Virginia trip

Last week, I attended a training class on QSM’s SLIM tool in McLean, Virginia. The tool suite is awesome, but this post is about something far more important…beer! Ok, it’s more of a stream of consciousness dump of my entire trip. But it’s mostly about beer. I was on the prowl for Weyerbacher Double Simcoe and Troegs Nugget Nectar.

I watched the new Star Trek movie on iTunes on the flight. Awesome movie! Upon landing, I immediately went to Brickskeller in Washington DC. They have the world’s largest beer selection, about 800 bottles but only 12 taps. It was a bit of a hole in the wall, but I like this sort of aged, disheveled appearance in a bar. I had a Brooklyn Blast Imperial IPA, Victory Old Horizontal Barleywine vintage 2003, and a buffalo burger. All were good. After dinner, I became hopelessly lost on my way to the hotel in McLean. It took me over an hour to make a 30 minute drive. Bring a GPS if you go to DC or Virginia.

On Wednesday night, I had dinner with my Uncle Terry and Aunt Carolyn. We had dinner at Artie’s in Fairfax. I had filet and crab cakes…mmmmmm. Everything was yummy, especially the crab cakes. I enjoyed visiting with my aunt and uncle, who I only get to see about once a year. We went to Total Wine together and I was pretty impressed with the beer selection and prices. I bought a sixer of Troegs Nugget Nectar.

I made a total of 5 stops at liquor stores. I was at Total Beverage 3 times and Norm’s Beer and Wine in Tysons Corner twice. Norm’s had big bottles of Weyerbacher Double Simcoe. These are unfiltered and even better than the regular ones. I think I bought about 6 bombers of Nugget Nectar, 6 fifths of Double Simcoe, a sixer of each, and a few assorted Terrapin. I was able to get 6 big bottles in my luggage and I shipped the rest home by FedEx.

On Thursday night, I had dinner at Dogfish Head Alehouse in Falls Church. I sat at the bar and ate crab soup and jambalaya – both were great. I had a taste of Worldwide Stout (18% alcohol) and a 75 Minute IPA. I’d never heard of that, so I asked the bartender…she said that they pour half a glass of 60 Minute IPA and half a glass of 90 Minute IPA. It was really good.

Class was done by 11:30 on Friday. I stopped at FedEx to ship the boxes, then headed to the airport. My American flight was leaving around 3:00. Unfortunately, we boarded the plane, entered the runway, and returned to the terminal twice. I was moved to a United flight and arrived in Chicago around 8:00 sans luggage. So instead of getting back to my house around 5:30, I arrived around 9:00. My suitcase (beer intact) was delivered to my house at 2:30 AM on Sunday.

- schneid

Don't buy Dark Lord on eBay

If you desperately need to get your hands on some Dark Lord, skip the details and go to the bottom of this post.

Dark Lord Day, the day each year when Three Floyds Brewery releases their beloved Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout, is almost here. April 25 promises to be a fun day at the brewery. In addition to Three Floyds and guest brewery beer, music, food, and camaraderie among beer geeks, there will be beer as far as the eye can see. Hundreds of people in attendance bring their favorite rare beers to share with everyone. The picnic tables are literally covered with beer bottles.

In the past, each person in line could buy 6 bottles of Dark Lord. At $15 per 22-oz bottle, we're not talking about Miller Lite, but it's a reasonable price for such a great beer. Every year, they produce more beer. Last year, unfortunately, many hundreds of people didn't get any Dark Lord after waiting 5 hours in line. One reason is because many people only buy the beer to sell it on eBay. So Three Floyds came up with a new system.

This year, just to have the opportunity to buy Dark Lord, you had to purchase a Golden Ticket. One person can purchase two tickets, with a maximum of four tickets per household. Each ticket costs $10. All you get for the ticket is the right to purchase your allotment of Dark Lord (ok, you also get a cup of Dark Lord on tap and to me, that's worth $10 right there). Proceeds of the Golden Ticket sales are going to charity, which is pretty cool. We don't yet know how many bottles you can purchase per ticket, but it is probably about 3-6. The tickets went on sale in the wee hours of the morning on March 17. I decided to check before I went to work, and it's a good thing I did...I purchased my tickets then, and by the time I arrived at work, they were sold out.

