Dark Lord Day

Finally I am just getting over my exhaustion. Where do I begin? Well, I guess we can start from the beginning when Three Floyd’s Brewery announced Dark Lord Day was coming soon and the newly established ticket system, as opposed to a first come first serve system. Before, as I heard from others, was a very stressful and possibly disappointing day because there is no guarantee that you would leave with a bottle let alone 6, so people would be standing in line for 5 hours having driven possible 300 miles and when they get close, “Sorry folks, we are all out.” This happened last year to the people in front of us.

The Golden Tickets

So this year they decided to set up a “Golden Ticket” system where you would have to register on their website and then on the day of St Patrick the “doors” would open and you could buy up to two tickets per household for 10 dollars a ticket, proceeds going to charity. This was to ensure that people would not be disappointed and who knows, possibly prevent a riot. I was aware of this day since it was announced but felt it was too much money and too far away and just too much of a hassle so I did not register but was offered a chance to tag along with Aaron, The Captain, but was probably not going to do it and that was the end of that.

Then one day I got about 5 tweets from Dave the Drunken Polack saying he wanted to ask me something, he finally gave up and decided just to straight email me which we all prefer anyways, tweeting just seems dorky yet we still do it. And imagine my surprise when he said that he had two tickets yet was not able to go and he wanted to know if I would want them. Hells yeah I would, I knew I had a ride already and all I had to do was send him back his share which was no problem so it was a perfect scenario.

John reaping the reward

But after about three different scenarios came and went I settled on the best one, going to Madison and driving from there with my good friend John and driving back and staying with him and his family. So it was all set. I got the tickets and Dave’s money, saved up some cash myself and waited for the day to hit the road.

I left Friday morning at 10 a.m. with a cooler of Summit’s Horizon Red, a growler of Town Hall’s Masala Mama and a growler of Fitger’s Hair of the Monk which for trades that never really happened. It was a very nice ride that day if not too hot and I made it to Tyranena Brewery where I was meeting the Captain and his brother-in-law just in the nick of time for our 3:00 private tour with Jessie their Beer Ambassador.

The Captain and I enjoying a Scurvy.

We started off with a glass of Benji’s Chipotle Smoked Imperial Porter which was very well balanced, it had nice chocolate notes with a peppery aftertaste and a smoky body, not my favorite style but it was something that I enjoyed. The brewery itself is very small, not Flat Earth small but still one of the smaller ones I have seen, but possibly the cleanest, I was ready to eat of the floor. The bottling operation is all hands and that day they packaged and shipped out my favorite beer from them, one in which I have already reviewed, Scurvy. After the tour we went back into the bar and proceeded to have a Bourbon Aged Rocky’s Revenge and then at five they tapped the Scurvy, perfect timing for us I might add. We chatted with assistant brewmaster Nevin McCown who was very hospitable and we each picked up a growler of the Scurvy which I, John and Jenny (John’s wife) polished off that night along with a bottle of some Three Floyd’s Winter Ale and Stout.

Being that I am allergic to cats I stayed in the basement and to my surprise they did not bother me at all so I slept like a rock and woke up at 7 all set to go. After a hearty breakfast that Jenny made we hit the road at 8 and we were off to Chicago. We got a I-Pass from Jenny’s sister so that really helped us bypass the tolls quickly and after one stop we made it to Munster, Indiana which is just over the border of Chicago.

We made it!

Parking was a mess, we could tell that the road to the brewery was full so we parked at a park by the road and walked the mile to the brewery. Closer we got the more things were picking up. When we turned the corner there it was, the line. Now keep in mind that we got there about quarter to 11 and that is when the doors were opening but we knew it as going to be long but this was looonnnggg. It started at the brewery and went about 2 blocks down to about the end and then coiled around inside a parking lot, when we got there we were just at the part where the coil was perpendicular to the other part of the line but after about a half hour it was a coil about 3 loops deep, if that makes any sense, you can probably see it in the picture though this is after about an hour of standing in line. About a half hour later Aaron, his brother-in-law and a friend showed up and we let them in line , I hope no one was pissed but it was near the end and the line did move pretty fast, I know that there were people cutting in towards the front of the line and that to me was much worse that doing it at the end with friends. Anyways, standing in line was probably the best part of the day next to getting the Dark Lord, we met some cool people around us, we shared beer and brewing stories as well as talked about everything and anything. We were able to leave in groups to use the bathroom, the brewery was selling their other beer which you could buy whenever which I shared with the group.

