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.