DARK LORD DAY!

I wonder how many Satanists are doing Google searches and coming up with hits about this event? Ok, so here we go: the much anticipated Dark Lord Day had finally arrived!Sales of the beer started at 11, but we figured there was no rush to get down there, considering the lines from previous years. Also, the thunder we woke up to and the rain hitting our window didn't hurry us either. Once the weather cleared, we decided to walk to Three Floyds, allowing us to better take in the scenery, like the Mighty Munster River pictured here.

It was a good thing we walked, as there were cars parking a half mile away from Three Floyds, with people lined up waiting for parking, or stuck behind the semi that had to maneuver down a small street with cars parked on both siides and swaggering pedestrians carrying cases of Dark Lord.

Once we got to the site, the line to buy Dark Lord was the first thing I noticed. It snaked around from Three Floyds' warehouse, all the way down, and down, and down the street. I felt a little discouraged at first, thinking that I would be spending my entire day standing in a line. But we decided to take a walk around first, and see what was going on under some tents that were set up near the brewpub.

And that's where we met our first new best friend of the day: Dan. Dan had driven down from Wisconsin, making a stop in Minnesota for, get this, 15 growlers of Masala Mama IPA and 20 tallboy cans of Surly Furious IPA, among other things he brought. He introduced us to the idea of the "tasting tables" that were under the tents. People brought stuff just to share with other beer lovers! We decided to put off waiting in line for a bit and made our rounds of the tables.

Look at this stuff! And it wasn't like people were bringing cans of Tecate like you would to a picnic or something; this was stuff that even I was gaga over. And when I use a stupid word like gaga, you know it was good stuff. I'll give a full list at the end of this post.

Then we met another new best friend: Gary (pictured with his wife April). Gary is a bakery manager at a Chicago Whole Foods, and he brought all kinds of beer and food with him. He had two coolers that he just kept pulling more and more stuff from, food that was better than the peanut butter pretzels that we grabbed at the convenience store. French cheeses, veal and other kinds of sausages and mustard, not to mention the beers! He even gave us a couple of unopened rarities to take home with us. Come to think of it, Dan gave us beer too. And for nothing in return; this is just how cool they were.

That brings us to another new best friend: Alex. Alex rode the "Lush Bus" from Chicago for the event, and introduced us to the "Fancy Beers" that Three Floyds had on tap inside their warehouse for the event. I knew that there were going to be guest taps, but I thought they were tapped in the brewpub and the line to get in there was almost as bad as the line to buy Dark Lord. But Alex guided like a sherpa, and led me to beers on tap that were either rare new releases or beers that I had written off as "never to be seen again".

Dark Lord was only on sale till 6, so we finally dragged ourselves over to the area whre the beer was sold...and there was NO line. We just walked up to the table and picked up our beer. I am SOOOOOO thankful we decided to walk around first. Why anyone would wait in a line like that when there is so much else to do is beyond me, but whatever. We got ours!

After we had had our fill of everything (and we had more than our fill, believe me), we got a ride from strangers back to our hotel. I have no idea who those people were, but since Munster had one cab servicing the whole town, and the temperature had dropped 30 degrees in an hour, I was glad to accept the ride. So thanks to them, and thanks for not dumping us in the Munster River. Back at the hotel, we saw that impromptu beer sharing was taking place in the lounge area, and we had to join in with some of our Hop Stoopid and Founders Breakfast Stout. I wish we had something rarer to share, but hey, we flew from Albuquerque and weren't able to transport as well as we had hoped. But next year, we will come fully armed. Yes, this is an event that will be burned on our calendars for as long as it goes on.

Thanks to all the amazing people we made freinds with on this day- you made what we thought would be a fun day a truly special one!

What we Tried:

Three Floyds Alpha King
Bell's Hopslam
Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery Masala Mama IPA
Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
Duck Rabbit Barleywine
Surly Furious IPA
Abita Andygator
Oaken Barrel Alabaster
Longshot DIPA
Flossmoor Station IPA
Bell's Oberon
2009 Dark Lord draft
2009 Vanilla Bean Dark Lord draft
Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
Surly Cynic
Founders Imperial Stout
Black Angus Oatmeal Stout
Double Crooked Tree DIPA
Blind Tiger Coffee Stout
New Glarus Unplugged
Surly Bender
Left Hand/Terrapin Terra' Rye'zd
Jolly Pumpkin Madruga Obscura Dark Day Stout
Some guy's homebrewed stout on oak chips that were soaked in bourbon and charred
2007 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
Pivova Herold Imperial Pilsner
B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Imperial Oameal Stout
Ale Asylum Bamboozanator
Central Waters Glacial Trail IPA
Pizza Port Infamous Chocolate
Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout
DFH/Three Floyds Popskull
Voodoo Brewing Voodoo Love Child
Bridgeport Old Knucklehead Barleywine
Founders Porter
Capital Brewing Maibock
Surly Tea Bagged Furious
Central Waters Satin Solstice Imperial Stout
De Struise Black Albert
Stone 10th Anniversary draft
2006 Brandy Barrel Aged Stone Double Bastard
Three Floyds Brian Boru cask
Barrel Aged B.O.R.I.S.
Big Rock Saison St. Claire
New Glarus Belgian Red
Bo's Been to Jail homebrew
Three Floyds Gumballhead
Midnight Sun Earth

Next- The Windy City