The looonnnggg line.

I bought a sixer of the Gumball Head which was a very nice Wheat beer, a nice combo of wheat and hops, a much more hoppy wheat beer than others I have had but nothing “imperial” just a nice balance and I also picked up a bottle of a Three Floyd’s and Dogfish Head collaboration, Popskull which was a very nice German Brown Ale with Palo Santo Wood and Botanicals. Then, after about 2 and half hours we were getting very close, the lone guy without a ticket in our party moved our stuff to a location in the grass and we were set to enter the final stage of the line.

The parking lot of the brewery was a clusterfuck of tasting tents, guest brews, porta-potties and basically people standing around and getting sloshed. This is the area where you could get Vanilla Dark Lord and Oaked Aged Dark Lord and other stuff but if you know me well you know that the one thing I hate is thick, obnoxious drunk crowds, I would have loved to try these but it just wasn’t worth it for me and it seemed I wasn’t alone because I don’t think any of us went.

Chicago line friend and I enjoying the line.

Getting back to the Dark Lord line this is when it started to get hectic and discombobulated, people that were well behind us blatantly walked in front of us, I looked right at them and they really didn’t seem to give a shit. But the line just bolted, by the time we hit the parking lot and the door it was about 15 minutes to a half hour. The last part of the line was probably one of the coolest feelings I felt in a while. I mean, in the end it is just a beer but the moment of hearing about it, then getting tickets, then the journey and then the line and then actually knowing that you are going to have it because honestly I still was not 100% sure it was all going to pan out, I anticipated a car breaking down, tickets flying out the window, the beer running out, but after all this we were there, we got our beer and we hurried back to our spot in the grass and secured them with the rest of our booty. Now you got 4 bottles per ticket. For me I got two tickets and 4 of the beers were going to The Drunk Polack and I was splitting mine with John so in the end I got two which I really do not mind because that is plenty for me and it was nice just to experience the day. But to my surprise The Captain’s brother-in-law cracked open one and split it with all of us, very cool. And my god what a beer. Almost like desert. Just a mashing of flavors. I will actually reserve a review for the beer on a later date so I can explain it better. So it was roughly 2 p.m. when we were all back to base camp. We were leaving at 4 so we had a good two hours to mingle and enjoy the day. I talked with our line buddies from Chicago and got to try some home brews. I cracked open my Fitger’s Hair of the Monk Triple and share some with the crowd as did Aaron with his Masala Mama. It was around this time that I was starting to get tipsy as was everyone else including some poor schmo that ralphed in front of everyone.

Too much Dark Lord Day

I made the dumb mistake of not getting Dread Naught, I think I was all set but for some reason thought I would get a sixer of Alpha King instead. It hit 4 p.m., I grabbed a can of Bitter Brew for the walk back and we were off to Madison before hitting a liquor store to pick up something that we couldn’t get in Madison or Wisconsin which was nothing but two bottles of Three Floyd’s Barley Wine.

The ride back was wet and cold but fairly quick. We topped off the night with one of John’s bottles of Dark Lord, a bottle of Popskull, a bottle of the Barley Wine and we foolishly drank from John’s growler of his homebrew clone of Duvel, we were already in the bag by then.

John's Home Brew

Needless to say I zonked out and slept in till 10 waking up very fuzzy and being that I had a 4 hour drive ahead of me was something I was not looking forward to. Along the way was sporadic rain that was at times very dense that it made driving a pain in the ass, I also stopped at a liquor store to see if there was anything that I could not get in Minnesota, and there was, but it was all looking not very appealing to my current state so I bought no booze but instead some Taco Bell. I finally got home at 4 and saw my daughter Delia for the first time in like 3 days and she was probably the most beautiful person I have ever saw as was my wife, it is so good to get home. We played and hung out and Delia eventually went to bed and I finally felt better and had a few Alpha King’s which were excellent, bolder Pale Ale than some others out there. At about 9 p.m. Delia woke up screaming and proceeded to do so most of the night which kept me waking up on and off. She stayed home the next day so I went to work in the morning and left early, shipped out The Drunken Polack’s bottles and I went home to finally relax. And I did, Delia felt better, I went to be early and sweated out all the beer I drank this weekend and slept like rock and now here I am. What a weekend. Can’t wait to it next year.