This is a great improvement because now you won't stand in line for hours and NOT get your Dark Lord. Unfortunately, it's not stopping the eBayers because now people are scalping the Golden Tickets! I think it's unfortunate because there is no reason to pay $100+ for a Golden Ticket or upwards of $300 (in the past) for a bottle of Dark Lord. Since the production of Dark Lord has increased, the bottles have only been going for $50-60 on eBay. But there's an even better way to get Dark Lord if you can't go to Dark Lord Day.

Go to ratebeer.com or beeradvocate.com and trade for it. Simple. If you want to drink Dark Lord, you can find someone who will trade. The trade market will be flooded with it soon. Beer trading is good for your beer karma. eBay is bad for your beer karma.

- schneid

P.S. Suggestion to 3F for next year: print the Golden Tickets with each person's name and last 4 digits of their credit card. You must either show a photo ID or the credit card with those numbers. If I want to give the tickets to my friend, then I'll have to give him my credit card too.

Anticipating the Great Taste of the Midwest 2008

I love beer festivals. Granted, I haven't been to many, but when it's love, you just KNOW it, you know? The Great Taste is a terrific beer festival for so many reasons. It's really well-organized and reasonably priced at $35. They only sell 5000 tickets, so it's not overcrowded. It's held at a nice park on the lake in Madison. The people are friendly and the food is good. Best of all, every good brewery in the Midwest is serving beer. You can sample some rare beers that are almost impossible to get, such as barrel aged Dark Lord and barrel aged Darkness.

I can't wait for August 9!

- schneid

Here comes Dark Lord Day!

I'm psyched for Dark Lord Day. And also Disney World. :) Suzette took her last quiz a week early, so she is done with her class and earned an A. Friday night, Bob is in town with his family and we are all meeting at Tim's house. Saturday is Dark Lord Day. Last year was the first time I attended Dark Lord Day, and it was awesome. I'm bringing some cool beer to share and trade, and I'll get my ration of Dark Lord. Then on Sunday, we're going to Disney World for a week.

I love vacation!

- schneid

Russian Imperial Stout

This is my favorite beer style and I'm assembling a lineup of the best RIS for a tasting with friends. I plan to have about 8 people at the tasting and will have about 12 beers. That might not sound like much, but a Russian Imperial Stout has double to triple the alcohol of your typical beer. We will be sharing 22 oz bombers of each, or two 12 ouncers in some cases.

I've been making beer trades to get the rare ones. For example, a RIS called Sexual Chocolate has only been bottled once, and there were only 500 bottles. Dark Lord may be rare, but they made 5000+ bottles last year. Surly Darkness has only been bottled once and there were only 480 bottles.

Here's the complete lineup. Some of these are not Russian Imperial Stouts, but they are all thick, black, and yummy.

• Three Floyds Dark Lord
  
• Portsmouth Brewing Kate the Great
  
• Foothills Brewing Sexual Chocolate
  
• Deschutes The Abyss
  
• Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
  
• Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
  
• Alesmith Speedway Stout
  
• Stone Imperial Russian Stout
  
• Smuttynose Imperial Stout
  
• Bell's Expedition Stout
  
• Great Lakes Blackout Stout
  
• America's Brewing Company Bourbon Barrel Signature Imperial Stout

Don't have yet:

• Peche Mortel
  
• Surly Darkness
  
• Lost Abbey Older Viscosity
  
• Ten Fidy

The Ten Fidy is easy to get, just not around here. The Peche Mortel is harder to get, but not impossible. The Older Viscosity will be hard and the Darkness almost impossible.

Here are some that are easy to get, but might not make the cut:

• Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti
  
• Southern Tier Choklat
  
• various Rogue stouts
  
• North Coast Old Rasputin
  
• Bear Republic Big Bear Black Stout
  
• Victory Storm King Stout

- schneid

Great Taste of the Midwest 2007

On Saturday, August 11, I reached Nirvana. Enlightenment. I became one with the universe. How, you ask? I attended the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison. GTMW is an annual beer festival organized by the Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild. These guys know how to throw a party! And thanks to Westy, for telling me about it. Here he is with the Three Floyds Alpha King!



