2016 Surly Darkness

Darkness day wristbands will be for a case of Darkness cans!

 

Good lord.

 

Huna and Dark Lord do not see retail they are available one day per year at a special festival only. The Cigar City eq of Darkness is Marshal Zhukov.

If Indeed released a non-barrel aged version of Rum King would it get any attention at all or sit on the shelves all winter among the 10-20 seasonal stouts (Dark Horse Plead the Fifth and Founders Imperial Stout come to mind).

BA Darkness, BBPt5 and KBS are a different story...

 

We lowered the price to $19.99 at Thomas. The original higher price was in error.

 

Vintage Chan had one bottle remaining when I left about an hour ago.

 

Sioux Falls seems pretty cleaned out already, and based on what I saw I would be surprised if there was more than a dozen cases citywide. I managed to nab one bottle. Heard that a guy was buying the last two at one store - and broke one.

 

now we just need apple brandy darkness and double barrel darkness

 

This year was my fourth Darkness Day and I thought it was a mixed bag for my overall enjoyment.

The Good
- Quick lines for Darkness. My fiancee and I were in and out within two minutes.
- Very little wait for the regular taps with Darkness tasting well and Coffee Bender being particularly tasty on tap
- Liberal folks in line offering some of their stuff, despite the fact I had nothing to share for this year
- Volunteer waiting at the end of the line, directing new folks
- Weather was phenomenal

The Bad
- Waiting an hour and half for volunteers to start the condensing of the line. They said wristbands would start at 7, but we didn't get moving until 8:30 or so. What would make this easier for upcoming years is telling people at 5:30 or 6 to start wrapping it up
- The cask releases were extremely underwhelming. I don't know how others felt about it, but we tried two things on task and thought they sucked pretty royally. We stuck with the familiar taps after that
- A few folks cut in line right behind us with some other folks we didn't particularly care for. I'm going to go ahead and be an asshole and say I'd be willing to pay more per bottle or some kind of flat fee so we can hire more security or volunteers to prevent this kind of shit from happening. People are already drunk and sleep deprived and if they're going to get screwed out of bottles, it wouldn't surprise me to see a fight break out. I was surprised the people who were 20-30 people behind us didn't say anything, but if they had cut in front of me, I would've been the asshole calling them out.
- I'm kind of over metal at these festivals. Give me something else.

I like Surly's stuff and will always like to come and visit, though I doubt if I'm going to make Darkness an every year sort of thing. At this point, I'm really hoping Omid and Todd make this ticketed like 3 Floyds and Cigar City have, which makes things way nicer in the long run.

 

It won't happen any time soon but with the current growth and capacity I would love to see, and it's time that Darkness move to cans and be offered as a September-December seasonal RIS. BA Darkness can be the limited once a year party.

 

They didn't post it, here, and you're inciting people to harass them. This is basic shit, you don't do it.

 

Darkness hit St. Cloud today. I was able to get a bottle at Cash Wise Liquor in Waite Park a bit ago. It was sold out at the East St. Cloud location.

 

What's an Omid?

 

A misspelling for Omar I would assume. But I'm guessing you already knew that

 

If you have to ask, you can't afford it.

 

I am not one to bitch but I hope they keep it the way it is. Even if there were line cutters I heard the wristbands lasted until like 10:30 so I am pretty sure if you were not there by then you really shouldn't have expected a wristband anyway. I can't believe they lasted that long as it is. And some of us like Dumpster Juice so keep the metal! As always you can't please everyone I think Darkness Day is great as is and heard several people say it is run way better then Dark Lord day so please don't change it Surly! You can always skip it and bottle shop the following week to get your bottles if you don't like the festival.

 

While I don't agree with the stupid markup some douche bags try to do, I don't think it warrants the pitchforks and torches. If someone wants to pay for it, what do I care? At the very most, roast the guy on the original post, not on a totally unrelated thread........IMHO

 

Sioux Falls is far from cleaned out way more then expected actually. Many stores still had bottles late this evening and $19.99 seems cheap expected them to be more. The no limit at some places is kind of lame I am sure someone is going to clean them all out fast. There is going to even be some growler fills again this week and one store said they expected to get more bottles this week which seemed unlikely to me.

 

This was my first year doing just that. My wife and I came to the Friday night party as it is now a tradition for us, but did not return in the wee hours of the morning to claim bottles. I got my 6 in about 30 minutes on Monday and didn't have to get up early or hear any metal. Best of both worlds!

 

I think it worked better this year since there seems to be a lot more that went to distro. Not that it was impossible the past couple of years, but you had to work much harder for it. Sounds like you had it easy getting your 6 this year.

Here is to hoping this trend continues in future years.

 

Costco Burnsville has the cooler filled up again this morning with another 6-7 cases worth. Limit 2pp $16.79 each. Out the door for both is $36.81