Observations From A Beer Geek

The more I am getting into the craft beer community the more I am starting to see that it is not always one big loving community. I write this today after about of month of beer soul searching and I have decided to voice my opinions on the community. I am not going to name names or places, you might know who I am talking about and personally I am not trying to tell those folks that they are bad people, because they are not, not all. This is just an observation from a person who has enjoyed many things in life but could never seem to get into the scenes that surrounded them.

Most of this surrounds the website Beer Advocate. An important site that beer lovers go to talk, discover and review, it’s a one stop shop for everything you need to know or want to find out. I use it everyday it seems or at least stop in to see if there is anything new. Recently I decided to actually join the site so I can use the forums and talk with others, this was also around the same time I considered myself grounded. Just to clarify there are many great people on those boards who’s credo is, if you like it then it is good beer, and that is mine as well. I wasn’t always this way, I was never a Nazi about it but I could tell that I was developing a snobbish attitude and I was also breaking my wallet to somewhat prove to myself that I was more than just a fan. But I have been noticing that there are quite a few people who seem to have gone off the deep end and enjoy it, almost thinking that their poor attitude is some sort of status symbol. And the very worst part is that it is not just a few folks that are just fans, some are actually people in the industry. A few weeks back there was a post by a liquor store owner actually saying that other liquor stores, ones that have been around for decades and have a great staff and a great selection, didn’t give a rip about you and just want your money. And then there was a bar owner upset about the media coverage on a new and local beer and then saying that once it is gone he isn’t going to tap it again because he doesn’t like it. Comments like that, even if their intentions were not meant to hurt others, are a big turn off for me, not that I think it should hurt their business in general but it doesn’t help. And those are really nothing compared to some of the things I have read on those boards. One guy was worried that if he poured a beer outside in the sun if it would spoil before he finished it. Another was mad that someone posted a You Tube video saying that Busch Light was better than some Belgian beer. The list goes on and on. People rip on others for not knowing enough or liking something they don’t, it’s silly. I was talking via personal messages with a 6 year veteran on BA and he mentioned that, especially in the Twin Cities, how people have gotten very combative and he enjoys seeing people, like me I guess you could say, get past their newbie beer geek stage and not have to feel the need to rip on other people or breweries to feel they have street cred. And that really does sum up where I once was.

But now I am here and this weekend I will be at Dark Lord Day. This is a once a year event not unlike Surly’s Darkness Day, but this however is bigger. I was lucky to get two tickets from The Drunken Polack after he could not make it, I will have to send him his share of course but I get the opportunity to have some myself plus other goodies from other breweries. Dark Lord Day will also be one of  the premier gathering events of beer geeks from all over the country and world. You could say that it will be a Beer Advocate forum in person. I have come across many beer fans and most of them are cool, easy to chat with and open minded to my occasional ignorance. But there have been maybe two or so that I have talked to that it felt like they were talking to me not with me. In every scene there are these types, the holier-than-thou crowd, the ones who are more vegan than you, more punk than you, more hacker than you, more environmental than you, more free market than you and more beer connoisseur than you. I am sure we all have come across this, you never win these people over, it is not part of their MO. For me the beer scene and events like Dark Lord Day are for two things, beer and people, to them it is themselves and the beer and part of me wonders if they forgot that it is not about actually getting the bottle to drink but instead to show it off, write a review, earn bonus points and possibly move up in the beer world, whatever that means. I know there were many times that I had to get a beer and be one of the first to get it, still do if, however, there is a small window of opportunity. But as of late I do not feel like it’s very necessary to be this way. Am I losing my love for craft beer? No, but after a few years you come to realize that this is not a race and really if you do race and try to win you are missing out. Like the old saying, don’t forget to stop and smell the roses. This Dark Lord Day I will be smelling the “roses” and enjoying the chance to try what I can and not regretting what I could not. The things in life that you enjoy should be taken in moderation and not too seriously.  Next time you are at the liquor store, maybe you should pick up a 6 pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Sam Adams Boston Lager or Summit Extra Pale Ale. Go for it, I won’t laugh, unless it’s Leinenkugel’s

