Three Floyds

Three Floyds BackMasking

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Remember all the paranoia about Satanic cults back in the 80s? This manifested in many ways, but one of the coolest is something called backmasking. That’s when you can discover a hidden message if you play a recording backwards, usually something Satanic or generally meant to corrupt the youth of the day. The Beatles famously popularized the notion of backmasked music, but thanks to human beings’ predilection for pareidolia (i.e. finding meaning in something that is random, like shapes in the clouds), rumors of hidden messages became rampant in the 60s and 70s (the Beatles’ good natured exploration came back to plague them later with rumors of Paul’s death).

None of this was new, of course. Thomas Edison noticed the phenomenon almost immediately after inventing the phonograph, and even the Satanic connection dates all the way back to 1913, when Aleister Crowley wrote a book that advised those who were interested in black magic to “learn how to think and speak backwards.” Along with related paranoia surrounding subliminal messaging, backmasking and satanism peaked in the 80s and has subsided as it’s been proven that such techniques aren’t exactly effective. But it’s fun to go back and read all those irrational fears.

The advent of digital recording technology has lead to a bit of a resurgence in backmasking, as it’s a lot easier to accomplish now. Artists being artists, they’ve always fought against the false accusations by using backmasking for humorous or satiric effect. For instance, there’s a Mindless Self Indulgence song called Backmask which, when played forward, has all the nasty lyrics like “go kill yourself”, but when played backwards, the hidden message is revealed: a soothing female voice tells the listener to be good, “Don’t stay out too late”, “Get dressed for church” and so on. Irony! (For the record, it’s a clever idea, but the song ain’t exactly great.)

So this beer is an ode to that Satanic scourge, with a perfectly executed label. Very much fitting with Three Floyds’ brand. Oh. Oh no, I’m talking about branding now. What is wrong with me? Please forgive me, dear reader, I deal with this stuff for my day job sometimes. I try not to let it bleed through to the beer blog and… why are you looking at me like that? Stop judging me! Beer. The beer! So this is a relatively straightforward Oatmeal Stout that is variously reported as 6% or 8% ABV, depending on who you ask. I’ll assume 8% because that’s what Three Floyds’ website sez, even if their labels frustratingly omit ABV for some unfathomable reason.

I was going to try and unearth some Satanic messages in this beer, but decided that “drinking beer backwards” would not be very fun (and apparently peeing doesn’t count) so I’ll have to lead it as an exercise for the reader, if you’re so inclined.

Three Floyds BackMasking

Three Floyds BackMasking – Pours a deep black color with a finger of tan head that has decent retention and leaves a little lacing as I drink. Smells sweet, dark malts, but not super roasty, not quite caramel or toffee either, but closer to those than your typical stout. Taste is where the roasty hell-like notes come in to play, brimstone and the like, but there’s lots of other things going on. Not as sweet as the nose would imply, but it’s got notes of caramel and vanilla, some faint piney hops and a little hop bitterness towards the finish. As it warms, the hops come out a little more. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied, thinner than expected but still pretty substantial, well attenuated, faintly satanic, plenty of carbonation and a silky feel. Overall, it’s a rock solid moderate-ABV stout, well worth seeking out. B+ would try again.

Beer Nerd Details: 8% ABV bottled (22 ounce bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 5/1/15.

As always, Three Floyds is worth the stretch and they have great brandin… dammit, I’m doing it again. Leave me alone, I learned it from watching you! What? I’m… sorry, I don’t know what is going on right now.

BBQ Beer Club

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Due to the capricious whims of Mother Nature, we had to push beer club back a ways, very nearly missing the month of January. But thanks to a no-show on yesterday’s storm, conditions were fine (if a little cold) tonight, where we hit up a new BYOB BBQ place, shared some beer, did some “Adult” Mad Libs (“I need a noun.” “Assless Chaps.”), and generally just had fun. For dinner, I ordered something called “Loose Meat”, and drove everyone crazy attempting to make double entendres about it. In case you were wondering, this is what loose meat looks like:

Loose Meat

(Click to Embiggen)

It has a nice phallic arrangement, but the feng shui could be a little better if the brisket and pulled pork were a little far back, don’t you think? Also of note, the parsley merkin. Anyways, it was good stuff, and we had some decent beer to go with it:

January Beer Club 2015

(Click to Embiggen)

