Dark Lord (2018)

I followed a brine recipe online, basically 1.5 cups of salt, 3 tbs garlic, 1/3 cup brown sugar.

Seasoned before smoking with salt, garlic, rosemary, and of course butter.

Basted with carribian jerk seasoning.

It was sublime. I was a complete wreck after drinking through the whole 10 hour ordeal. The dark lord was a mistake. Verified that it was actually a great bird this morning and I wasn't just drunk.

 

Thanks! Going to try my first one this year.

What is your cook time per pound?

 

Smoked turkey tip. Put a cheese cloth covered in bacon grease over the breast.

 

Took me every bit of 40 minutes per pound.

 

All this talk of frying a turkey!! Une of you better be handing out fried turkey legs in line this year!

 

Smoking a turkey.

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand...

Herpes

 

The jokes write themselves...

 

Fuck, already 4 pages deep and I just now stumbled onto this insanity.

I never book a room until I secure tickets, and I usually wait a few days. There's usually plenty unless you're trying to score the absolute closest place possible.

Honestly, they didn't screw it up. It's fucking delicious.

 

Completely disagree on FVM 17 and I'll argue till I'm blue in the face that Muscate barrels ruined that beer. A group of 6 people split a bottle two weeks ago and everyone drain poured.

 

There seems to be variation in the bottles. I had friends that had one where they said the muscat barrels added so much grapeyness to it that it almost made the beer taste infected/sour. I opened the bottle we got with a few friends and it had no grape note. Just barrel, tons of coffee, and a nice hint of vanilla. It was great.

 

I had mine shortly after DLD so I can't speak to how it's doing now. Suck to be you!

I'd love to try the Armagnac version, but was worried it might be a bit too boozy (I'm sure it's not). In the case of '17 FVM, I didn't find it to be drastically different than Handjee--it had a little less char and marshmallowy vanilla, but included a unique but subtle twang of wine and fig accents. I can't imagine drainpouring that!

 

16 was the best beer I ever had, which is part of the reason I'm curious. Not much booze at all.

 

Hmmm. I heard a complaint recently about FVM 17 tasting like it was infected, but to hear it might just be the barrel flavor is not good. Probably can't get a refund for poorly barreled beer vs receiving one if they recalled it for infection....

 

I will agree with those saying FVM 17 was disappointing. The grapeness was definitely prevalent with mine, added an extra tart sweetness (not an infected type quality). But in general, I way prefer any of the BBA (or spirit) variants to the wine variants.

 

I had FVM 17 at a share with Handjee 17, BADL '16 and Barrel Aged Abraxas '17. It finished as least favorite for 3 of the 4 people and 3rd favorite for the 4th person. I thought it was so overly sweet and had such a strong presence of Muscat barrels that it gave me a stomach ache from the sweetness.

For what it's worth, the Handjee 17 was favorite by all 4, followed by BADL '16 and then Barrel Aged Abraxas '17. I think that BADL '16 may be my favorite non-flavored/adjunct straight up BA RIS I've ever had. My lips became sticky after the first sip. Unreal mouthfeel. Thanks for sharing that one @croush .

 

I had a BADL for the first time a few months back & it blew me away.

My expectations weren't high for some reason, but wow, that's a special beer. The "idiosyncrasies" of the regular Dark Lord were somehow smoothed out into a lush, delicious dessert treat.

 

The BADL '15 at Dark Lord Day this year might have been my favorite beer of the day. I agree with it being my favorite BA RIS i've had. Crazy what barrels does to that beer.

 

Watching football with a friend on Sunday...his wife claimed she was sick of looking at his Dark Lord's & insisted that I take them all home. He shrugged and said "whatever"; he used to go to the fests but is over the beer.

I am now the proud owner of an '11, 2 '12's, a '13 & 2 '14's.

Which should I be most excited about?