Summit’s Horizon Red

Being that I am a bit bias when it comes to Summit I will make this quick and I will leave no grade, I will just explain what it is, though I do have to honestly say I really like this one. Summit has been around for a while and they basically pioneered the craft brewing industry in Minnesota. However their beers do not push the limits or go off the beaten path like a lot of newer craft breweries do. Their styles basically fit the bill, which there is nothing wrong with, in fact their Extra Pale Ale is probably my favorite Pale Ale. Recently though they came out with what is my summer staple Scandia Ale which is a Belgian wit brewed with cardamon, something a bit different for a wit. Lately however the wind in the craft brewing world has been blowing with hops, and lots of them, so it was time for Summit to do the same. They have an IPA which is more of a english style, good but not like the rest of the IPA’s on the market. So instead of changing this one or making a double they decided to make a red with Horizon, Cascade and Amarillo hops added in 6 different times during the brewing process. It pours a bright translucent red color, obviously, with a nice frothy head. IT has the smell of an IPA but the taste is where it differs. Very light up front but the back of my mouth is where the bitter is. It is as it says, a red ale that is hoppy which there are not very many of these around, Lagunitas has one but I have yet to try it but I guess it is similar. I had about 4 of these during my volunteer, 8 ounce glasses, and though I liked it right away it grew on me more and more. This will be a perfect summer beers because it combines both easy light drinking with the hops that we all crave these days. But as I said, I am bias so check it out for yourself, I am going to add this to summer rotation.

Beer Wars Movie Review

Last night I went to the one night only Beer Wars movie. This is a must see for all beer lover but especially the folks who drink Bud/Miller/Coors. If you are a beer geek like myself it is basically preaching to the choir but still very informative and inspiring. But if you drink Bud you just might never buy it again. The company has no soul, no personality. You see Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery or Jim Koch of Sam Adams and you get these wonderful individuals who love beer and they authentically love making beer for people. Then they have the brew master for Bud and what you get is this wooden character who shows off the beers he made and they are all knock offs of what the little guys are doing. Bud/Miller/Coors is just like any other big corporation, a small business creates something new and exciting and the big guys mimic it and have the advertising and corporate power to dominate the market on it thus crushing any competition

There is however the sympathy segment of the movie about Rhonda Kallman who was actually a co-founder of the Boston Beer Company with Jim Koch who decided to leave and start her own company, New Century Brewing, and she is trying to push this beer called Moonshot which is a caffeine beer. Now, I feel bad for her because she is having a hard time getting this beer out and she is worrying and so is her family but I couldn’t but shake my head and say “You are making a caffeine beer, it’s a novelty and it will die off like the others, you had a great secure job at Boston Beer Company, what were you thinking?” But you know, if it wasn’t for people like her we would all be drinking swill so I applaud her for everything that she has done and is still doing, I just would have stayed with Jim.

The actual movie experience for me was another story. The people at AMC in Roseville really messed up. First they didn’t have the sound on for the opening segments but luckily put it on when the movie started. But then about 3/4 of the way the picture went very VERY dark, a bulb burnt out in the projector and never came back so I left before the panel discussions which I guess the theater put the lights back on so you couldn’t see at all, people were pissed. We did get our money back and a free ticket so at that was cool with me, I will get it on DVD.

**EDIT**
After reading a few reviews I have noticed that what I missed was the segment on the three tier system which people have been saying was the best part. Damn.