For the sake of posterity, thoughts on each are below. Standard beer nerd disclaimers apply. I’m sorry, but the BBQ place did not have a hermetically sealed environment suitable for proper note taking. Also, I didn’t really take notes. I’m the worst. In order of drinking (not necessarily the order in the pic):

  • Kaedrôme Saison – Hey, remember that saison I dosed with Brett, like, a year ago? It’s doing reasonably well right now. It’s carbed up to a drinkable state, though still not as effervescent as I’d like. But the flavor is there, and it’s doing reasonably well. B
  • New Belgium/Three Floyds Lips Of Faith – Grätzer – My first Grätzer, and um, it’s a weird style. Light smokiness, very thin, with a weird tartness in the finish. A perfect beer for this situation, as I’m happy to try something like this, but I’m not sure I’d go out of my way for more. C+
  • Left Hand St. Vrain Tripel – A pretty standard American take on a tripel, a little too sticky, but a nice palate cleanser after the Grätzer. B
  • Wicked Weed Terra Locale Series – Appalachia – I’ve heard great things about Wicked Weed, so I was really looking forward to this, and a Brett saison made with sweet potatoes and grits sounds like it could work, but I found it a bit on the bland side. Nothing wrong with it, per say, but there’s not a lot of funk, and it just felt a little on the dry side. It’s certainly cromulent and I could probably drink plenty of it, and maybe it was just that this is not ideal for a tasting like this, but I was disappointed. B
  • Chimay Red – Yep, it’s Chimay all right. I’ve never been a huge fan of this particular expression though. B
  • Cigar City Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale – Rock solid take on a brown ale. Not going to knock your socks off, but it’s a tasty alternative to macro slop. B+
  • Almanac Devil’s Advocate – Another fantastic little sour from Almanac, very tasty, vinous, sour, oaky, delicious. I don’t normally think of “hoppy” and “sour” going together very well, but these folks are doing it right. Probably my favorite beer of the night. A-
  • SoChesCo Valentine’s Day Chocolate Milk Stout – A friend’s homebrewed milk stout, asolid take on the style, very tasty. B
  • SoChesCo Pennsyltucky Chocolate Milk Stout – The same stout as above, conditioned on bourbon soaked oak, which wound up as a light character. You could definitely taste the difference drinking them side by side, but I don’t think I’d have pegged this as a bourbon oaked beer if I drank it blind (my own Bourbon Oaked Bomb & Grapnel fared little better on that account). B
  • Bière De L’Amitié (Green Flash & Brasserie St. Feuillien) – A very interesting and different beer. Standard Belgian yeast spice and fruit, but also some citrus hoppiness, and something that really felt like they dosed it with white grape juice (I don’t think they did, but that’s what kept coming to mind). B
  • Ken’s Homebrewed Creme Brulee Stout Clone – Holy vanilla, Batman! Like the Southern Tier inspiration, this is incredibly sweet and it’s got a great nose that I could just sniff all night long. I think there might be more vanilla here, but I love me some vanilla. B
  • Stone Bourbon Barrel-Aged Arrogant Bastard Ale – Another beer that I was looking forward to, but which didn’t quite live up to expectations. It was a fine beer, one of the better of the night actually, but I didn’t get a tone of Bourbon barrel character out of this. It felt like the barrels muted the aromatic aspects of the hops while leaving the bitterness. Fortunately, the Bourbon sweetens it up a little, so it’s still reasonably well balanced (er, for Arrogant Bastard), but it’s not something you really need to drop everything and try (like, for example, Stone’s Fyodor’s Classic). B+

At this point, we decided to call it a night, and we didn’t get to the last two beers. Oh well, there’s always next month, which should come up soon!

Three Floyds Chevalier Bertrand Du Guesclin

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We all know that Three Floyds has a reputation for their hoppy beers (rightfully so), and while I wasn’t particularly taken with Dark Lord, they seem to strike a chord on that dark beer front as well. Sours, on the other hand, seem less like their thing. Of course, not having had any, that is just blind speculation based on scattered ramblings of strangers on the internets, which is totally reliable enough for the purposes of this post.

