Results tagged “darklord”

The DarkLord Days of recent years have devolved into a litany of disappointed beer fans either leaving without bottles of Three Floyd's prized Russian Imperial Stout, or being so desperate for it that they purchase bottles from some of Northwest Indiana's brightest trade school dropouts for at least three times the $15 selling price set by the brewery. The golden ticket sale announced by the brewery was a step in the right direction to give those who truly wanted the beer an opportunity to buy it. Still, it was only a matter of time before golden tickets started popping up on Craigslist and online auctions.

As Karl mentioned, Oberon Season is getting an early start. Meanwhile we're waiting for the folks at Three Floyds to send us our DarkLord Day golden tickets, which we paid for and will not scalp in the parking lot on April 25.

Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head and Three Floyds' Nick Floyd are two of the more extreme brewmasters working today. So when the two of them decided to collaborate on an experimental ale, the mind boggles at what they could create.

  

This week, we hopefully compare tasting notes. Two weeks back we wrote about a sampling of Moloko, a milk stout brewed by Three Floyds, that was happening at Smallbar in Wicker Park. Milk stouts are typically made with lactose sugar; the resultant brew is sticky sweet.

Beer is made from four ingredients: water, malt, yeast and hops. It's the hops that provides bite and spice to the mix. Hops also help preserve beer, making it last longer. Back in the days when the sun never set on the British Empire, brewers working in India would add extra hops to their English bitter in order to survive the trip home around the south African Cape Horn and ensure its drinkability when it arrived home. This is how the India Pale Ale style earned its name.

We had our gripes about DarkLord Day, to be certain. But there were some good things about heading down to Munster and waiting for four hours in line with nothing to show for it except a farmer tan. For beer lovers it means getting to hang around with your own for a day, sampling from folks' private collections. At times, the combination of beer and the crowd made DarkLord Day resemble "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" (thanks, Lauren, for that reference).

For Three Floyds fanatics, it's the equivalent of a high holy day. DarkLord Day is the one day of the year where the venerable Munster, Indiana brewery releases their highly anticipated Russian Imperial Stout. Craft beer fans from around the world travel to either buy or barter from their personal collections for a bottle of the prized beer. Fans of good ales get to meet each other, sample each others wares, and get to put actual faces to online avatars.