Dark Lord Day 2013

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I don't know if anybody knows about serving DL on tap. Hopefully they set up some extra tents to serve it. If not it is pretty amazing that Surly can serve Darkness during their whole event and still sell more bottles pf Darkness than 3F does of Dark Lord...

Some photos on a thread on BeerAdvocate show them setting up tents in the empty lot across the street from the brewery. There should be much more space this year than in years past!
 
iii9ix3 said:
Some photos on a thread on BeerAdvocate show them setting up tents in the empty lot across the street from the brewery. There should be much more space this year than in years past!

I can confirm this. Looks like they've really partnered with the local businesses (or at least paid them a ton)... The space looks to be expanded ten fold. I'm not sure how they're gonna handle things, but DL sales will still be on site (all of their beer sales need to be on their property, right?) but the rest of the arrangement looks like much more of a festival setup.
 
Looks like they've really embraced it as a "festival" this year. In the past it has always seemed more like a beer sale that a whole bunch of people decided to make into a beer fest :) Now it seems more like a festival with an important beer sale/release.
 
Sounds great. I will have nothing to compare it to though :)
I called the pub this evening and the girl said shes pretty certain they will be serving in tap on the grounds.
Awesome!

Heading to Indy in a few minutes. Hanging out there for the day/night then heading to 3 Floyds on Saturday morning. We get a 1 hour time change so that helps a bunch. Still probably won't get there before 11 I'm assuming though.
 
conpewter said:
Looks like they've really embraced it as a "festival" this year. In the past it has always seemed more like a beer sale that a whole bunch of people decided to make into a beer fest :) Now it seems more like a festival with an important beer sale/release.

Agreed. I only had time for a quick drive by viewing, but unless they end up putting up fences to block off the road itself (which I'm sure they can't do due to fire codes) it'll be considerably different than in years past.
 
Planning on writing "HBT" on a piece of green painters tape and putting it on my shirt somewhere. So if anyone wants to hang out with a DLD newbie, stop me if you see it :) I won't have anything too crazy, but I did pack an overcarbed :)() ~11 month old imperial stout and a few of my vanilla bourbon barrel stouts (aged in my used bourbon barrel).
 
mtnagel said:
How will they control non-ticket holders from getting in then?

Speculation, but the tix are for DL beer sales. The 3F DLD site makes reference to "gates", which might mean that they'll still have the brewery grounds proper fenced off as in the past.

All of this is speculation. The good news is that you'll only have to wait two days to find out, and it doesn't really matter anyway cause you're gonna show up regardless, just like me. :)
 
I'm reaching out to all my internet beer peoples for help. My wife was scheduled to work, now she doesn't have to work today. She wants to come with me up to DLD, but can't get in without a ticket. I suggested she drop me off a little earlier than the time for my bottle buy line to start, then after I get my bottles we can take off and go to Flossmoor station for dinner and beer.

My question: What is there to do in Munster while she waits? She's into antique shops and record stores. A little googling showed no record stores. Any good bars to wait at?

Thanks in advance
 
CTownBrewer said:
Same here. I was also on right at 12:00 & came away with nothing. Sucks...never had Dark Lord, so it would be nice to get to go at least once.

The good news is that we're going on a beer trip Easter weekend & hitting Bells, FFF, Revolution, & Goose Island.

I recommend Dark Horse in Marshall, MI as well. Great beer, good pizza, home brew store on site, definitely worth the stop in my opinion.
 
Gunslinger711 said:
I'm reaching out to all my internet beer peoples for help. My wife was scheduled to work, now she doesn't have to work today. She wants to come with me up to DLD, but can't get in without a ticket. I suggested she drop me off a little earlier than the time for my bottle buy line to start, then after I get my bottles we can take off and go to Flossmoor station for dinner and beer.

My question: What is there to do in Munster while she waits? She's into antique shops and record stores. A little googling showed no record stores. Any good bars to wait at?

Thanks in advance

She could head over to Crown Point and get her antique shopping in and stop by Crown Brewery. It is not too far from Munster, especially if you plan on staying at DLD for awhile. In Munster there is Charlie Horse not too far and they have some 3F on tap there.
 
Well, I wore a button saying "HBT.com" on it but didn't run into anyone that identified themselves as someone I might know from here. Lots of homebrewers, but no one that I thought I might run across.

Had more amazing beers from people passing around bottles than ever before. It was ridiculous. Also, I got comped one ticket and ended up getting gifted two other tickets later on. Also ridiculous.