Named after a French knight and military commander who was famous for his use of the Fabian strategy (basically a war of attrition, rather than direct confrontation) during the Hundred Years’ War. Supposedly quite the badass and not at all a cheese-eating surrender monkey. Though I do suspect he actually did partake in cheese on occasion. The beer brewed in his honor is an American Wild Ale aged in old wine barrels with blueberries added. The last blueberry sour I tried had a slight case of the Smoketômes, so let’s hope this one works out a little better:

Chevalier Bertrand Du Guesclin

Three Floyds Chevalier Bertrand Du Guesclin – Pours a deep, dark amber with a sorta purple tint to it, and the finger or so of fluffy head has a similar reddish purple tint to it. It’s actually quite pretty. Smells of tart fruit, blueberries, cherries, maybe even strawberry, a little oak and vanilla peeking through as well as some funk. The taste goes in for that tart fruit pretty hard, again with the blueberries and cherries, maybe some strawberry, a little oak and vanilla to set things off, and a puckering sourness throughout. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, medium bodied, slightly acidic, with a little stickiness in the finish. It never quite reaches fruit-by-the-foot levels of stickiness and the flavors never approach that sort of artificial sweetening, but it feels like a few missteps would have lead that way (this is a good thing). Overall, this is a pretty fabulous blueberry sour. A-

Beer Nerd Details: 6.4% ABV? (it’s hard to find any info on the ABV) bottled (750 ml blue wax). Drank out of a flute glass on 10/25/14. 2014 Vintage.

This is the best of the beers (so far) I got from my FFF beer mule earlier this year, but now my FFF supply is running dangerously low. Only one more left, a stout. Look for that review soon enough (though it’ll probably be a little while).

Three Floyds Gumballhead

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I’ve pretty much run out of things to talk about when it comes to Three Floyds. They’re really good, especially at hoppy beers. If you’re ever in their distribution zone (i.e. Illinois, Indiana, etc…), be sure to check out their stuff. This one is a pale wheat ale made with Amarillo hops, named in honor of a comic book character called Gumballhead the Cat. I have not read any of these, but there’s one called “The Mystery Treasure Of The San Miguel Apartments”, which is music to my earballs. Let’s see how the beer itself stacks up:

Three Floyds Gumballhead

Three Floyds Gumballhead – Pours a pale golden color with a finger of dense white head that has good retention and leaves a little lacing as I drink. Smells of citrus hops that also feint towards floral or even herbal notes. Taste has maybe some faint hints of wheat, but is otherwise mostly defined by that floral, citrusy hop character. Mouthfeel is very light, crisp, and refreshing, a little on the thin side, but well carbonated and leaning a bit towards dry (though it’s not bone dry). Overall, a rock solid pale ale (or pale wheat ale or whatever)… B+

Beer Nerd Details: 5.5% ABV bottled (12 oz.) Drank out of a tulip glass on 9/20/14. Bottled: 8/4/14

I’m willing to bet this would be even better when its super fresh. I’ve just had something of a glut of big IPAs to get through of late. I know, woe is me. Fortunately, that glut is dying down, so hopefully I can start to hit up some other stuff in the near future, including some non-hoppy Three Floyds stuff that I’m rather looking forward to…

Three Floyds Man-O-Awe

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Most breweries will have an American Pale Ale in their portfolio. Three Floyds has ten. Alright, that’s a bit disingenuous, as looking closer at a few, I see a couple things that may have only been made once or in extremely limited quantities for special events. On the other hand, two of their most popular beers, Alpha King and Zombie Dust, are featured amongst the ten along with several other popular offerings, and I’m not including the similar stuff like Gumballhead (a pale wheat ale). Plus, it’s not like Three Floyds shies away from regular old IPAs and Double IPAs, which represent a similar proportion of their output.

They like hops, is what I’m trying to say. So all these pale ales have to have some differentiation, and in this case, we’ve got a beer made primarily with Michigan hops. This is not that far from Three Floyds, which is situated in the northwest corner of Indiana, and thus somewhat local. Alas, Michigan is not exactly known for their hops. As per usual, Three Floyds does not really mention what specific hop varieties are used, but I’m guessing it’s along the lines of classic American C hops like Cascade, Centennial, or Chinook. There is, of course, nothing wrong with that, and it’s probably a good idea to decentralize hop production in the US (which is currently centered on the Pacific Northwest), but it means that this beer probably won’t be blowing the hats off of snobby beer nerds in the way that Three Floyds manages to do with many of their other beers, like the Citra-based Zombie Dust.

But I’m a big tent guy, and when you have ten pale ales, you have to differentiate them somehow, so let’s drink some Michigan hopped beer, least that aggressive looking gentleman-o-awe on the label get angry.

