v. Dark Lord event and tried the '07, '08, '09 & '10. I think '08 and '09 were the best while the '07 may have just slipped past its 'prime' (it was almost too sweet with nearly zero carbonation anymore - still good to drink but maybe not as good as it could have been). I'd say 2-3 years? It seems like the recipe changes a little every year (the ABV does, at any rate) so each batch may age differently.
The beer will also taste better if it's not served refrigerator-cold. For most high-ABV stouts, something in the 50-55 degree range is considered ideal (this is also the range in which many will suggest you cellar the beer).
chgoeditor wrote:This is my first experience (intentionally) aging beer, so I'm assuming that storing on their side at the optimal temperature is preferable to storing upright in closet where the temp will fluctuate a fair amount during the summer months.
Tape Deck wrote:I was at the Intelligentsia vertical as well, with 2 friends. Our 07 pour had plenty of carbonation... no less than the others. And having recently enjoyed a few aged stouts that were definitely lacking in that area, I was sort of expecting it to be a little flat.
We felt that 07, 09 and 10 were very similar in flavor and mouth feel, and that 08 was almost entirely different. It stands to reason that many would prefer the 08, because it stood out, and because among 4 great beers, that could be enough reason for preference in and of itself. My friends and I all preferred the 09, but liked the 10 almost as much. We all thought 08 was great, but a little heavy on the alcohol taste. That's not a bad thing, but it tasted a little off balance. Smoothest of the 4 by far, though. I liked 07 a lot. The other two in my group felt that it was noticeably inferior to the 09.
I can't wait to open 11. I have 12 bottles in my house right now. I will be posting my address and suggesting what time my wife and I are out for work. Mainly because I want to see half carcasses of beer thieves when my trained attack cats strike. That will make me very popular on Flickr and Facebook yay.