Thoughts on Darkness vintages

I liked '10 better than '11, '09 better than '08, '08 better than '10 and '11. '09 was my favorite.

 

Copy & paste from a fairly recent post I made:

We did a full vertical (plus) last Darkness Eve. All of them were still good. With a bit of variation, the consensus was:

07
09
06 (growler!)
10
08
11

The '07 matched up with my old, old memory of having it on tap almost perfectly, & there were still a ridiculous amount of hops. The '09 is divine, & I don't ever expect to even hear of the '06 ever again. '11 seemed a bit thin, but in a more recent tasting it had improved significantly.

Looking forward to D-Day as always!​

 

2009 has always been my favorite.

 

'06? Crazy. Was it a vacuum-plastic sealed growler?

 

2008 all the way for me!

 

I had a really strange dream last night that i was in a liquor store and saw two darkness bottles sitting in a wood wine rack/bottle holder and one was an '09 and one was an '11. I remember thinking WTF are those doing here, wait, OMG, i'm buying them! I'm blaming this thread on my great (at the time) dream and then massive letdown this morning when i woke up. =)

I would agree, i think '07 was the best overall (not just for the rarity factor) but i'll never have it again and '09 is a close second. They are the most balanced IMO.

 

I had 2008 yesterday and thought it was excellent. I've always really liked '11, and when I had '10 I wasn't super impressed. But I haven't had these close in time.

 

not going back to the notes (because only one who took them was Urbancaver, and he cant even read his writing).
09
07
08
11
10
there were several others that were there and might have a difference in opinion.

 

We did '11 through '08 almost a year ago.

'11 was the hoppiest of the bottles, obviously. I found it the most enjoyable.
'10 and '09 were sweet and half-barleywine like. It was all malt.
'08 had, surprisngly enough, the best balance of the vintages. The hops were still there and they meshed well with the malt backbone.

I would think the '11 is tasting like the '10 and '09 at this point, so it's probably best to drink it fresh if you're a fan of the hop profile. Otherwise, seek out old, old vintages. Good luck with that though... If you're a fan of sweet, malty stouts, the newer vintages are great for aging then.

Jeff

 

'09 was the Mummy year correct?

 

yes

 

09/08/10/11 from multiple bottles of all of them.

I thought last year a lot of people (sans lobo) said '09 sucked. Too bad I can't scour the old forums easily for support.