Three Floyds Man-O-Awe

Three Floyds Man-O-Awe – Pours a bright orange/amber color with a finger of fluffy white head. Smells of straightforward citrus and pine hops, with some grassy notes and a little crystal malt hanging around to say “Hi”. Taste goes along similar lines, decent malt backbone, with crystal malt doing its thing, and plenty of grassy citrus and pine from the hops hitting in the middle, with a slightly bitter, pretty standard pale ale finish. Mouthfeel is on the lower end of medium bodied, and it sorta thins out towards the finish, which has a slight drying aspect to it that makes it go down rather quickly. Overall, this is a pretty standard pale ale, which would be fine, except you know, Zombie Dust. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 6% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a tulip glass on 9/12/14. Bottled: 06/17/14.

Damn, this was almost three months old by the time I got to it… but then, I still rather enjoyed it. I suspect it would be even better fresh. Speaking of which, I’ve nearly exhausted my Three Floyds beer supply. They were mostly hoppy, so I wanted to get through them pretty quickly… I feel like I’ve been really hitting the hops pretty hard over the past month, so bear with me. We’ll have plenty of other interesting stuff in the near future…

Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow

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When my beer mule texted me from Three Floydia (that’s where the brewery is, right?) and asked me if I wanted a bottle of Apocalypse Cow, I had several thoughts. First, I responded asking her to purchase as much as she could fit in her car, and that I’d reimburse her with Vermont beer (as you can tell from recent posting, she fully complied and is, in fact, the bestest evar). Second, I kinda assumed this would be a milk stout (what with that “Cow” in the name), something akin to Moloko. Then I looked it up and hmm, an 11% ABV IPA? Well ok. It turns out that I wasn’t that far off the mark, as this is an IPA brewed with a lactose addition. An unusual choice, considering that most 11% ABV beers don’t particularly need any additional unfermentable sugars in the mix, but on the other hand, the added sweetness and velvety mouthfeel allow for moar hops. This is actually the first time I’d even heard of lactose in anything other than a stout, so I guess we’re in for an interesting experiment.

It works better than you might think. Now, why there’s a very angry, cyclopic cow on the label is a bit of a mystery, but then, Three Floyds isn’t exactly known for sensible label artwork. At least in this case, the artwork is very well done. Alrighty then, I think that’s enough babbling. You can either surf, or you can fight! Or, um, drink. Colonel Kilgore seems like a guy who’d enjoy beer.

Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow

Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow – Pours a deep, dark orange color with a finger of off white head that leaves lacing as I drink. Smells enormously dank, piney and resinous, with some citrus and almost spicy hop notes playing along as well. The taste is very sweet, with that dank pine and resin kicking in quickly, leaving the juicy citrus notes and spicey hops towards the finish, which has just enough bitterness to balance out the sweetness. Mouthfeel is almost full bodied, but smooth and creamy (that lactose in action), with enough carbonation to cut through it all, though it does feel a bit sticky in the finish. While it certainly feels like a strong beer, the alcohol is reasonably well hidden… The full 22 ounces is a bit much, so perhaps it’s a good one to share. Overall, this is a very interesting beer, and I haven’t really had anything quite like it. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 11% ABV bottled (22 oz. bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 9/6/14.

My Three Floyds supply is slowly but surely dwindling. But don’t worry your pretty ears (ears? What’s wrong with me?), there’s plenty more to come.

Floyd D’Rue

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Conundrums all around. If you’re a brewer, and you embark on a massive 14.7% barrel aged imperial porter aged in rum barrels only to find out that the resulting beer was infected with lactobacillus, what do you do? Well, this happened for The Bruery and Three Floyds collaboration beers Rue D’Floyd and Floyd D’Rue, and their solution was to release the bottles, but with a Caveat Emptor attached. They went all full disclosure on us, and informed the public that they should drink the bottles before 6/30. Those that did, seemed to get a pretty fantastic beer. Dipshits like myself only managed to accidentally acquire one of these deviants via a beer mule two months too late.

