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After The Final Pour - S9E14 Three Floyds Brewing "Dark Lord" 2012 (feat. Matthew Mauldenhauer) image

After The Final Pour - S9E14 Three Floyds Brewing "Dark Lord" 2012 (feat. Matthew Mauldenhauer)

The Malting Hour
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30 Plays14 days ago

This week we're joined once again by Matthew and the merry little Christmas elf to start the week of Christmas.  Brandon digs deep into his cellar and shares Three Floyds Brewing's Dark Lord from 2012.

Beer description:
A demonic Russian-Style Imperial Stout brewed with coffee, Mexican vanilla, and Indian sugar, this beer defies description. Available one day a year, in April at the brewery: Dark Lord Day.

Thanks to Kevin and Deb Goggin for the theme song.
Outro music by Fluid Minds
Check out all our episodes at www.themaltinghour.com

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Transcript

Introduction of Hosts and Guest

00:00:30
Speaker
When life gives you an empty cup
00:00:45
Speaker
Welcome back to the Final Four, brought to you by the Malting Arm. One of your hosts, Tony Golook, joined always with... Brandon Winningjier. And sharing joe jerky with our merry little elf is... Roger Warpower. Who has jerky in his mouth. Don't make him talk. i' a Big old meat in my mouth. Okay, take it easy. As per usual... We just... Hey!
00:01:10
Speaker
Off mic! Not anymore, I'm not adding that up. Monica and I have to have this discussion about this.
00:01:20
Speaker
oh This is what a good after the final pour is all about. All right,

Exploring the 2012 Dark Lord Stout

00:01:26
Speaker
here we are. So Brandon, it's not in front of you, it's in front of me. We are drinking.
00:01:32
Speaker
A 2012 Dark Lord Russian-style Imperial Stout. Is this Berlage? This is not Berlage, right? Is it? I don't know. Really? I thought they were. I thought all Dark Lords were just inherently Berlage, but I don't know. 2012. I don't know. Who can remember 2012? I do. It was a good year. And? That's all I got to say about that. What happened in 2012? A lot happened in my life in 2012.
00:02:00
Speaker
Obama. 2012. Obama. Yeah. He said, 2012 was a good year. 2012 was a good year. We haven't gotten there yet. ands i'm I'm from the future. I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. 2012 was a great year. Trust me. Things are great. We're not on Earth anymore because it's going. God damn it. I literally was looking up the beer and I typed in 2012. All right. Let's get into this. Yeah. So we're drinking a 2012 Dark Lord.
00:02:29
Speaker
Russian style Imperial style from Three Floyds. Brandon, you've had this, do you know when you got this beard? Did you get it in 2012? Probably not. I think I... This is only the second time or maybe the third time we've had a Dark Lord on the show? Yeah, I don't remember when I got it. I may have gotten this off somebody like a year or two later.
00:02:51
Speaker
But um yeah, um I'm looking that says there were variants because I when I googled it, I thought there was yeah, the dillo one came up. Yeah, but those are as i saying that you had to get lottery ticket of the lottery ticket. Yeah. to some of those So this is red wax on it. I don't I don't know if there's anything different about this, if there, if it is a variant, cause I know they only, isn't that how they distinguished their variants, much like the eclipse 50, 50 barrel of stats, which, oh man,

Reminiscing About Vintage Beers and Liquor Store Finds

00:03:20
Speaker
is that still a thing? Yeah. I mean, they still make them. Yeah. I don't, every year there's at least one or two that people still go crazy for, but they do like 12 different variants. mean i I don't know where to get them anymore because I used to get them over at a liquor store. It's still a Cardinal or no, no, it's finally at Garfield's not far from here.
00:03:38
Speaker
And they just had a whole bunch on the shelf. And at one point when they went on Central, they did like a clearance because they were their whole craft beer. Like that was my craft beer go to in my neighborhood. And I became friends with the guy who used to like, he used to put the bourbon. Did he come to our bottle share? Yeah. my kind of Yeah, he, uh, he ended up putting like, he used to put bourbon County to the side for us. And like, we didn't have to wait in line. He was just the nicest dude in the world. And when they somehow they were like, just, I think they were going independent.
00:04:14
Speaker
and still actually might be a Cardinal, but I think they werere going they weren't going to become Garfield's. They did. Yeah. They it went back to Cardinal. Yeah, they're still Cardinal. So yes, they didn't go with Garfield's and now it's just it's just not the same, but they had all these like vintage, like aged beers just sitting around. I had a whole bunch of Eclipse 50-50, barely aged hours that they were selling then for like $10, $15. And it was like, I remember Mike and I, my brother-in-law buying a bunch of them, or like at least ah two or three, I shouldn't say a bunch. Because we're like, oh wow, this is great. We don't know what these are because they've been sitting for so long. So we had to look it up. So we just grabbed the random bottles and found out what the different colors were. And I didn't know that's what Three Floyds does as well, which I think is a kind of a fun way to like you know determine
00:04:57
Speaker
What it is that that variant is without having to

