Read no further if you don't care about Dark Lord Day.  Well, have you gotten your Dark Lord tickets?  I have.  It seems that nothing is definite just yet; we don't know what we'll be able to get with them.  If you look at the muddled script on the Dark Lord Day ticket, you will see that it says, "Bottle limit set on day of event."  Does this mean that Three Floyds doesn't know their yield yet?  (The site says that they will post bottle amount as soon as they know the yields.) My best guess is that those who have complained that they missed out on tickets are being appeased.  I don't really have a problem with other people being able to purchase the beer, I really don't.  But I do question the method.  People have already bought tickets for $10 each and should know what to expect when they get there.  Of course, I'm not just grousing about the situation.  I'm going to have a good time either way because it's awesome, but we ought to know what we are getting.  After all, people who bought the tickets were on the ball enough to get them. The argument could ...

The human mind is a strange thing.  I bet the title of the post got you singing or thinking about Chuck Berry.  Isn't it strange how we learn to associate one thing with another?  Almost instinctively, who we are comes out...sometimes when we least expect it.  I was driving through Pasadena with my wife this morning, and I saw an Indiana license plate, which I immediately recognized.  As I approached, I realized that it was from the exact county where I lived for most of my life.  In an instant I was missing "home" and my family.  I thought about my parents, my brother, sister, niece and Max (my parent's dog).  All that came flooding back to me in a moment.  Did I subconscieniously miss home?  I wasn't in any particular frame of mind of already missing home.  But it was raining, which is somewhat rare in Pasadena, and I tend to be more contemplative during those times. Memories got me thinking.  I love the weather here.  It's not cold or snowing.  There are mountains.  It's sunny most of the time.  I can get to the ocean in less than an hour.  But for some reason, I miss the flat ground ...

Being an Indiana boy, I always tried to get some of the stuff from the area.  I purchased this beer at Kahn's in Indianapolis, and it is produced by Upland brewery in Bloomington.  They are an up and coming brewery, so don't think that you won't see their stuff anywhere.  I expect them to do well over the next few years. It's not often that one sees a blueberry lambic; they also make a Strawberry version which I've not had.  At any rate, they did not use the typical fruits that are associated with the style.  Nice to see some out of the box thinking on this. The Pour: I really didn't know what to expect when I bought this beer.  I knew very little about it, so when I opened and poured, it was a surprise when I saw a hazy red and bluish body.  Very very little head retained, which is a bit of a disappointment for a beer like this. The Nose: I'm guessing it weighed in around 6% ABV, but it's not on the bottle anywhere, and the alcohol was undetectable on the nose.  The aromas did indicate pretty quickly that the sweet fruit had been fermented out and that ...

Another Indiana brewer for an Indiana boy on an Indiana night.  These guys hail from Terra Haute, Indiana, and have a good local reputation.  Their Triple de Ripple is pretty good, so I thought I'd give their White a spin. The Pour: White was a blonde beer with a hazy and active body.  The head stood well because of the flurry of activity holding it up.  White and cloudy...dreamily nice! The Nose: Like many Belgian beers, this one had a nice, powdery yeast quality and touches of sweetness on the nose.  Slight metallic aromas were present, along with the yeast spice that resulted from the strain.  There was not much beyond this, except some lemony citrus on the nose. The Taste: The yeast spices and powder popped on the beer.  Despite the fullness of the carbonation, which was perhaps too much, the body was a little thin.  The citrus tones on the nose came through more in the taste.  Brugge White was also fairly wheaty in flavor.  Hopefully this makes sense when I say that White was almost half hefe-weizen and half Belgian Wit in its flavor combinations. Overall, I wasn't impressed by this particular Brugge offering; their other stuff is better.  However, this ...

Local beer. Are you a fan of some of your local or state made beer? I am, and I think it’s important to try some of your local products. I’m lucky enough to get a lot of Three Floyds selections, but I’m also into trying other brews. This particular beer hails from Oaken Barrel, which is in Greenwood, IN (at least I believe that it where this beer is bottled). Like I said, some of the local stuff is very good...and other stuff is not so good. I’d like to start this review by stating that this beer was not exactly an epiphany to me. The Pour: Some beers hold promise by how they look in the glass. I thought Epiphany was a lovely blond color. It was strange that this ale did not have much head retention, simply because Belgian beers are known for their fluffy, white heads. That was a bit of a detraction from the beer. The body was slowly active, also something uncommon for a Belgian style beer. The Nose: Sweet fruity aromas dominated the nose of Epiphany. It seemed like a nice, fruity ale was in my future. Some noticeable powdery yeast strain was present, along ...

