Searching for the line between "hobby" and "obsession"

Darkness Day 2011 at Surly Brewing Co.

My second Darkness Day… I knew the event would have much larger attendance than 2010, but even I underestimated the amount of people that would show up so early! Just to be safe, I asked buddies Dan and Cristof if we could get going about a half-hour earlier than last year. We were very lucky we arrived when we did – 7:15am as opposed to 7:45am in 2010 – as we were about 10 people ahead of the last people to receive wristbands to purchase Darkness. 10 people. Dang. Arriving a half an hour later last year, we were 1/2 to 2/3 of the way to the end of the 1,200 of those receiving wristbands. If this type of growth continues, we’ll need to show up at about 6:00am next year in order to get wristbands.

Things were much more organized this year. They handed out wristbands much earlier (they got to us at about 9:30am), which made things much less awkward. Also, the event opened at 11:00am instead of noon, which gave us some time to grab a few beers, hang out and listen to some heavy metal bands while the line for Darkness bottles died down. We all got different beers on tap: Moe’s Bender (vanilla bender), Darkness, Damien (a fruity ale based on the second runnings of Darkness, and a tea-bagged cask version of Furious.

I’d brought a 2010 bottle of Darkness to a party the night before so I could taste and compare with 2011 Darkness the next day. 2011 was definitely brighter, more roasty, less rasiony than 2010. This beer really does even out in time.

Omar, Omar’s parents, Todd, Surly Boy Wonder and many more were all on hand to make the biggest ever Surly event happen. It was pretty cool to see everyone come together, drink some beers and celebrate. This is a great fall tradition.

Cristof relieved he's getting one of the last wristbands

Omar made it to the end of the line with fewwwww more wristbands.

Omar's Dad

Omar's Dad, Todd Haug and a zombie

Moe's Bender, Darkness, Damien

Took us an hour to get through the line for bottles! And it had gotten shorter by the time we got there.

5 Responses

  1. Ben

    The zombie with Todd and Omar’s dad is the guy that did the artwork for this year’s bottle, Michael Berglund.

    October 24, 2011 at 11:26 am

  2. Ahhh, cool thanks Ben!

    October 24, 2011 at 11:41 am

  3. eric

    funny, while google image searching the logo for surly 1, i ran across this post. i’m the guy in the red hat doling out darkness wristbands. glad you guys had a good D day experience! should be interesting this year if the crowd keeps scaling.

    April 16, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    • Thanks Eric! Do you volunteer with Surly often or just on Darkness Day?

      April 17, 2012 at 9:09 pm

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