Darkness Day 2015

To be fair, I thought the same. "Elderly Mule" suggests that yes, someone just wanted more for themselves. I did see several older folks though and got a kick out of how many different personalities are into craft beer. It's no different than people being into fine wine, and quite honestly, the older people are going to have the money to pump into this hobby.

 

Glad she liked that Baller Stout I left on the table. Thanks again for the grub, it's always a pleasure to shoot the breeze with you and your Mom.

 

We saw a guy from the Des Moines scene up there named Steve. He was probably 65-70 years old with long white hair and beard with a ball cap on. He is one of the coolest guys I've ever met. He came with no tent and just a chair, he did not sleep or if he did it was for about 20 mins max. Just chilled under our canopy until he got in line early morning.

Steve if your reading this. You're awesome.

 

When I lined up to get my bottles right before noon, a lady walked up to me and said. "I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go - my son told me to come here to buy a bottle of beer?" I thought about hooking her up with some of mine, but that would just be rewarding her son for sending his mom to Darkness day without any information. Anyway, she looked relieved when she realized she could just go home.

 

Worse transgression - muling, or accusing someone of muling?

 

Getting someone else to accuse someone of muling. AKA, Muling Muling.

 

We need to raise awareness about mule-shaming. Too much cyber bullying going on.

 

I make all my elderly female mules grow a beard and get botox, so as to fly under the radar.

Great idea. I propose wearing green shirts to show support for the cause.

 

Darkness Day 2015

The Weather: For us, this turned out to be a non-event. Boots, rain slickers (as my grandpa called them), layers, hundreds of canopies everywhere we went. Wasn't cold or wet all night.

The Share: What can one say that already hasn't been said? You people are stupid generous. There was a ridiculous amount of good to world-class beer being handed around freely, from people I've known for years to people I knew for several seconds. Always the best part of D-Day & what would be missed most if it ever dies. Oh, & thanks for the two people who randomly set me up with coveted beers I missed out on recently (one for cost & one for a "hit me back sometime").

The Food: Thanks to the people who shared their food (paid for & not) over the course of the night. It allowed us to go until past midnight & wake up feeling human. Not to mention some of it was damn good, especially the pulled pork & the morning's French Toast covered in Hill Farmstead BA Maple Syrup.

The Darkness: Oh yeah, that's why we came, right? After getting wristbands we raced home for a power nap & came back to have a couple pours of the show's star. '15 Darkness is already excellent. I'm already looking forward to gluggling plenty of this off of taps in the coming weeks.

This is simply a world-class event. Surly did a much better job of corralling the line this year, as the Line ****s (I say that fondly) kept everyone, or at least most everyone, much more honest than last year. And I'm always amazed at the efficiency with which the brewery cleans up the streets after the event.

And the people keep us coming back. We'll see all of you again at D-Day 2016.

 

I love Darkness, but that's nothing new. What did surprise me was Furious Black. I'm not a big black IPA fan, but I found it delicious. It was like a super hoppy furious with only the slightest hint of the darker malts. Maybe my taste buds were shot from all the drinking, but if I were blind folded I might not have even known it was a black IPA.

I have no clue if they added more hops to it than normal furious, or if it was just extremely fresh. If it's the latter, I need to start looking for extremely fresh furious again.

 

Darkness day was amazing! Definitely worth the trip down from Winnipeg (though beer-wise it always is). Didn't stray out and meet everyone, but those I did meet around myself and my group were all truly great; thanks to you all for making it an awesome experience.

Truly hope this wasn't the last; we'll be there next year much earlier and better prepared!

 

is it just silly that i wished i could have got bottles of Dumpster Fire for part of my allotment? i really enjoyed that palate assault!

 

Good to see you too! You have a nack for finding my moms favorite beers, fortunately I have one Baller left. I guess I'll have to open it with her at Thanksgiving, if she's willing to open her BA Darkness though. Ha!

 

I have another too if you ever need one. Cheers!

 

Wasn't trying to bully anyone. We joke about grandma mules all over this site so it was too good to pass up on. Sorry so few saw the humor in it?

I mean, I quoted a Frank's red hot commercial in my post. If that's not enough to tell you I'm not serious, then I got nothing.

 

All good "Brah" congrats on your one year BA anniversary.

Generous as always! We might need that Baller as bait to lure her back next year, I was in no condition to cook all that damn chicken. Cheers to you!

 

I actually want to thank the rain. Some of our neighbors (Nick & Co) lacked a canopy, so we invited them over, and they were more than generous with us, and even with our other neighbors (Eman, Zach & Co.) So for "us" the rain made it one of our favorite darkness days yet!

 

Not sure if anyone else saw it, but Saturday morning I saw a guy in "yoga" pants along with white shoes, no socks.
I know what goes on all night, but what is the excuse for that? Many of you may know this guys, he slays whalz everywhere he goes, he claims to be a Ravens fan... Peter puffer or something...

It's time he is outed.

 

Anybody know if and when the Darkness glasses are going to be available online?

 

I've never bought from them but they do sell a various number of goblets from MN Breweries and not including Darkness:
http://store.thebeerdabbler.com/collections/glassware/meta-tulip