Dark Lord Day Thoughts, Round 2

While my perspective won't be quite as verbose as Chip's, I'm definitely going to rehash a few of the notable highlights. We arrived around 8am, maybe slightly before. Lots and lots of people--rough estimates put the attendance at well over 10,000 beer fanatics. Walking down the line of people waiting was really quite a treat...many attendees sat in their lawn chairs, drinking terrific beers out of tasting glasses. And now, the wonderful series of happenings that led up to the big moment:
1) Guy in line once we arrived: "Why is your glass empty? We need to fix that!"
- Into my glass pours a Boulevard Imperial Stout, from Kansas City. Thick, heavy, delicious.
- This guy was great--we gave him a few New Glarus beers to try, and the verdict seemed fairly positive. Sweet.
2) Man riding on motorized scooter--he was drunk, he was bizarre, he was awesome.
3) Guys from the southern portion of the US--who knew I'd be able to drink Foothills beer while
on line for Dark Lord?! Here is the following conversation that took place to lead up to this moment:
Me: "So, where are you guys from?"
Them: "Winston-Salem, NC"
Me: "Oh, sweet! Have you ever had Foothills' beer?"
Them: "Had it?! Hell, we've got a couple of growlers right here in this cooler!"

I then proceeded to have some Hoppyum from Foothills. It was absolutely wonderful and
hoppy (who could've guessed?).

4) After buying the Dark Lord, I was approached by a guy from Three Floyds: "Hey, did you get a chance to try the oak-aged DL yet?" I had not. He let me try some. Yes, it was delicious.
5) Finally, the Guest Beer tent. Highlights:
- Kentucky Breakfast Stout, from Founders--I've said it once, I'll say it a million times: It's a great beer, but I prefer their normal Breakfast Stout...it's just not as heavy.
- Union Jack IPA, from Firestone Walker: It lost in the finals of the National IPA Championship, and I had been dying to taste it. Verdict: Excellent, excellent beer. It lacked some balance on the malt side, but the hoppy taste was fresh, bitter and wonderful.
- Dark Horse Double-Crooked Tree: JT got it, I tried it, and it didn't disappoint. A nice, copper-colored haze with a terrific balance of hop and malt character. An A+ beer.

Well, that's it for now...maybe I'll update this a bit later. Sunday, I have the privilege of waiting on line for 6 hours to get tickets for Great Taste of the Midwest. I'm really going to be pining for a media pass, but this will be a good backup plan. Good day, readers, good day!

The Stout that Launched a Thousand Chips

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.