Darklord Day 2017

I'm waiting for the Dark Lord Day shirts to get back in stock. It says they should be soon.
*Subject to change

 

I still don't think I'm fully sober.

 

It's funny you say it was not as sweet as prior years because I was curious about that. This was my first year, and I was fully expecting it to not taste that good thanks to all the forums. I actually ended up thinking it tasted pretty awesome but wondered how previous years were since there are so many soy sauce complaints. My family is Asian, this shit isn't even in the same dimension as soy sauce.

 

Many people get soy sauce flavors as it ages. I think it's sweet spot is about 10 to 12 months on it. That being said this years fresh is pretty damn good. I will say I did have 2 that were well cellared (4-5yrs) and honestly all I got was a sweet soy sauce mess.

 

People that aren't used to heavy ass dark ass thick ass strong ass crazy ass stouts say soy sauce. Shared a fresh 2015, at the time, with a couple of folks that never had stouts in general, and they said soy sauce, while I was getting all sorts of roasted almonds and dark chocolate.

Eye of the beholder.

 

I fixed that for you.

 

I've never had sweet notes in soy sauce and soy sauce notes in sweet Dark Lord....

 

Maybe the bottles we had were stored improperly....but between myself and 2 other beer geeks we couldn't get through 1/4 of the glass on either. Honestly tasted like soy sauce mixed with pancake syrup. That was the consensus. They were an 09 and 10 and iirc we opened them in late 2015. That being said I never picked up any of those flavors in the 15,16 or 17s I've had.

 

The "soy sauce" is definitely there. That's not a bad thing though.

It just another way of saying an umami-like flavor. Imagine soy sauce with no salt. It has notes of that flavor.

 

I'm with you on this one. I've never got the soy sauce flavor from a Dark Lord. Different palates take up different flavors.

 

So what's the verdict on the Blood Lord coffee? I normally drink Unicorn Blood for my daily coffee. Any significant differences?

 

From their site it is just regular Unicorn Blood, but barrel aged:
Process: Barrel Aged in woodford reserve bourbon barrels
Notes: Grapefruit, Cherry, 70% Dark Chocolate

 

I got Brain Tentacles beans last year, and Blood Lord nitro this year at DLD...didn't really notice much difference from Unicorn Blood as far as detecting barrel. Not sure I really understand the concept of aging dry beans, especially in a liquor barrel. Aren't they best the soonest after they've been roasted originally?

 

That's what I got from the machete release. Good point on the aging beans thing. You definitely DO want your beans within 2 weeks of roasting.

 

What do you mean by original roasting? It was my understanding that Dark Matter puts the green coffee beans into a barrel, ages them, then roasts them before packaging.

 

Oh I didn't know the process--makes me feel a lot better about it.

Now knowing that, it seems even more detrimental to any possible absorption of barrel character...I'd think.

Seems more like a novelty than anything.

 

I bought a bag if blood lord while at dark lord day. when I saw dark matter was selling them online, I ordered another bag. I was thinking about vacuum sealing the bag to drink in December.

 

The ones I've had tastes like a hint of spirits in coffee, definitely a nice change of pace from time to time. I'm not a purist or a coffee snob so it would seem you can probably achieve the same effect by putting a splash of a spirit in your coffee. That being said, here is what they say: https://www.darkmattercoffee.com/pages/barrel-aging-program

 

Anyone have any thoughts on a Chem Trail clone? I didn't get a chance to try it. I've got a solid Russian recipe base. Aside from cinnamon and pink peppercorns can any other brewers think of other adjuncts that might get me close?

 

Bourbon soaked oak chips and a shitload of nonfermentable, residual sugars.

Also, keep in mind Dark Lord has Mexican Vanilla, Dark Matter coffee, and Indian sugar.