So you can obviously see my answer to the consumer’s conundrum, which is whether or not to buy something you know has the potential to be infected. Given the transparency, it’s a little hard to get too worked up over this, but on the other hand, damnit, this would have been a spectacular beer if I had managed to acquire it fresh. Not particularly surprising, given the fact that it’s a collaboration between two of the best brewers around, but still. I get that this was an expensive batch of beer, so again, I can’t really begrudge them from releasing it and trying to recoup their losses, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. Especially because you can really see how spectacular this beer could have been. It was also pretty damn expensive. Let’s just hope they get together to try this again, this time without the lacto infection. Even as it stands, I managed to take down a 750 of this infected beast with little real challenge…

The Bruery and Three Floyds Floyd D Rue

Three Floyds & The Bruery Floyd D’Rue – Pours a very dark brown color with a finger of light brown head. The smell… is slightly troubling. This could end up being ok, because there are lots of spices and rum and oak and vanilla in there, but maybe a faint twang indicating infection… or is my foreknowledge playing tricks on me? Well, no, it does seem to have a light infection going on. It’s not entirely unpleasant, but it does overtake most of the flavors in the taste. You get less of that spice and rum, and the oak aging contributes more of a general richness and full bodied mouthfeel than the oak or vanilla. It doesn’t really come off as sour, but theres a sorta tart fruit thing going on that doesn’t really match well with the rest of the beer. Overall, this could have been a great beer, and even as it is, I think I’d rather drink it than a generic fizzy lager, but it’s ultimately a disappointment. C+

Beer Nerd Details: 14.7% ABV bottled (750 ml). Drank out of a snifter on 9/5/14.

I guess they can’t all be winners, though this one surely would be, were it not for that pesky infection. Moar Three Floyds reviews coming soon, so don’t touch that dial…

Three Floyds Space Station Middle Finger

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Recent acquisitions have tended towards the hoppy, so I think you better hop aboard the hop train to delicious, as we’ll be spending a lot of time there in the next few weeks. Here we have an American Pale Ale from the midwest ballers and Conan fans at Three Floyds. I don’t normally go in for marketing blurbs, but this one is pretty funny:

From the dawn of time, humans have looked to the sky for answers. Space Station Middle Finger replies to all from its eternal orbit.

The notion of expending the resources to create a space station in this shape tickles me. A beer like this calls for proper glassware:

Three Floyds Space Station Middle Finger

Three Floyds Space Station Middle Finger – Pours a hazy gold color with a couple fingers of fluffy white head with good retention and lacing. Smells of citrus hops, with some piney and floral aromas poking in too. The taste amps up the floral hop aspect a bit, but those citrus and pine notes stick around and an ample hop bitterness rounds things out in the finish. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, light bodied, thin, relatively dry, highly quaffable. Overall, this is a solid pale ale, but it’s not really in Zombie Dust territory (which might not be fair, except it’s the same brewery and it sorta begs the comparison). Not that I’m complaining, as I could drink this all damn day. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 6% ABV bottled (22 oz bomber). Drank out of whatever you call that Star Wars glass on 9/1/14.

Three Floyds sure knows how to craft themselves a pale ale, and I’m lucky enough to have a couple more in the wings, not to mention a sour and a couple other rarities (well, rare for us lowly East Coasters).

Cimmerian Sabertooth Berzerker

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When it rains, it pours. No sooner than I got back from my trip to Vermont, a friend got back from her trip bearing tidings of Three Floyds, so now I find myself flush with amazing hoppy beers.

There’s not much out there about this beer other than its 9% ABV, 100 IBU DIPA style. Cimmerians were a real ancient people, having flourished for a few hundred years around 600 BC. It’s rumored that Robert Howard claimed his most famous creation, Conan the Barbarian, was descended from Cimmerians. This certainly fits the axe weilding maniacs and woolly mammoths on the label and is typical of Three Floyds’ branding, so let’s crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their women. Oh, and drink their beer:

Three Floyds Cimmerian Sabertooth Berzerker

Three Floyds Cimmerian Sabertooth Berzerker – Pours a murky orange color with a finger of off white head that sticks around a while and leaves some lacing as I drink. Smells of big citrus and dank pine, with some sort of “green” hops as well, and even a little crystal malt caramel or maybe even toffee. Taste is very sweet, with that rich toffee and caramel from the nose coming through strongly. Dank, resinous hops with just a bit of citrus character come in the middle and balance out all that sweetness in the finish. Mouthfeel is well carbonated, medium bodied, a bit sticky. Overall, it’s a big DIPA with enough malt presence to put this in strong ale or maybe even barleywine territory with just a few tweaks. Regardless, I’m enjoying it greatly. B+

Beer Nerd Details: 9% ABV bottled (22 oz bomber). Drank out of a Hill Farmstead Charente glass on 8/23/14. 100 IBU. Bottled 7/25/14.

