[4/25 Update: Pictures
and more info on today’s event]
(Munster, IN) – The news of the week may have very well been the gaffe that occurred on the Three Floyds website…their new developing website that is. Up on one of the pages was some info about
Three Floyds Dark Lord Day 2009
to take place in April of next year. Here is the info (credit to Mike from Hoosier Beer Geek for grabbing it before it was pulled down amidst lots of beer forum chatter):
“Darklord Day 2009 will be greatly improved to accommodate larger crowds, including expanded parking, more porta johns, shorter lines and more food choices.
In order to facilitate a fair and much more convenient system for buying Dark Lord on DLD 2009, we will be implementing a lottery system. Don’t worry, you’ll have a much better chance of getting a winning ticket than almost any other lottery you can play.
Basically our DLD 2009 lottery system will break down as follows:
* Everyone interested in purchasing DarkLord by the bottle will have to first register here at our website
* We will capture your name and email address and place you into a randomized database
* Once we’ve determined our estimated level of production for bottled DarkLord, we will then calculate the total number of winning tickets that we will make available
* We will then select, completely at random, email addresses from our databases and send winning registrants a confirmation email informing them of their winning slot in the lottery
* We will then require all winners to confirm their mailing address and we will send out the winning tickets
* All those that fail to respond within the designated time frame will be dropped from the winning list and new winners will be picked
* All those that have a winning “golden ticket” will be able to get in line, during their scheduled “tee time” as indicated on their ticket, and they will be able to purchase up to one case of DarkLordWhile we know that this will upset some of our customers, we feel that this is simply the easiest way to insure that everyone, regardless of geography or budget, will have the best chance to get their hands on some bottled DarkLord this coming April.
We hope that this will resolve much of the confusion and frustration of our patrons who failed to get any DarkLord at the last DLD.
Check back here soon, or go ahead and register now to get yourself on the DLD 2009 Early Bird Notification list.”
A lot of people chimed in on the proposal with the biggest complaints/observations being that this will only create a new eBay market for tickets and that people could easily create multiple email accounts. It isn’t clear as to why they took it down. Regardless, rather than just note what is wrong with the proposal, what is your solution?
My thoughts on the proposal…
1) Provided they check an ID name against the ticket name, I fail to see how they are transferable. Some will get burned buying the tix on eBay only to see the disclaimer written on the ticket but they should know better.
2) As for signing up with 100 email addresses, they would know to wipe out 10 Steve Wolojohanksi submissions from the list.
3) It takes care of the problem of waiting in lines for hours only to find out you’ll be empty-handed.
4) Sucks that it has to come to a lottery but that is probably what needs to happen from this point going forward.
I am 100% with your thoughts on this. Some people travel across the country to get some Dark Lord and have come up empty. At least this way that shouldn’t happen. Plus, up to a case, hell yeah that’s 12 bottles! I have a feeling if you can buy that many then they probably have a lot more to sell this year as well and the lottery will serve more as a way to coordinate the event and keep things fair. People need to quit bitching, everything about this is better.
Sure they might know to knock out the 10 Steve Wolojohanksi submissions, but what about more popular name like John Smith? You could easily have multiple people with the same name sign up…
Regardless, I do like a “ticket” system much better, I just hope they make it work…
Andy, I’m thinking if they require city, STATE they can solve that issue for the most part.
Too bad for the two John Smiths that happen to both live in Indianapolis though…
Or you could go even further and require full address and match it up to a license on DL Day.
Someone on BA said ‘Check over 2000 IDs? No thanks.’ But they gotta check IDs anyway right? I still think they are going to do this right provided they take it a couple steps further to follow through.
so since the announcement is down so is the email registration?
That is correct.
This past Darkness day at Surly, they had two people go down the line checking ID’s and handing out wristbands. One wristband for buying Darkness (unitl they would run out of wristbands) and one to show that you’ve been carded and are over 21. I don’t know exactly how many people showed up total, but it didn’t look like they had any problems and that carding that many people wasn’t that bad at all.
Why not do something similar to what many of the stores do for Black Friday?
Let’s say that there are 12,000 bottles:
1. Allow a line to form at whatever time people are willing to get there.
2. At a specified time (say, 8:00 AM), go through the line giving out tickets to the first 1000 people in line.
3. Each ticket allows the person to purchase up to 10 bottles of DL.
4. Once all of those 1000 people have gone through the line, allow whoever is in line after that to purchase up to 2 bottles of DL. That would allow an additional 1000 people a chance to get a few bottles. And if there aren’t 1000 additional people then those who got their 10 could go back through the line.
This way, those who make the effort to get there early get rewarded for their effort, but a lot of people still get to get some DL. And I can’t imagine that this wouldn’t be waaaaaaaay less complicated than having people register on their website and go through all that hassle.
Just my two cents.
This seems like a really good idea and I hope it works out.
All good points, Jason! Of course you will have your scalliwags that allege they were “in the bathroom.”
Why don’t they just brew more beer?
DLD is nothing more than marketing: Limited supply and increased hype.
Allow a line to form, say 8AM? People are lining up already before the sun rises! THOUSANDS of people show up, with a limit of 6 bottles per person, and they still ran out with hundreds left in line. This brewery is not that big, so the solution is not to make more, they are making as much as they can while maintaining their other beers. Again this is a SMALL brewery. I made it there in 2008 at around 9:30AM and I had to stand in line for hours, I was probably in the first thousand people in line. You have to park up to a mile away and walk to the line, and the line goes very far, and of course can’t be single file or it would require police intervention (which the Munster police are already involved in the current Dark Lord days and the news media). This is BIG and getting BIGGER. I may be camping out for this one.
I got there around 9:30 parked around the corner and ate some pancakes I made that morning. Got in line around 10 and started drinking with some people from around the country. I had a case of Hopslam and gave many of them away. I had 2 douchebags just barging their way to the front after they already bought! I was waiting to get mine when these guys just walked right past everyone INCLUDING 3F SECURITY CREW!!! Went up and bought 6 more and as they walked away announced they were selling it on ebay! WTF!! Yes last year they were not prepared. More porta potties and better security. I like the ticket idea. Too bad I won’t make it this year. Moved to Cali and enjoying Russian River and Port Brewing now. Would still go back given the chance. Hope they make it better for everyone. It was only a few years ago that Barnaby was sitting on pallets trying to sell the stuff. I remember my buddy buying a mini keg of it. I went to the second one and there was only the usuals from the $5 a cup drink as much as you want in the brewery!
Damn, yea musta been awesome to be the first people on the beer bandwagon, having all the Dark Lord you want! I miss being able to pop into Portsmouth for growlers of Kate the Great.
my problem with this is I live 5 min from the brewery and I go to the brewery once a week to eat and have some great brews. I support my local brewery so why should someone that lives in florida be able to buy up 6 bottles and sell 5 on ebay when i helped pay their bills and want the beer to drink and age? also my father and I have the same name so will i only be able to submit my name and he is out of luck?
Yup, they should have a ‘mug club’ so to speak for regulars and offer them at least a bottle each.