Dark Lord Day and White Sox

We did a lot of stuff this weekend. I had Friday off, so it was nice to be at home with the kids and dork around a little bit. Friday night, my wife and me went to the White Sox game with the company tickets. It was a little cold, so we had a drink in the Stadium Club and then did a round of the stadium before going to our seats. I got a couple of photos.

Contreras on the mound. He walked a guy before facing Vlad Guerrero, who hit into a double play. Beautiful.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 4th, when Jermaine Dye and A.J. Pierzynski hit back to back homers.

A.J. hit a homer. They blew up firecrackers.

Sox went on to beat the Angels 7-3. It was a good time.

On Saturday, I went over to Munster, Indiana with a friend to the Three Floyd's Brewery and Brew Pub. April 28 was "Dark Lord Day." They brew a Russian Imperial Stout called "Dark Lord" and sell it in 22-oz bomber bottles for $15 each. They limit you to 6. On the ratebeer.com website, people have ranked this as high as the third best beer in the world. I figured since I lived so close to the place, I had to check it out.

I forgot my camera, but a lot of other people didn't.

If you look about the center of this photo, I am facing the camera. I'm in the green shirt and hat with sunglasses in the middle of the photo. When we arrived, people were congregated around many picnic tables. The tables themselves were loaded with bottles of beer that people had brought to sample. Tons of different styles from different places. Being a first-timer at any sort of "beer fest" I didn't partake of any samples. I wanted to let the game come to me.

At around quarter to 11, we started to move up towards a crowd that appeared to dead end at a roll-up door on the right side of the brew pub. From photos I had seen of the 2006 DLD, I knew that you went in and got your beer through this door. Basically, the photo you see above is taken around this time, and yes, that is the line. A guy I was talking to there said there were about 250 people at DLD 06. This year they expected like 500-600 people. I think they got more than that.

Have you ever been to an arena rock show where it's getting close to showtime, and everyone knows it? They're playing some Tom Petty or maybe some tune you never heard over the P.A.? Then all of the sudden the P.A. stops playing music and the lights go out almost simultaneously and there's that uproar of people screaming because the show is about to start? That's the same sound about 400 people made when that roll-up door rose.

I waited in line patiently for about an hour and a half, talking to the people around me and having a good time jawing. When I finally got to the roll-up door, I realized I still had about another 50 feet to go to get to the table, where 2 guys were taking money and a few more were standing around fetching beer. You could buy Dark Lord, but you could also buy other beers in 6-packs and 22-oz bottles. Now most of this stuff I can get in my local grocery, so I didn't worry about it. What I did notice was that they were serving their seasonal Gumballhead Wheat, which wasn't set to be released until May 5. This being April 28, I was thinking that it would be pretty fresh. I wasn't wrong. I tried a cup. My friends, these people make good beer. I would have to say that the Gumball Wheat is probably one of my top 5 favorite beers now.

When we finally got our beer, we walked out and the line went all the way out to the street and down the road 2 blocks. Later, it thinned out to be 2 people wide and moved a lot quicker.

I would totally recommend the trip to Munster to witness this event. I have cellared my six bottles and plan to crack one in about a year, since it's supposed to improve with age.