My Darkness Day in the Beer Adventures

People waiting in line on Darkness Day when it was 28 degrees out. Fun!

One thing I learned since starting craft beers is that everyone has different tastes when it comes to beer.  When it comes to beer, one might say that “taste is on the tongue of the taster” as much as “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Am I a beer expert? No, absolutely not. Am I a beginner? You could consider me with that label. Although, I’d like to think I “passed” that beginner stage. When I say “beginner”, I don’t mean the person who has never tried a beer before in his/her lifetime, but rather the person who has had the common beers like Bud, Coors, Corona, etc… and seemingly stucks in an orbit around the giant stacks of Landshark Lager or Bud Light Lime.

Back then, I often reached out for help by asking a stock guy about buying a different beer, or just something new to try. Most of the time, the stock guy recommended a beer like ‘Imperial Suckerpunch’, ’2,000 Minute IPA’, or ‘HopOutOfyourfuckinmind Ale’.  Chances were, I would take one sip of this extreme beer recommended by the beer expert and dump it down the sink. Venturing out my dilemma, a friend introduced me with a Belgian style ale from Blue Moon. Say what you will about it being made by Coors, but it was a good gateway beer for beginners like me. This unfiltered, cloudy “settlement-filled on the bottom of the glass” wheat beer still remains my favorite, especially on a hot summer’s day. 

Then I went on several brewery tours for beer tasting in Minnesota and Wisconsin, such as Schell’s and Leinenkugel, my taste has stumbled to a darker level, like Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. This beer is Dark, like “a flashlight behind my glass still did not yield this beer’s true color” dark, or like “a black hole where light can’t even escape” dark. When pouring just right, the foamy head leaves a frothy layer with a nice brownish color. Creamy, nutty, sweet, with the slightly bitter aftertaste yet smooth finish, the unique chocolate aroma gives the best malty flavor a stout can ever offer, in my opinion anyway. So there you go, I’m no expert, and I don’t know much about beers, but I KNOW my favorites.

This year, to bring my beer spirit to the next level, I attended Surly’s Darkness Day by camping out for 16+ hours prior to the event to make sure that I’d come home with 6 bottles of Darkness 2012 in my hands. Why? Because they had this thing that’s called “6-bottle limitation” per person with 21 years of age, which was a load of crap if you’d ask me.

More information can be found on Surly’s Blog  or Surly’s Detail. 

But, to save you some time and energy from clicking away, long story short: We showed up with 5 more people to get in line around 5pm on the Eve of Darkness Day. People were trying to find a spot for their tents. At this point, it was 35 degrees with 10mph wind-chill demon. No big deal, we’re from the Midwest, bundling-up and drinking booze to stay warm are what we’re good at, beside making fun of Wisconsin. Most tents were built at this point. We ordered 4 shitty Broadway pizzas that cost us $90 total. Soggy, semi-cold pizzas never tasted so good, yet so disgusting. Then we walked around with beer in hand and stared at people’s “ten-times-better” food on their pathetic little grill..” Keep in mind, it was 29* now and everybody was having a great time. I was bundled up in my 20* Northface sleeping bag, as warm as ever while sipping on random samples that were given by random beer enthusiasts. Witnessing hundreds of people and tents being out here on the street where all hell freezes over to anticipate for the release of Darkness, one of the top 25 best craft beer in the world, I realized these people were the extremists. It was  the Las Vegas strip of beer-porn for them. Drinking, tasting, trading, judging… “What happens at Darkness Days stays at Darkness Days”. While it is $18 per bottle here straight from the brewery, Darkness costs twice of its value when it’s a year (or more) older. People here were very serious of what they have and what they wanted to share. By “sharing”, they wanted you to understand and acknowledge that it was the most special beer you’d ever had in your life. Maybe I should become one of those hoarding snobs who go around collecting rare “one-of-a-kind” craft beers, then store them in their fancy closet and hope to sell them to some stupid beer collectors with higher prices several years later. After all, why bother sharing and celebrating with your love ones when you can make $200 per bottle in profit. Right?

Surly’s Imperial Stout impressed me with its appearance by the deep, dark and viciously brown with quickly-disappearing head that left an excellent lacing. A dark roasted, chocolatety, malty aroma mixed with alcohol soaked nuts, raisins, and figs really brought out the uniqueness of the beer. Great amount of chocolate flavor in the foretaste with subdued hints of caramel, and roasted coffee for the aftertaste. A touch of dry fruit that lead to a sweeter flavor and a decent amount of hop bitterness lingered in the end. Darkness had a smooth and creamy finish (that’s what she said), yet a nicely balanced of carbonation for the incredible mouth feel.

Later on, I got to try the admirable 2010 and 2011 Abyss. Another dark Imperial Stout that I immediately fell in love on the first taste. Here’s my quick description for this baby: dark tan head that dissipated very slowly to compliment its sweet vanilla, coffee aroma. Roasted malt, dark chocolate flavor with a hint of molasses gave me the incredibly smooth, creamy mouth feel. A nice, sweet coffee after taste for a finish, it was absolutely fucking phenomenal. For an 11% ABV beer, the alcohol is very well hidden. I loved every drop of it. That’s all I have to say about the Abyss.

 

Looks like my 2012 Surly Darkness will have to wait for another 2 years before they get to be served in my mugs. Until then, many more beer adventures will be had, and they will be documented appropriately while I enjoy every moment of it.