Beer War Movie

B+

Dawn Of The Barley Wines

Spring is here, winter is over and the Barley Wines have stopped flowing. What a winter I had with these beers. I tried as many as I could get my hands on and I was not disappointed with any of them. Barley Wines are great for really cold winter nights and this winter was pretty cold so that means I had my fair share of them. But now Spring is right outside and these heavy beers are now back to fermenting over the summer and fall and come back to get me again at the turn of the decade. So without further ado the sequel to Attack of the Barley Wines, Dawn of the Barley Wines.

First up on our list we have one of my personal favorites and the most unique one of the bunch. Flat Earth Brewery’s Winter Warlock. This is a golden barley wine which the recipe came from the original barley wine that Bass brewed called Bass No. 1, or so they say, from what I’ve read it sounds different but I am assuming they didn’t want to mimic it exactly. What makes this different is that it is a golden barley wine, which actually is like a Belgian golden but stronger. It’s a very sweet lightly malty beer with some fruitiness. Hops are almost non existent and it leave a tackiness when you get to the end. Not sure why this is one of my favorites, I would have to say it’s the locality (brewed in St. Paul) and the fact that it stands apart from the rest of them. I enjoy it every year.

A

Bigfoot. The grandfather of the American barley wine from Sierra Nevada, or at least one that has been around longer than most. This is also up there in my favorites as well, though in all honesty there really are not many that I would probably rate below a B. This is a favorite for people to store and I am not one of these people, though I really should. A beer buddy of mine actually got to try all of them ranging from 1998 to 2009, you can read his post here. But me, I only have this years one an as usual, and it is yet another winner. A nice deep malt base and a fine aroma and taste of piney hops and caramel this beer is probably my favorite that comes out of Chico, CA, next to the Celebration Ale of course. Maybe next year I will start cellaring these beers. Or maybe I wont. Probably wont.

A

Next up we have a newbie from New Glarus Brewery called Iced Barley Wine. The reason for the “ice” is that they freeze it for a few months during the fermentation to trap some of the flavor. Does it work? Beats me. But I can tell you that this was not one of my favorites but a pretty heavy beer, a bombastic 13.5 ABV, so it did the job. Not really sure what turned me off, I think it was and intense malt flavor to it with the alcohol, it just seemed off, but not too much, I will have this again if it comes back but it didn’t hit me like the other ones did.

B

And this was a spur of the moment barley wine, Southern Tier’s Back Burner. I got this about two weeks ago, after I was pretty full of the wines and was going to end my season until I found this still around so I decided to take it under my wing. Not bad, but then by now the thrill was long gone so I was not very enthused. Barley Wines are so complex and big that to me after a while I get bored with them. But this shouldn’t take away from the Back Burner, a brew that has all the great characteristics of a quality wine, brown sugar, dark malts, fruit and bittering hops and the warm sensation of alcohol. I say it ranks up there with the best of them, just have it earlier in the year.

B+

And finally the monster of this whole series, Stone’s Old Guardian Barley Wine and luckily for me I was able to get 2008 from The Drunken Polack and 2009 From the Vice Man and the differences were incredible. 2008 seemed to have lost most of it’s hops but what was left was a powerful brew that at times made my eye flicker because of the strong alcohol taste. All the ingredients seemed to meld together and gave it a chocolate milk look to it (don’t let the picture fool you). The taste aside from the alcohol was caramel  and a smorgasbord of flavors, heck it was very hard for me to pin down. The 2009 was more like what I was used to, but to perfection. The hops, malts, everything. I sure wish I saw this more often. The floral and caramel to the nose was heavenly, I took a whiff and the smell went straight to my brain, I think it gave me a buzz. The taste was powerful, strong, bold and biting to the tongue. Old Guardian held a presence in my fridge that no other beer has ever done, that is, possibly, until Dark Lord gets in there, it stood powerful amongst the others, like a tyrant, like Stalin looking amongst the Red Army watching them pass before him knowing that no other could reach the position that he sat in and if they tried they paid the price. Old Guardian is the king of beers. Bow before it.