Pandemic Bourbon County Release and Tasting Notes

00:05:00
Speaker
print up differently? Yeah, I remember the the 5050 they had ah a pappy variant one Yes, that one was wasn't like a light pink or something like that. Yeah something like that Yeah, but that one was fantastic and I remember always like everywhere everywhere I'd go if they had it on the shelf I was like look if they had them on the shelf. I was like looking like where's the you know? Well, yeah in the 5050 also did all of the little two letter, because of all the different barrels, they would just have like PW for Pappy Van Winkle. Yeah. And so you had to know like, all the different whiskeys out there. So like, you knew which whiskeys you were actually buying. But that was actually one of the most fun. I think it was wasn't that the pandemic, Bourbon County release where they did
00:05:43
Speaker
the single bottles or maybe 2021 where they did the single bottles with the letter codes where you had like Wild Turkey, Heaven Hill and Buffalo Trace. And it was the first year they did that and they didn't tell anyone. yeah And so it was the fun craft beer nerds figuring it out. yeah And then they were just telling their friends which ones to go look for. I remember Wild Turkey being the most barrel forward. Heaven Hill being the tastiest and Buffalo Trace being more of the booziest. At least what I remember. From what I remember. but but But wild turkey was, I think, the hardest one for me to find in the area. And it was very good. I like that one the most. Good memory. Thank you. I'm impressed. I haven't killed all the brain cells yet. I don't remember a lot of the panguambi. Speaking of killing brain cells, what do we think about this beer from... three flos When I, the first sip I took, I was a little like, I was like, maybe it's off a little bit. But now that I'm going back into it and like kind of sipping on it, it's, I like it. It's nice. It's got a good body. It's not my favorite beer that I've ever had, obviously, but like it's still drinking good for, you know, and I'm putting that into perspective. It's a 12 year old beer and it's still drinking fairly decently. Like there's, there's, there's a little bit of oxidation.
00:07:06
Speaker
that Not like super heavy that you would, I mean 12 years that's pretty good for what could possibly happen yeah with a beer like that. But it's not off-putting. There's a nice sweetness to it without it being like super sweet but it's definitely a sweet beer. And I don't know I'm getting like in the back end a lot of vanilla yeah like not like Madagascar vanilla bean but just like a nice like baking vanilla not extract I don't know but there's there's there's vanilla in there that getting vanilla I'm getting hints of chocolate yeah I'm I feel like the vanilla is prominent. Yeah, I feel like it's bringing out the sweetness that may be a little bit more for me. Yeah, I mean, your tootsie real common from before. I have to go listen to the last episode. getting This guy fucking runs this show now. Definitely brings out that vanilla little bit of that cacao nib kind of. Now we're flip-flapping. How is it going to go? Depends on how good it is. The elf was right. Just say chocolate. The elf was right.
00:08:13
Speaker
ah oh The elf is here. The elf's back. And so I know the last time we we tried one of these, I think it was only an eight year old yeah Dark Lord. I didn't get like any of that soy sauce quality right off the start. When we started drinking it, I had a little bit of that, like just that's exactly what I was at. So i I didn't get that. And I felt like the first time that I had Dark Lord, it was when you were still living in the condo. That was the first time I ever had Dark Lord. I don't know how old it was.
00:08:43
Speaker
I'd also think it'd just been embedded in my mind that when you're having Dark Lord, you're gonna get soy sauce. And I did get it. I did not get any aroma or taste of soy sauce from this. Yeah, as soon as it opened up for me and we were sipping on it for a little bit, I didn't get it, but it was that first couple

