The Hoosier Beer Geek has pictures. Check out the line. Let’s just say showing up as late at 1:30 was not such a good idea.
Passion on display. Mostly. Unfortunately a little cold-hearted greediness. From a thread at Beer Advocate:
I drove from Minneapolis with a trunk full of Surly to enjoy and trade. Instead, I stood next to frat boys from Chicago who couldn’t stop talking about selling their Dark Lord on Ebay. I waited 5 hours in a line. The Dark Lord sold out 50 people in front of me. My girlfriend was upset because of the cold and I am leaving empty handed
Later in the thread: “It was frat boy hell. There goes the neighborhood…”
Also read the discussion at The Beer Mapping Project.
And at Rate Beer.
Passion? That sounds like the opposite of passion for beer – passion for parasitically making a buck off of craft brewers. I know that is your point, too, Stan but I am starting to think that sometimes passion gets you only so far. I am thinking that greater commitment might be nice, too – to distributing these sorts of beers respectfully, without the cattle call and with a means to avoid profiteering.
Alan – I still think that Dark Lord Day is about passion. People driving from all over, bringing beer to share, definitely crazy.
And I do find it mighty sad that there are greedy “frat boys” who want to take advantage. I understand bottles are on ebay, but I haven’t looked and sure have no intention of including a link.
I agree that is about passion but my point is passion is not an ultimate condition. We do not take vows to be passionate but to be more dedicated, to have commitment, to respect and honour. What if it was sold in the format of a festival event? Consider this happier crowd at TAP NY this weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50alY0JYQUc
The brewery would have the same return if distributed in an other manner – maybe more if they auctioned off 20% for their own benefit at the end of the fest?
I really don’t think people should make judgments about how happy the crowd was based off of forum posts. If you weren’t there you really don’t know what was going on. We all know that the people who are upset are likely to make the most noise.
I was there and everyone that was near me was having a great time. If you weren’t in line, the whole event was more like a festival than it ever has been before. There were live bands, casks and beers from multiple different breweries from all over the country and other local breweries. You could walk around the parking lot and if anyone noticed you had an empty glass they would call you over or walk up to you hoping to get you to sample the beers that they brought.
People were walking around with half open bottles of extremely rare beers and they were simply looking for like minded people to share with.
From my viewpoint the entire day was an incredible display of beer passion and the community aspect of the hobby that we share.
From my viewpoint the entire day was an incredible display of beer passion and the community aspect of the hobby that we share.
I think that was my point. I should have just stopped by pointing to the photos.
Well, that is fine and I’ll likely never go so it is not something that is that a strong point for me. But it would be a heck of a lot more useful, as I realized since I posted last, if the brewery auctioned the beer itself and, say, gave the surplus to charity. Those who are willing to pay get their beer, those who profiteer (often illegally) are squeezed out and more good comes of it – even for the brewery who would gain the good will.
Say what you like – but it also sounds like the beerinator (Jonathon?) was not outside the place for hours either so by his logic he is disqualified to comment on that experience. I don’t agree with that logic but do note that pissing off any folk is never a good business plan.
Alan,
I was outside almost the entire day. I spent probably 45 minutes inside and I was there from 9 until at least 3 or 3:30 (I sort of lost count, thank goodness for dd’s). But thank you for disqualifying me from commenting on your already disqualified comments.
The people around me were at least having as much fun as the people in that short video you posted.
I give unqualified support to my own disqualification, then, if the qualifications demand experience of that sort of quality. I would still suggest a more qualitative approach on the valuation might be qualificatious in the end.
Thanks for the link to our site… I’m surprised that (besides the beer forums) there doesn’t seem to be much coverage online.
Having spent most the day there, I think the ebay thing is being over-reported… I mean, just look at how many bottles are on ebay versus how many people showed up – it’s a pretty tiny ratio.
We had a good enough time that next year I’d consider going, forgetting about buying the beer, and just to drink for the day. The barrel aged stuff they were selling was almost worth the trip by itself, and I had so many people offer me beer…
My guess is the only people that went home unhappy showed up way late. You wouldn’t show up late to buy Tickle Me Elmo for Christmas, would you? A little common sense goes a long way.