From my perspective, better run then in the past, although the lines were still lines. I never even got close to the guest taps this year - didn't really need to. Had samples from Jolly Pumpkin, Dogfish Head, El Segundo, Cigar City, Cantillon, Founders KBS, Russian River's Consecration and Sanctification and Goose Island's Bourbon County Coffee Stout, among others. Also finally got a chance at some Heady Topper
 
I wore my green painters tape with HBT and one one said anything. Oh well. We met some cool home brewers in line, one from Cincinnati. Had some of their home brew and commercial beer. We didn't have anything ridiculous to share (just out home brews) so we didn't try to drink everyone's awesome beer. Saw a ton of Heady though. Can't believe so many people had it. How are they getting it? So I guess we did it "wrong" that we didn't bring some crazy rare beer to share.

Anyway we did have some of the guest taps though. Had a very good cigar city and stone beer. Also had FFF's black IPA which was good and the Dark Lord on tap. First time ever having it. We thought it was wicked sweet! Please tell me that mellows with age. If not, we spent a lot of time, effort and cash to get some pretty mediocre beer :( Guess I may be exploring some of those trade options that came up already.

We waited 3 hours in line and didn't leave until around 10 pm even though we had the 6-8 slot since they were so behind. That sucked, but like I said we met some cool people so the time went by quickly.

I do feel like you see the worst of people at these things. Saw too many passed out drunk people. Some by 3 pm, though I guess that's to be expected at something like that. Guess I've been to enough beer fests to know how to pace. I also hated all the empty bottles and garbage left behind. Most people left by the time we left and it looked like a craft beer store exploded all over the place. I think it's kind of stupid that you have to show off your crazy beer bottles for some reason. Could you at least pick them up and throw them out when you leave? I will never understand that.

Anyway, I'm still glad we went and had the experience. But I can see this being our last dark lord day. :)
 
This was my first time trying Darklord and I didn't expect it to live up to the hype. But imo, it was incredible! Coffee flavor was very pronounced and I didn't notice that it was overly malty (although, my pallet was probably not in the best shape at the time).

I also didn't make it over to the guest taps, mainly because i spent most of the time in the darklord draft line. Between the darklord drafts, my hunahapu & other CCBs, someone's cuban cigar and many other awesome shares in the group C line my longevity was greatly impacted... I somehow teleported back to my car and missed nearly every band. But still had a blast and was able to make enough trades to get some DL for my buddies that couldn't get tickets.

btw, I loved seeing the bottle graveyard, there were some legends in there!
 
I heard someone say the DL on tap there was a barrel aged one. True or not? I'm assuming not, but making sure.

Also, assuming the stuff on tap is what's in the bottle, does anyone know if the sweetness will mellow out after sitting in the bottle?
 
Sweetness will only get sweeter the more age you put on the beer. As beer ages the hop bitterness (and flavor) drop out. This happens faster at higher temperatures. That's why I trade my darklords and don't even bother drinking them; they are just way too sweet for my taste and I can usually fetch much better crafted (IMHO) stouts like hunahpu's or darkness.
 
I had 2009 BA on tap.
Where was that? The DL I had was at the taps closest to the brewery on the left side when facing the brewery.

Sweetness will only get sweeter the more age you put on the beer. As beer ages the hop bitterness (and flavor) drop out. This happens faster at higher temperatures. That's why I trade my darklords and don't even bother drinking them; they are just way too sweet for my taste and I can usually fetch much better crafted (IMHO) stouts like hunahpu's or darkness.
Thanks for the info.
 
If you just got regular Dark Lord (which is all I was able to get) it was the 2013 batch. If you got one of the barrel aged ones (as indicated on the sign) then you did get a barrel aged batch that may or may not be this years DL (depends on how long they barrel age it I guess) I missed out on buying a pour of BA vanilla bean, waited in line but too many people were cutting in from the sides so it ran out as I got up to the table.
 
Anyone know who had this homebrewed Dark Lord? I'd really like to get the recipe and process.


"While we were in line way in the back by BMW Constructors some guy was driving around on a trike with a trailer holding a small keg. He said it was homebrewed Dark Lord and it was AMAZING. Anyone happen to know that guy and if he is on Beer Advocate?"

http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...2013-new-site-info.75623/page-58#post-1251065
 
I have seen that thread (and even posted to it in 2010) but the descriptions don't make me want to try to brew this one.

"My friends and I made pretty much this a while back and aged it in a bourbon barrel with vanilla beans. Having had DL, this recipe tastes nothing like it. It's a good beer, not a great one with actually very little stout characteristic at all. I would think of it more as a Strong Ale. DL is so much thicker and sweeter, this has nowhere near that body. That said, DL isn't really that great to begin with.
"
 
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