Certainly not my favorite Three Floyds DIPA, but then, they apparently have a ton of them, and you’ll be seeing some more of them in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Dark Lord

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Let’s start this review off right with a stupid meme:

True Detective Meme 1

True Detective Meme 2

True Detective Meme 3

So unfortunately, I’m going to have to play Rustin Cohl (i.e. McConaughey) to collective beer nerdery’s Martin Hart (i.e. Harrelson). Despite all the accolades everyone seems to hand out, I did not particularly love this beer. It’s not awful or anything, but it’s one of those beers that’s hyped to high heaven or at least, it used to be… The hype has slowly been shifting to the ever more rare barrel aged variants, though this regular, non-BA version still commands pretty high ratings and ridiculous prices in the secondary market.

For the uninitiated, Dark Lord is a massive 15% ABV, coffee-infused imperial stout made by Three Floyds in Munster, Indiana, and it’s only available at the brewery on one day out of the year (aptly titled Dark Lord day). This is a practice that has spread to just about every other brewery that has a big imperial stout release (think Darkness day or Hunahpu’s day). It’s very much a publicity stunt, though it’s also more of a festival than a beer release (though the beer is the primary motivating factor), what with lots of other beers on tap and live music and large crowds. Attendance is capped at 6000 tickets, and there are apparently huge lines (according to these guys, the wait, even when they had a ticket, was three hours) and lots of beer sharing and trading and other hijinks. Allocation is 3 bottles per ticket (for the math impaired, that’s 18,000 bottles), so it’s not like this is a particularly rare beer, it’s just that the distribution is limited.

I got my bottle in a trade with a gentleman from Chicagoland and have been holding on to it for a rather long time. Part of the reason for this is that everyone says the beer gets better over time and that it’s cloyingly sweet and boozy when it’s fresh. This particular bottle was a 2012 vintage, so it’s had almost 2 years to mellow out. Was it worth the wait or the hype? Not really. I certainly wouldn’t mind trying a bottle of fresh stuff (or any of the BA variants (like that will ever happen)), but this definitely did not live up to expectations.

Three Floyds Dark Lord

Three Floyds Dark Lord – Pours a gloopy black color with a minimum of head, barely a cap of tan head that quickly dissapates. Smells of caramel, brown sugar, a slight hint of coffee and roast. I rather liked the nose, at least at first. Taste is super sweet, sugary, some rich caramel, lots of sugar, maybe brown sugar, very sweet, not much in the way of roast or coffee, and did I mention that this was sweet? As it warms up, the coffee comes out a little more, but it feels like I’m drinking over-sweetened coffee. I don’t think the age has done the coffee any favors, and it certainly doesn’t stand up to the rest of the beer. Taking my cue from Rainier Wolfcastle: like the goggles, the coffee and roast do nothing. The onslaught of sugar and sweetness is unstoppable. It’d be almost admirable in its extremity if it was a little more balanced. Mouthfeel is full bodied, heavy, low but appropriate carbonation, definitely a sipper, some booze, but not overly hot or anything… The sweetness is hard to overcome if you’re trying to house a bottle by yourself, so this is perhaps something you’ll want to share. Overall, I can’t help but be a bit disappointed. Its not bad, but its nowhere near my favorite top tier stuff. B-

Beer Nerd Details: 15% ABV bottled (22 oz. waxed bomber). Drank out of a snifter on 1/31/14. 2012 vintage, red wax.

So there you have it. I’d obviously rather be drinking this than a lot of other beer, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem worth the hoop jumping that it takes to get a bottle (directly or indirectly). Back in the day, this was what I’d call a white whale beer, something I never expected to get my hands on, and with the ever shifting goalposts of beer nerdery, it seems that the regular Dark Lord has been slipping in reputation of late. As mentioned before, the barrel aged variants are a different matter, and to be sure, I could see the added complexity (and age) doing wonders for this beer (alas, I have severe doubts that I’ll ever sample that stuff). Indeed, when I got towards the end, instead of powering through the last few ounces, I poured some bourbon in the remaining brew, and it actually allowed me to finish it off (this is pretty sad, really, but hey, it worked). Then I went to bed, because damn. Even spreading this out over a few hours, it was kinda tough.