DLD Barrel Variations

Have either/both of you had the Conquistador de Muerte Porto? It tasted like port-wine pepper jack cheese. It was decadent for about half a sip, but after that I just wanted it to be over. Unfortunately I was the only one in our group of four that even liked it enough to tolerate it, so I ended up having to finish almost a full snifter...

 

Yes, I had Porto on tap at GTMW 2011 (It's debut) and I seem to remember it making an appearance at FoBAB.

Regular Bourbon Conquistador is the one I like.. the Porto was pretty hot and crazy.. Ronaldo (The cherry one) was pretty solid too.. but Porto.. that one is a bit overdone, I think.

 

For what it's worth, I was selling the BBL aged DL bottles. I wish I had a nickle for every time I heard the question "Like, what's the rarest one dude?" My answer: Why? Are you going to sell it on e-bay? If so, you should be kicked in the taint because many enthusiasts would love to enjoy that. But, heck, it was really none of my business...

 

SHould have told them to buy the chili pepper one. bleh that stuff stinks. or sold them a bottle of baller stout. They wouldnt have noticed the diff

 

According to FFF Twitter feed, two runs of BB DL, one of 688 and one of 420, or 1108 total:

http://twitter.com/#!/3floyds/statuses/197062476200812545
http://twitter.com/#!/3floyds/statuses/197074946697076739

Makes sense, since 6 of the 8 in my group (but not me...) got winning tickets.

 

Any difference between the two?

 

Potentially stupid question:

Is the Vanilla Bean Dark Lord that is always on tap in the brewpub every year at DLD the same as the Barrel Aged Vanilla Dark Lord?

And/or is this the same beer as the BA Vanilla DL they had in bottles this year? - http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26/42349

 

Same beer.

 

Yes. For whatever reason, they never referred to it as "Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Bean" until this year. Gotta love FFF

 

Awesome! I had a list of beers I wanted to try at Dark Lord Day (including Rare), and I got to try all of them except for the Vanilla DL. So stoked I got a bottle!

Thanks!

 

That was us . I never post here, since I don't know that I have the chops even though I have tried every beer that has come my way and know what I like. They gave us a box when they saw we were together as a group (this is the key to the story....) to put our beer in instead of us carrying it ourselves; that was nice of them. We each grabbed a handle and headed for the door so that we were running interference for the box, as we just wanted to get the F out of there with our beer intact. We were very careful with it and got ten feet out of the gate when RRRRIIIIIIPPPPPP! Box handle rips right away; I put my leg under to deflect from a straight drop but we still managed to break something; beer everywhere, all foam, and glass shards. I looked the box over and it's pretty damn thin cardboard.
So we had $220 worth in there and didn't know what broke, couldn't see through the foam, and we were pissed. We stood around contemplating what to do when Chris went over to gate guy. Figured out he was military from demeanor and speech pattern, used military logic to ask what we can do, guy sends him to the back to talk to someone else. THAT guy says talk to lady over there. Guess she was foul mouthed bitch, but she has to be to keep from getting cheated by everyone. Brumbaugh told her he didn't care if it was going to be bottle of anything, but just $15 for ticket back would be good since we knew we at least lost a bottle of regular DL, which is $15 a bottle at buy in. She was spouting about him being ridiculous, cheat, liar, asshole; Chris says: "YOU gave us the shitty box that DESTROYED at least one bottle of your expensive as fuck beer!"..... She turns around and starts to talk to someone else while being disrespectful.... I would have lost it, but Chris just shot a disturbing glare at guy who peeked over her shoulder. He walks over, says "Hold on a minute" and disappears. Owner comes around the corner and hands a four pack to Chris and says he's sorry, here's a little something for the trouble! We had figured out while he was gone that there was only one broken bottle (Thankfully only regular DL), and he walks out with four. I told him we needed to thank gate guy who started the ball rolling by letting him in and telling him who to talk to, so he walked over and gave him a bottle to tell him we appreciated his assistance. So we ended up with two extra bottles. Some bottles got some wax knocked off the seals in the fall, so I need to probably melt a crayon over them if they sit for more than a year, just to keep them air tight. I don't give a fuck if it's not a perfect match with the wax.

Next year, if I go back for expensive and possibly overpriced beer, I will be carrying a specially made cooler and insert. $30 in materials will do a lot to ease my mind. I have heard some say the place gives you a vibe of, "Sorry, no one gives a fuck", but I want to publicly say thank you to them for at least hearing us out. We didn't do it to cheat anyone and in the end we only ended up with one each extra. I ditched the box as soon as we got back to hotel and loaded the bottles very carefully into the bag I had brought and wrapped them in clothing. We both won and got the only specials left, BA DL. Both ours say ***/420.

 

Damn. When I went in, all they had was regular Dark Lord and BA Black Sun stout. They didn't have any cool DL variations

(IMO, the BA Black Sun was better than the Dark Lord).

 

BA Black Sun was tasty, but not worth the $9 a glass. I had a sip of someones and though to myself. This is solid, but fuck $9 for 7 oz

 

Yeah normally I'd scoff at that price but it was DLD and I was throwing out money left and right, I didn't mind trying it. I ended up sharing more than half of it anyway haha. '12 Dark Lord was good but it gave me a cavity.

 

Dont even remind me about the amount of cash I dropped, ugh.

Consider yourself lucky. I got diabetes.

 

No, actually this years tap and last years tap are very different.

This year the tap room had Vanilla Bean Dark Lord aged in Brandy Barrels or "Marshmallow Handji" as it was called in the description. I believe it was closest to the Brandy Vanilla bottled last year:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26/68691

Last year the tap room had Vanilla Bean Dark Lord aged in "Heaven and Hill" bourbon barrels. I believe the Bourbon Vanilla bottles this year are similar. I always thought that tap was this, despite the first review being for the brandy version on tap this year:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26/42349

Both we're great, however I would say the Bourbon Vanilla was a bit better my taste.

 

anyone have opinions on when opening Vanilla DL would be ideal? is it better a year out? now? in 2067?

 

A year or two should be best. I assume but actually do not know, that the barrel aged Dark Lord variants use 2012 Dark Lord and then age them a little longer in different barrels. In that case how long ago was DL tapped? How long did they get aged? Or is it 2011 DL aged for an entire additional year?

 

The barrel aged variations on tap were 2011 DL aged for a year.
I can't speak for the bottles, but I assume they are also 2011 aged for a year.

 

The beer on tap in the pub was last year's barrel aged beers. Still in the keg. All the bottles from this year were 2011 barrel aged for a year.