GTMW is always held on the second Saturday in August. In fact, this year was the 21st year of the festival. There were approximately 100 breweries from the Midwest serving about 500-600 different beers. Look at the GTMW Program to see all the great breweries that attended. Many of the beers are listed.

It's not easy to get a ticket to the festival. You can stand in line for several hours at a Madison store on the first Sunday in May for a shot at 3000 tickets. Or you can send a check and SASE on May 1. Not before, not after. Send it before and they send it back. Send it after and you are too late. From all the requests postmarked on May 1, they have a lottery to distribute the remaining 2000 tickets. You can request up to 4 of the $30 tickets. Tickets were selling on eBay for up to $100. But don't scalp them. That will hurt your beer karma.

I attended GTMW with friends Mark (westweasel on Beer Advocate), Barry, and Carl. We enjoyed a leisurely drive from Illinois. We planned to get in line around 12:00 – the festival ran from 1:00 – 6:00. We considered stopping in Janesville for lunch, but realized we would be eating 2 hours before the festival. Instead, we stopped at McDonald's one exit before our hotel. Nothing like a greasy meal before an afternoon of beer drinking.

We parked at the Holiday Inn Express and walked the 1/3 mile to Olin-Turville Park. We arrived at 12:15 and a long line was already serpentined across a couple of soccer fields. We were in about the third leg of the line. By 1:00, the line had about 8 legs. The time went by quickly as we met some other people and discussed what beers we wanted to drink. I was surprised to see that the people behind us were drinking Budweiser and clearly more interested in becoming inebriated than in tasting good beer.



One smart idea of the organizers was to have volunteers walking around exchanging wristbands for tickets. By the time the gate opened, everyone had a wristband. This way, they could just visually inspect everyone at the gate instead of taking tickets and the line moved very quickly.

Upon entering the festival, it's awesome and awe-inspiring to see thousands of people gathered to share your common interest. There were three huge tents where the brewers were pouring beer, plus the cask tent where they were serving beer from casks and kegs at higher temperatures. There was at least one tent for food and several tents where local proprietors where selling their stuff.

After a few lines, we got smart and the four of us would each get a different beer, then share them all. So in that way, we must've had at least 60 different beers. The souvenir glass was like a tall shot glass, 8 oz. The brewers were supposed to pour 2 oz. pours, but most of them were filling it. I definitely didn't need that much beer. I tried to stick to the beers that I really wanted to try, drank only a few beers that I'd had before, and dumped out anything that wasn't great.



I don't even know where to begin...well, OK, I'll begin with the Dark Lord. We were able to try Three Floyds Dark Lord and also Barrel-aged Dark Lord. They were both thick, complex, and tasty. The alcohol was noticeable but only a tad high considering what a huge beer it is. The Barrel-aged Dark Lord was smoother than the Dark Lord and had a nice little bourbon edge to it. This was the best beer we had at the festival.

We also tried Surly 2006 Barrel-aged Darkness, which some people consider a better beer than Dark Lord. I thought it was very good and smooth, and easier to drink than Dark Lord, with less alcohol. It was a great beer but didn't match the complexity of the Dark Lord.

I enjoyed the New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red. This beer is almost more like a cherry wine. It's loaded with cherries and was a nice contrast to the huge stouts and porters that I was drinking.

more good beers to come...

We met some interesting people. You can just strike up a conversation with anyone while you're waiting in line. People were very friendly and laid back. Copious amounts of beer may have contributed to that. One of the more unusual characters we met was the Hop Whore. She was dressed as a schoolgirl with a sash that said Hop Whore on it. Apparently she won a Tyranena contest but wouldn't say what exactly that entailed. ;)



A little advice – if you need a bathroom, use one of the many porta-potties around the festival grounds. Relieving yourself on the trees or in the lake is not recommended. We saw several people arrested for doing that.

