Darkness Day 2017

I've been doing 5 year verticals of Darkness near darkness day for the past few years, it really falls off after year 4 in my experience

 

In my experience Darkness holds up about forever. As for the older bottles, I wouldn't bother with the '08: it was & always will be a sweet, sugary mess (& I love sweet). The '09 is still amazingly hoppy & still my favorite after the '07. My memory is getting muddly, but either the '10 or '11 tasted like a thin porter to me at release & I'm sure time isn't doing it any favors, & the other one is still very good.

Darkness was built to last. Last I had an '07 was three years ago & it was just starting to fade but still a top 10% beer.

 

Yes, Todd was the gate keeper and did stifle innovation from other brewers. The brewers that worked under him, had ZERO creative license.

 

At the other site, as of this writing, 34 new Surly beers have been added to the database since the beginning of 2017. Only 16 were added between January 1 and August 15 in 2016. In fairness, at the time of your post, the numbers were 19 in 2017 to 12 in 2016. For comparison, the famously prolific Dangerous Man has seen 38 new beers added to date this year.

 

I'd be interested to see what those 34 new beers are...granted I don't get to the taproom as often as I would like, but I haven't noticed much of an uptick in interesting brews coming on line.

 

Source? I'm genuinely curious how you would know this, both in the past & how it stacks up to what it going on at Surly currently.

 

2017 highlights for me include:

• Thanks Obama!
• Unbridled IPA
• Hop Shifter 8 through 10
• Pils 7
• Rusty Melvin
• Eleven (as well as Parts A and B individually)
• Whalezbrah!

I wouldn't rank any of those among the very best of what Surly has done, but all are well above average craft beers. New for 2017 Darkness variants include Barrel Aged Darkness on Virgin Oak & Tart Cherries and Salted Darkness.

For the complete list, use this link (on a browser using the desktop version) and sort by "Added" descending: https://www.beeradvocate.com/ratebeer/?path=/brewers/surly-brewing-company/6337/

 

I have spoken to two ex-brewers from Surly, when Todd was there. So, it was straight from them.

 

What I've learned from this post is that you and I have extremely different tastes. That's ok. Just have not cared for several of those listed.

 

When does it peak? Wondering how long to cellar my 2016's.

 

2-3 years is the sweet spot in my opinion, I think Darkness is great fresh though too.

 

i thought it was the 14th.

 

Here's the release info from surly
http://surlybrewing.com/news/darkness-bottle-art-preview/

 

Is it just me or is this thread a little more active this time f year most years?

I'm assuming not, but has anyone started up the share / trade google doc?

 

2012 is pouring like a dream right now. '11 still fantastic as well. I'll be holding Darkness for 4 to 5 years from now on.

 

Anyone happen to remember about what time they let people start lining up last year? I know they say like 3pm but it seems like people got in before 2 last year. I can’t remeber if it was on Facebook or twitter where pictures were posted early.

 

Looks like they've updated the event page to list some of the casks and food that will be on hand, as well as the music: http://surlybrewing.com/events/darkness-day-2017/

Also, they're going to be bottling Furious Black this year: http://surlybrewing.com/news/time-embrace-darkness/

I'd really like to try the vanilla and cherry Darkness, but I'm not going to be able to wait in line overnight or anything. Can people arrive the morning of and still get tickets?

 

I believe it's been 4PM the past two years. Both times Surly has posted beforehand when people will be allowed in, so hopefully that'll be out soon.

Yes. The overnight is really just about a wild & fun bottle share with 900 of your closest friends. Most of those 900 will be so hungover they won't have more than a beer or two at Darkness Day before staggering back to their mother's basements. If you really want something, show up right when it starts & look around to see if there are timed tappings, or if they have everything on right away.

 

They don’t let people line up before the time specified. A lot of people get there early, but have to wait in the massive car line on the shoulder of the road.

 

This reminds me of the first Black Friday event I attended at a Mall when I was young. It was dick freezing ball biting cold. Everyone agreed without speaking of it to wait in their car from 1am until 5am when the first person got out of their car. Then there was a rush to get in line. No biggy, really, since those that got their early were the closest to the doors, so the line was fairly comparable to who had actually arrived first.

Still pissed that person got out so early and made me freeze for an hour. Sigh.