In Anticipation of Dark Lord Day

Tomorrow is the big day.  The weather forecast currently is looking infinitely better than the rain and cold that plagued last year's event.  Three Floyd's has published some more up to date information on darklordday.com.

This is all good and well, but the information provided really does not lend any further insight to those who may be new to the event and even seasoned veterans.  I even asked a lawyer to review the post and decipher the meaning behind the words but he also was dumbfounded.

Do not cross railroad tracks except at a designated crossing.  This is always sound advice and FFF throws it out there from the start.  I believe this is the result of patrons parking in the residential area behind the brewery and just climbing up and over the embankment.  A nice warning, but one that may go unnoticed.

The festival grounds are not well defined.  FFF tells patrons the way to line up and enter, but not conveying where the gates will be other than with directional language (for example, line up at the north, the line for sales is on the west, etc.).  If you are unfamiliar with the area it would be worthwhile to use your favorite GPS mapping program and review your compass use.

Parking is also up in the air.  Centennial Park across Calumet Avenue made $3,700 last year with patrons parking their cars and hiking over.  Always a viable option.  My understanding from the help of beeradvocate.com discussion threads is that FFF will have Indiana Ave completely closed off.  Not sure if that's true, but until I have my scout finish his drive-by I will keep this as purely speculative.

Finally, congratulations to Mike Cate who scored himself the 15 year anniversary Three Floyd's Baller Stout with this submitted story:

Craziest thing I ever did for a beer? Not sure if I would define it as crazy but it was definitely unlikely...

I'm a big St.Louis Cardinals fan and love going to Milwaukee a few times a year to catch Cards/Brewers games. The fans up there are a blast to be around. Truly professional drinkers. And what makes it even better is that they're drinking delicious New Glarus, Lakefront and Central Waters beers. Can't beat that! Anyways. I went to Brewers Opening Day last year against the Cards and befriended several people in my row. Shot the shit about beer, homebrewing and baseball. I was living the life.

Turns out this old man who can barely get around is a huuuuge beer fan. As in he goes to all the big beer festivals across the county (Hunaphu Day in Tampa, KBS release, GABF, etc..). We got to talking about Dark Lord and he said that's the one he's never had (tickets selling out so quickly and all). I told him I go virtually every year and could help him out next time I'm up. He liked the sound of that.

To make a long story short, his son called me a few months back out of the blue and said his dad wanted me to go ice fishing with the 2 of them. I guess his dad wasn't doing real good and held trying a Dark Lord pretty high on his bucket list. So after a few days of trying to explain to my wife the unlikely scenario of driving up to Wisconsin to go ice fishing with an old man and his son whom I met 9 months before (and only hung out with for the duration of a 6-0 Brewers victory), I went up and had a blast. I went ahead and brought all the vintages of Dark Lord I had, shared some beers, caught some fish and had a good time.

I didn't leave empty-handed either. The old man gave me several vintages of Surly Darkness which I've always wanted to try (but the trading pricetag is always too unreasonable) as well as a Goose Island King Henry.