We left the festival about 5 minutes before it was over and beat the crowds heading for the exit. We walked back to the hotel, showered, and caught a cab to downtown Madison for dinner.

We had dinner at Angel's. They beer was good and the service was great. The steaks that we had were not. Other than the steaks, the food was good. Frankly, we didn't really need a big dinner and maybe next year, we'll stop at a few places and have appetizers. After dinner, we walked toward the Capitol building and down State Street. I've never been to downtown Madison, and it was really nice, almost as nice as Naperville. Fortunately, the students weren't back yet, so it wasn't crowded. We stopped at another bar, had a beer, tried not to let on that we were Cub fans as the Brewers pounded on the Cubbies, then went to the Great Dane.

The Great Dane is a huge brewpub. It's three levels, I think, or at least it seems like it. It has an outdoor beer garden that is completely surrounded by buildings. There are even some trees in there. They had some good beer on tap.

After awhile, we noticed a strange woman standing by a table of attractive women, about 30 feet away. She kept glancing over her shoulder in our direction. When we got a good look, her face looked like a man's. But she was clearly dressed like a woman although she wasn't wearing a dress. She turned sideways and two things become very clear...she had huge breasts and she was a man. And not an attractive man. Or woman. I thought she looked like the actor Rhys Ifans (the kicker in the Replacements). He/she was blond with a big nose and extremely skinny. With huge breasts. Seriously, we thought they might be balloons. Maybe I don't get out enough, but this isn't something I see every day.

One of the guys asked our waitress "What's with the guy with the big tits?" She looked over, did a double-take, and replied "I don't know!" The group of women left and the guy/girl started heading in our direction. Only a few other people had spotted him/her, all watching intently. He/she worked his/her way across the restaurant to another table of women, and by this time, everyone in the place had noticed. Our conversation centered around "Is it for real? Is it a joke? Is it some psychology student with a wacky social experiment gone awry? That would be a hard one to explain if your girlfriend was there when you returned home. "Um, Bob, why are you dressed like that?" Shortly after that, he/she left, leaving us to wonder what it was all about. Eventually we caught a cab and returned to the hotel.

On Sunday morning, Mark and Carl sent me a text message around 8:00 that they were eating breakfast. I was surprised they were awake so early. Barry and I woke up and joined them. We were amazingly not really hungover. I felt dehydrated and my digestive system was a little weird for a couple days, but nothing serious. And I had no headache. But my feet were sore from standing for 6 hours! It's a good thing that the festival doesn't end at 11:00 PM or I would've been a wreck.

We took off around 9:45 and stopped at Woodman's grocery store in Janesville. Woodman's is known for having a good selection of beer and great prices. They carry a lot of beer that is available in Wisconsin but isn't distributed in Illinois. Barry and I loaded up, buying 7 six-packs each and a few other bottles. I was pleasantly surprised that they had Smuttynose – I bought some IPA and Old Brown Dog. I also got some New Glarus Quadrupel, New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red, New Glarus Raspberry Tart (those last two in big bottles, they had no six-packs), some Tyranena Coffee Porter something or other,

The festival was very well-organized and we had a fantastic time. Kudos to MHTG!

If you are really interested in beer, I strongly urge you to attend the festival. No wait, forget that, if more people try to get tickets, it will be harder for me to get them. Never mind.

- schneid

Dark Lord Day 2007

I've been getting very interested in good beer the last few months, trying a new beer or two every week. When I heard about Dark Lord, the Russian Imperial Stout from Three Floyds Brewery, I knew I had to try it. And how do you get it? You can't buy it at the store. They sell out almost every single bottle on Dark Lord Day, the last Saturday in April.

After several calls to my friend Westy, I got off the highway and took the back road to the brewery instead of crossing the Illinois-Indiana border insanity on 80/94. I made it from Aurora to the brewery in Munster, Indiana in 65 minutes. OK, maybe I was a little too excited about it.



