Today, of course, is the annual Dark Lord Day at Three Floyds Brewery in Munster, Indiana. Since many people will not have a golden ticket and be waiting in line to buy this year’s Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout, here’s a little tour of the brewery I took the Sunday after CBC a couple of weeks ago. Three Floyds’ sales manager Lincoln Anderson was kind enough to drive Sean Paxton and me from our hotel in Chicago (and then dropped us off at the airport, thanks Lincoln) after we spent a thoroughly enjoyable few hours n Munster drinking and eating. I knew the beer would be good, I’d had plenty of it before, but I was blown away with how good the food was. Even the frites were top notch (look for a frites review soon) but everything else on the diverse menu we tried was spectacular. The walls were decorated with beer labels and cool original graffiti art. For a lazy Sunday afternoon, the brewpub filled up quickly with tourists, young couples and even families obviously just come from church.
We also had a chance to walk around in the brewery. It was fun to see the Lagunitas fermenters again that Tthree Floyds had bought from them, especially Kaboom. I also shot a short video tour of the brewery, which is below. Happy Dark Lord Day.
While we were there, preparations for Dark Lord Day were well under way, and Lincoln explained to us what else would be added, just for the day’s activities. One hiccup was that during a CBC tour it appears someone stole a bottle of Dark Lord 2010 and had put it up on eBay. Rawmar2 from Spring Grove, Illinois sold it for $12,800, though I suspect that was a false bid so no one could buy it. Even though an eBay win is a contract, it couldn’t be enforced if the goods being sold were stolen.
At the entrance to the brewery.
A Dark Lord Banner from 2009 hangs in the brewery.
Below is a slideshow of the Three Floyds Brewery. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.
A here’s a short video of me walking through the brewery.
What has kaboom done to be so highly regarded?
You mean besides making a lot of great beer? Perhaps nothing, but having visited the Lagunitas Brewery countless times, probably over 100 times throughout the years, Kaboom always stands out in my mind as the one I’d see every visit in the back brewery. Lagunitas named, and continues to name, each of their fermenters and Kaboom had some history about how it got its name (though I can’t recall the exact details at the moment) that made it memorable. Plus, it was in the middle of the brewery, just as you turned a corner, making it hard to miss every time I went there. You were probably hoping for something more definitive, but I was just having a bit of fun with the tour.
I was hoping to hear a tale of explosive fermentation or something. 🙂
Thanks for the virtual visit to 3 Floyds. A few of their beers are listed as classic examples in the BJCP Style Guidelines, but I’ve not had the opporunity to try any. How far west does their distribution reach?