A++

Lagunaitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale

Baseball season has begun and so has my attempt to actual follow the game. Every year it is the same thing with me. I watch the first Twins game and then I miss the second, which sucks because it sounded great, and then it slowly fades off my radar only to surface here and there when I have the time. I tell myself that this year I am going to keep a good eye on what goes on because I truly like the game, but it just never quits. Every damn day there is a game, which is kind of good in a way because when I do want to watch one there will be one on somewhere, but it also makes me not pay attention. Hockey is my sport, always has been. There was a time in my late teens after the North Stars left for Dallas that I stopped watching but that was mainly because I was young and out all the time. Now I am old and in and what better chance to waste time than to plop down in front of the TV on a cold winter night and watch the Wild or the Red Wings or the Maple Leafs, my three teams, Bulldogs and Gophers included. But baseball is in the summer and I am usually at least outside my house and to be honest, baseball is slow. It is one of those sports where it is very easy for me to open a book during or gravitate to the garage to tinker with my bike. I feel the same for football as well but not as much because it’s a once and a week ordeal. My wife says that the one thing she is really surprised my me now than when we were first dating is that now I watch sports. It is true, when we first dated I did not care one bit, as I said I was busy and was not interested. But that all changed when two things happened, my friend Zach moved in with me and that got me into football, I won free tickets to a Wild game and the Twins started winning again.

But this time of year is playoff hockey. The best race to the championship in all of sports to get the best trophy in all of sports. It is a grueling  2 months of sweat, blood and facial hair. My god I cannot believe how people get so into March Madness, I know I have a lot of readers who do love it and get into it but I am sorry, LAME. I am thinking the Hurricanes have a great chance this year as do the Devils, Canucks and Red Wings. The Conference leaders, at the moment because the Wings are not far behind, are the Bruins and the Sharks but the Bruins are too young and the Sharks always choke, though of the two I think the Sharks have the better chance. The Hurricanes are the dark horse here. Under the radar, heck I didn’t even think of them till my cousin pointed them out to me and upon looking at their numbers and players they seem to either have the ability to make or at least give whoever is in their way a hard time.  The Canucks in the west are on fire, sure they just snapped a three game losing streak but before that they were solid. And when you are playing a team that is on a race with you for the division championship, the Flames, and you beat them 4 – 1 while you goalie stops 46 shots, that is something all teams need to keep an eye on. Teams win by having the best goalie in the playoffs and Luongo can be just that. The Devils may not be the best that they ever have been but they are still the same style team as they always have been. Composed and resilient. They may not be as flashy as the Capitals, Penguins or Bruins but they are stoic in the back end. And the Red Wings, well what can you say, same team as last year with the inclusion of Marian Hossa. All they need is for Osgood to get back into playoff form and that is all she wrote.

And while I was watching my Minnesota Wild go out on a positive note, even though they can still make it if St. Louis and Nashville lose all their games and we win ours, I was enjoying a Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale. Man do I love this brewery. Great beers, great prices and they make it fun. This one was brewed in remembrance to the 2005 St. Patrick’s Day Massacre, which is  an interesting story which can be read here by Mr. Magee himself, basically word got out that at the brewery people and staff openly smoked pot so the feds did an undercover operation, didn’t get any sellers but many people were willing to share. Anyways they shut the place down for 20 days, which actually helped the brewery give them time to brew and install their new bottling system. I love these guys even more now. And this beers is great as well. An imperial mild which is an oxymoron it pours a deep red color with minimal head but you can tell it has a potency to it because of that. With a strong hop aroma in the mix it also posses a very sweet nose to it. The taste is a wonderful balance of candied sugars, fruit and hops. This warms up the blood very well and makes me enjoy the game while trying not to think that it is in vain. The body is bold yet light enough to make me enjoy a couple more but not too much because it does pack a 9% ABV.

I want to thank a couple fellow bloggers out there who inspired me to write this post. I’ve been in a writing funk as of late and they gave me the topic and inspiration to write this one. Aaron at The Captains Chair, Aaron at The Vice Blog and my newest stop Jay at the Hedonist Beer Jive. Thanks guys!

Lagunaitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale

B+

Who says volunteering doesn’ t pay

Even without the beer it is a great gig. The owner Mark hung out with us today after the tour. What a superb organization. How I ended up in printing and not brewing is a mystery. Oh well, there is still time.