There were already cars everywhere and at least 300 people at 10:30 AM, with the doors opening at noon. Fortunately, no line had formed yet. Everyone was milling around the tasting tables, chatting, trying different beers. About 95% of the beer was commercial, but difficult to find stuff. The remaining was homebrew. I brought some beer to share, including some Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout that people wanted badly. Westy and his wife arrived shortly after I did. We found a table that had some beer we wanted to try (including Surley Coffee Bender) and parked there. There were many Beer Advocate people there, and presumably a lot of RateBeer people too.



It was difficult to pace yourself. I wanted to stay level-headed since I had a long drive home. And I'm proud to say that I managed to do it despite trying at least 20 beers between 10:30-11:45, at least half of which were high alcohol monsters. I took very small pours of everything, and there was only one beer that I tried twice. Erdinger2003 had several coolers of New Glarus beer to trade, with several types that I had never tried. I really wanted to try the Raspberry Tart, and he was kind enough to open a bottle. It was fantastic, all raspberries. It was a lot like a raspberry dessert wine that I've had.

Westy made sure that we hung out at a table near where the line would form. At around 11:30, someone opened a big door to the brewery, and everyone started moving in that direction. Even though we were only 50 feet away, we couldn't hear a thing he was saying. Not that it mattered, unless he was saying "Oops we don't have any Dark Lord" in which case he would've been instantly destroyed by an angry mob. Westy and Margaret were in front of me, then the next time I looked up they were about 10 feet ahead in the line. Eventually I lost them. At 12:00, the line started moving into the brewery. We were starting to get hot standing in the sun. When the line formed, the only thought was "get in line fast". Next time, I'll make sure I have a nice cold beer with me. The only beer being passed around in line were a couple of growlers filled with really strong stuff that looked like maple syrup.

Westy called me every few minutes to check my progress. When we were near the door, we could see that they were selling some beer on tap - Gumballhead, and also Alpha King, I think. Then Westy magically appeared with a cold frosty Gumballhead for me! After 45 minutes standing in the sun, that was one of the best beers I've ever had. And my first Three Floyds on tap.

It turned out that there were only 2 bouncers inside the door checking IDs, and only 2 cashiers about another 50 feet inside the doors. But the line was easily 10-15 people wide, so there was a terrible bottleneck. I enjoyed chatting with people in line. I think I got my Dark Lord around 1:15, about 30 minutes after Westy did. I also bought some Gumballhead t-shirts, but they didn't have any 2007 Dark Lord t-shirts.

After getting the Dark Lord, the line for the brewpub (for food) was way too long. There was also a line for barrel-aged Dark Lord, which would have been a great treat. But no one wanted to stand in any more lines. By this time (1:45), the line spilled into the street and there were easily 1000 people there. We headed home.

Fox News even showed up - after I left.

- schneid

Beer fairy

What's a beer fairy? I'm sure you're thinking of many off-color jokes to make. No, that's not it. Once a special bottle of beer appeared on my desk at work. Immediately I knew the probable source, and reading the label confirmed it. It was a homebrew brewed by my friend Westy.

Since I've returned to Tellabs, I've been more into beer than wine. It's easier to sit down and have a beer than a bottle of wine. When you have a beer, you just open the bottle and drink it. When you have wine, usually you choose a wine that will match your meal, and then you might only drink half the bottle. The wine quickly deteriorates (oxidizes) over the next day or two. So you've paid $8 or $15 or $25 or whatever for half a bottle of wine. To enjoy a beer, on the other hand, you only need a salty snack and perhaps some poker buddies, both of which are prevalent on Thursday nights. Dennis, who hosts our weekly poker game, always has homebrew on tap, so I bring something interesting to trade.

I've vowed to drink every beer in the Best of Beer Advocate Top 100 list. I think it's important for everyone to strive for something. You need to set goals for yourself. And my goal is to drink 100 beers. I've had about 15 of them so far, which isn't bad since I've only been doing it for 6 months and many of them are hard to find.

So now instead of rare occasions, the beer fairy visits almost weekly. Westy drops off a beer or two at my desk, and I do the same for him. We get to try new beers that we might not try otherwise.

Benjamin Franklin said "Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance" but I believe it was Homer Simpson who said "Mmmmmm...beer". Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.

- schneid