Dark Lord Day: April 24

http://www.3floyds.com/about/

A bottle of Dark Lord — a Russian-style imperial stout — is available just one day a year at the Three Floyds Brewery in beautiful Munster, IN... on Dark Lord Day. This year it's April 24th. The DLD festival itself is a free, daylong event that drew nearly 7,000 people from all over the country to Three Floyds’ industrial park last year.

Before you’re allowed to throw down $15 bucks per 22-ounce bottle, you have to score a “Golden Ticket” online that guarantees your chance to buy it. This year’s batch of Golden Tickets sold out in less than an hour after Three Floyds announced their release on Twitter. In fact, so many people swarmed the Web site that offered the tickets that the servers crashed, creating a blog-post backlash from out-of-luck beer aficionados. Sometimes, though, if you’re lucky, you can find drinkers willing to share a taste, sell a bottle or even hawk an extra Golden Ticket.

Dark Lord was first brewed in 2004. It’s Three Floyds founder Nick Floyd’s response to a local brewer’s boasting about his own stout. The beer is brewed with hundreds of pounds of Intelligentsia Black Cat espresso, Mexican vanilla and Indian dessert sugar that mingle to create an intense stout with a viscosity akin to that of, say, Quaker State motor oil. Dark Lord was rated in the 100th percentile — that’s the best — of beers by Ratebeer.com, which also named Three Floyds the best brewery in the world for 2010.

This year’s Dark Lord is the biggest “most brutal” vintage ever, with 15 percent alcohol content and 700 calories a bottle, head brewmaster Chris Boggess says.

If you go... expect thousands of people already packing the parking lot by 10 AM. Parking can be a bitch. Guest craft beers from across the country are available and be sure to try them! My favorite guest beer last year was from http://www.flossmoorstation.com/
Heavy rock and metal bands play (not really my thing, metal that is). In years past, there has been a BBQ tent with some good eats. Maybe I'll see you there!