What an interesting name for a beer. How was it named? Drink it and you'll know. Numerous people I have known think this beer has a gumball quality in its flavor. I can't disagree, but there is more to this beer than a simple gumball taste. The Pour: GBH had a clean, very light gold body and a small and finely carbonated head. There was not the typical haze that I'm used to with many wheat beers, but I'm not too big a stickler for that. The Aroma: There was a citrusy cascasde hop and slight gumball aroma. Some wheat aromas were evident in the nose of the beer. I also noted a slight fresh strawberry touch on the nose. The Taste: A very slight sense of citrusy, gumball like hops were evident on the front of this Three Floyd's brew. Those hops faded into more of an orange type flavor by the end of the brew. Hops were evident until the dry finish of the beer. The dry grain and hops finish were not enough to compensate for the lack of malt body in the beer. I would have liked a ...

In an effort to draw a little attention to the beer that I have locally, I'm trying to post a little more frequently about Indiana beers. So, I'm starting with what I've gotten recently. As I've stated before, I'm a fan of Samuel Smith's Tadcaster Porter and consider it the best that I've had in the style. Therefore, any porter that I drink is measured against this great example. Mad Anthony Porter was pretty dark looking beer when it was in the glass. There was not any head retention in the beer to speak of, which is not necessarily a huge disappointment for me. In fact, I have a good friend who prefers that many porters and stouts are flatter than other styles. In the aroma of this porter, there were some nice roasty qualities, some decent chocolate notes, and no hops to speak of. Again, this is not inappropriate to the style in my opinion. Some biscuity qualities were also noticeable on the nose of the beer. As far as the taste is concerned, Mad Anthony was not a smooth as I personally prefer a porter to be. As I said in the aroma ...

Once a year.  Why, oh, why? Having gone to the festival, I think I can understand why Dark Lord is only released once a year. If I were one of the brewers, I would love to have something special like this happening only once a year. What an event, what a time! Now that I've settled down from the fun of the festival, I think I want to go ahead and review the beer. Let me start by saying that I went thinking, "I'm determined to get through the hype and really see if this beer is as good as people say." It is hard to divide the event from the beer, but here is an honest rendering of what I think about the product. The Pour: Pouring this beer from the bottle is like draining oil from a car. It pours thick, it pours dark, and it pours beautifully. Needless to say, this beer is darker than dark. Blacker than black. There was not much left of the very dark brown head when I poured the beer, but I let that slide...just this once. I knew Dark Lord was thick when I ...

Perhaps this beer was doomed to get bad reviews from the beginning. After all, Three Floyds and DFH are known for their bold, sometimes very hoppy and extreme brews. So, I think when most people heard that they were doing a collaboration, they assumed this would be a a huge beast of a beer--something that perhaps topped World Wide Stout, Dark Lord, or 120 min IPA. I assume that people were simply licking their chops about the prospect of such a match made in heaven. Like many craft brew lovers, I have tremendous respect for both of these breweries and expected what many others did. A big beer was all that crossed my mind. What people got, however, was a "normal"--i.e., not extreme--beer. I think that the knee-jerk reaction was to automatically drop the beer down to mediocre or only slightly above mediocre because of the unfulfilled expectations. I refuse to be part of that. I think that this German Brown Ale is a very good beer. Maybe the most ingenious thing about this marriage of DFH and Three Floyds is its restraint against extremism. The Pour: Popskull had some very nice brown ...

There are moments in life when you see the best in people.  Sometimes it's something simple like when someone waves you into traffic.  Other times it's stopping to help if you are stranded on the road.  But then there's Dark Lord Day at Three Floyds brewery in Munster.  Nate and I went this weekend not really knowing what to expect.  How were the lines going to be?  How many bottles were we going to get?  How would the social interaction be? The first two questions are very easy to answer.  Lines were long, but we were at the front, so no sweat there.  We found out that four bottles per ticket was the alloted amount.  But what we really found out for real was how great some of you fellow beer drinkers are.  We met some great people at Dark Lord Day who were all but begging us to drink beer that they had brought.  Much of the beer can't be obtained easily or at all, so they were saving up for this day.  Nate and I experienced beer communism at Dark Lord Day.  I'm not talking about the superficial type that involves some beer drinkers being more equal than others. ...