Miss Out On A Dark Lord Day Ticket? These Other Festivals & Releases Are Calling Your Name

Miss Out On A Dark Lord Day Ticket? These Other Festivals & Releases Are Calling Your Name

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By Adam T. Schick for Indiana On Tap

So you missed out this year. No matter how much you clicked “refresh” on your browser, or tried to add the items to your cart, you couldn’t get your hands on even one ticket to this year’s Dark Lord Day at 3 Floyds. Asking prices on the trade forums are just too high this year, as the ticket price bumped to $200 this year (but guarantees your allotment of bottles, which is nice), and you’ll have to wait a while to see if any 2016 Dark Lord bottles hit the secondary market for sale or trade. (Please don’t sell on the secondary market. It undercuts the efforts of the breweries.)

You may lament this fact that you’ll be missing out on one of the top festivals in the country, you may go up to Munster for the day just to take part in some epic bottle shares, or you could try your hand at one of the many other amazing rare bottle releases around Indiana this spring and summer. You’d be happy you did.

Barrel-Aged Sanitarium Release, Bier Brewery, April 1st, 2016
Bier Brewery’s annual release of Sanitarium, a Belgian-style Quad aged in bourbon barrels, is one of Indiana’s smaller yet most anticipated releases of the year. Beginning at 3:00 PM on Friday, April 1st, patrons can head to the Indianapolis brewery and pick up their allotment of Sanitarium. No tickets needed, but you’ll need to get there early as people will surely be stacked up outside trying to get their hands on this big boozy beer. The 12% Quad’s 2015 version is sitting at a 4.5 on Untappd, if you needed any other incentive.


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Death & Taxes Day, Taxman Brewing Co. - April 16th, 2016
The second annual Death & Taxes day celebrates the release of Taxman’s Death & Taxes, a barrel-aged Belgian-style stout, with a large bottle release and craft beer festival featuring 25+ of Indiana’s best breweries. Death & Taxes Day features one of the better deals out there, as well: for $25, you receive a commemorative snifter, two samples of this year’s Death & Taxes, ability to purchase up to four carry-out bottles of Death & Taxes, and unlimited sampling from the attending breweries and wineries. 

Double ThaIPA Day, Bare Hands Brewery - August 27th, 2016
Double ThaIPA Day celebrates the annual release of Bare Hands’ Double ThaIPA, a jacked up version of the super-popular ThaIPA India Pale Ale. Like Death & Taxes Day, Double ThaIPA Day is marked by a bottle release and festival featuring great beer, food, and music. There are four different types of tickets:

  • Designated Driver: $15, includes 1 water ticket
  • General Admission: $20, includes 2 beer tickets
  • 2 Bottles + 1 Variant: $75, includes 2x Double ThaIPA bottles, 1 Double ThaIPA variant bottle, event snifter, and 3 beer tickets
  • 4 Bottles + 2 Variants: $125, includes 4x Double ThaIPA bottles, 2 Double ThaIPA variant bottles, event snifter, and 4 beer tickets

Double ThaIPA Day tickets go on sale April 24th, the first day of Indiana Craft Beer Week, and Indiana On Tap Tasting Society members should keep their eyes peeled for an exclusive deal available only to them. Membership has its perks. 

Upland Sour Lottery, Upland Brewing Co. - Quarterly
Upland’s sours are some of the hottest items not just in Indiana but throughout the country’s craft beer scene. The lottery takes place about four times per year, the first of 2016’s taking place in February, and people all over the country throw their names into the hat in hopes to get their hands on whatever they can. Upland allows winners to send a proxy to pick up their winning allotment as well, which incentivizes people even outside of Indiana to enter. Lottery winners are randomly selected, making the events that much more exciting. And if you miss out on a winning draw, Upland does a public sour sale of every bottle not picked up by the mandatory date for winners at its Bloomington and Broad Ripple locations, so even losers can be winners for a day. 

Sun King King’s Research, Sun King Brewing - Periodically
People don’t usually line up in droves for these periodic releases, but it’s always fun seeing what Sun King is cooking up with each release from their barrel and sour programs. The two packs usually go for about $25, and have included ales aged in bordeaux bottles, sour ales aged in oak barrels, bourbon barrel-aged imperial stouts, Fistful of Hops IPA aged in mescal barrels, and more. These releases usually pop up with little announcement, so stick to Sun King’s Twitter, Facebook, and newsletters to make sure you don’t miss out. 


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There’s plenty more special releases and tappings taking place around the state this spring and summer. Did we miss one? Let us know in the comments!

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