Today I'm highlighting a rare beer (the first was DFH 90m, this is the second). Surly, a brewery I think is undoubtedly the best in Minnesota, created my first favorite true craft beer. Now I nearly always pick something up when we visit. Surly long had a small brewery that was somewhat difficult to visit before building a much bigger location near the University of Minnesota. It now has fun and more accessible tours, two restaurants and an awesomely huge outdoor space. Since their production and distribution keeps expanding I would be stoked if they came to Maryland. Generally their best are IPAs, Furious and Axe Man, but this one, Darkness, is pretty special.
Surly releases Darkness once a year shortly before Halloween. It's a Russian Imperial Stout, an extremely heavy and dark (and high ABV) beer, hence 'Darkness.' Every year it evolves slightly and gets new crazy artwork, with a theme of revolving ghoulish creatures (see here). They appear to be ramping up variations as well, adding a barrel-aged version and more. It can be somewhat difficult to find as it's a popular item and I'm not in Minnesota very often, so I'm thankful a friend of ours grabbed a bottle. It seems I have a number of people who bring me alcohol...
Even though this beer always looks exceptionally metal due to some menacing art, it still always makes me think of this:
The first time I tried Darkness was at the original Blue Door Pub (in 2012?) and I couldn't even finish 10 oz, but I've come a long way on liking dark beers. The next time something had changed. It's utterly fantastic. This shouldn't be surprising, as a beer this dark, rich and strong will be pretty jarring to someone without a developed craft beer palate (Gah, I sound super elitist again). I'll say this about Russian Imperial Stouts, I've never had a bad one and wonder if the style is somewhat easy to do. Even so, some are much better than others and this is the best I've had.
Anyway, I've been sitting on this bottle (2018 release, 12% ABV) for a while and considering how I've generally been feeling lately it's a good time. It's also definitely not a summer beer so I want to drink it before we reach peak hot and sweaty, even if we're already getting there (80s today!). This'll be the first bottle I've had at home and the most I've consumed of it (750ml = 25.4 oz). The artwork here features a Minotaur with the back describing its run-in with Theseus, which is pretty cool. Here goes.
Thoughts:
It took a bit to get the wax off the cap, annoying. I'll describe the color as absolute black and completely opaque. Right out of the fridge it was too cold and carbonated but warming a bit improved it dramatically. After that, oh man. Thick and a little bit chewy. Tons of malt, plus coffee and chocolate and a hint of hops. Just a tremendous beer you'd never guess was 12% since somehow it's easy to drink. It's probable 18 months of waiting have mellowed it out. This beer definitely deserves its own day.
Me:
Good night everyone.
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