Special Beers for the Maltese Event

00:09:00
Speaker
sips where I was like, ooh, oh, maybe this is 12 years is too much. But then you let it open up and yeah it's a very delightful, especially for being 12 years old. It's still holding up quite well.
00:09:13
Speaker
That's what my seller is. It's an experiment. no Do you have more Dark Lord's love too? I do. What i was I almost did, but then I was like, that's my last one and I loved this period, is my baller stout. What's that? Oh, that was a special one that they did. I don't know if that was... I have to go look at the bottle. I don't and don't know if that was the first one that they did with the war like the Warpigs collab. Oh, okay.
00:09:37
Speaker
But it was it was like a special release that they did probably in 2010 or 2011 something like that like just when I was getting into craft beer and I I don't know if I got it at Fishman's or if I, I may have gone down to, um, three Floyd's, but yeah, I had it. It was fantastic. And I still got that bottle and I'm like, it's probably terrible now, but God, I was like, I love that beer so much. I'm like, I don't want to open it yet. And then I saw this one. I was like, Oh, maybe, uh, you know, maybe I can persuade you to open up, uh, for the Maltese. What if I gave you, a take that much what if I gave you a subscription, a one year subscription to the jelly of the month club?
00:10:17
Speaker
Sold. I guess we're opening up on the Maltese, baby. I was going to say, actually, for the Maltese, I think we should, not that we have to dig deep in cellars or anything, but we should find something that we want to drink that's like a lot of fun. I got a biologic that I want to open up for you guys. Ooh. I think it's at six years old now. So you guys have something that maybe you already have. I'm going to go out and get something, or maybe I'll just show up with a bottle of Buffalo Trace and just drink some bourbon. That's cool, too. You win.
00:10:45
Speaker
I don't know about that. You win the Maltese. I do. Who had the best picks at it? I'll open my Eagle Rare. Didn't we? We already opened that. Damn it. I think Trevor got a little liberty over Krampus and got the Eagle Rare open. Brandon, other than your Sinatra bottle, I think everything else has been open. Oh wait, no, your wine, isn't that the wine bear? This one hasn't been open, the Colonel Taylor. The Basil Hayden wine one isn't open, right?
00:11:10
Speaker
Both of these aren't open. Basil Hayden, the red wine cast finish, and the Basil Hayden's Kentucky Street bourbon. The little bottle you got me at Basil Hayden didn't last long. I think you gave that to me during the pandemic. I'm gonna have some absinthe tomorrow.
00:11:27
Speaker
Dude, it could be like, it's like the Nine Inch Nails video of Perfect Drug. And I'm Trent Reznor and I just have a tiny, like, little weird goatee and I'm like, like, growling po. And I don't know in what world my wife will ever be like, let's open up that bottle of Jack, maybe on our anniversary. That makes sense, because then I'll come by the day after. Yeah, you try it. Yeah, once it's open, it's free game. Let's be honest, it's the night. You'll be there over the night.
00:11:50
Speaker
It's your anniversary, guys. I happened to show up. Are you guys opening that Jack Daniels bottle? Hey, Beckett, don't you want that Jack Daniels? Although foreshadowing, I could see that being something we open at Christmas because we talked it up to Beckett's parents, too. Her dad loves bourbon, too. Christmas Day or Christmas Eve? I don't know when they're coming. Either Christmas Day or the day of Christmas. What hour of the day are they going to be here? I'm going to say Christmas Eve because I'll be around at Christmas Eve. Well, her parents won't be.
00:12:19
Speaker
So I need to spend the night. You still come over. I'm not joking. I might actually come by and Christmas Eve. I told Beckett, and she's like, they can come. Let them come. um Let them come. Let them wait. I think we're probably going to do Popeyes Champion. Oh. I'll be here. I'll be here. You know, I got some Krampus at home, too. I can i can bring over. and Sure. Good. Combine it with all the other Krampus that are really in our house. Dude, we'll do a Krampus vertical. Dude.
00:12:49
Speaker
and I'll be late for Christmas morning. And we just released everything that was Osner and, you know, so anyone can come by now and pick up any Krampus that has been left over. I mean, there might be some left by the time. This is actually coming out, I think, the week of Christmas. I did have another maple cinnamon prose. Oh, yes. Dude, that

Krampus Beer Variants and Tasting Ratings

00:13:10
Speaker
is so good.
00:13:12
Speaker
I'm going to tell you something off, Mike. That that is very good. I know what you're going to see. This episode is the 23rd. This is the 23rd, so this is my poor Christmas. so maybe you guys have so If there's some Krampus left, this is your chance to probably go and get it, but I don't know, man. well There might be a little bit of Krampus cookies at least, the base, which this is my favorite.
00:13:34
Speaker
version That's what I drank the most this this past week. The barrel just shines through on that one. Was it was it Chris that was saying it? We were talking to Chris at the market and he wasn't working. He was walking around drinking and he was like, people are sleeping on the pirate Krampus.
00:13:52
Speaker
And I was like, dude, that's one of my favorites. Like that one was just so good. that my bra road and like Yeah. I mean, they were all good this year, but he was like, people are sleeping on it. I'm like, that would I don't know why people would sleep. I mean, people who don't like coconut. I get it because it is like drinking like a liquid mountains bar. I don't want to say almond joy because it doesn't have almond, but like it is like a liquid mountains bar. If you like coconut and chocolate, that is liquid gold for you, right? Oh yeah. Fantastic. All right. How many?
00:14:22
Speaker
Broken skulls. Are we giving this because there's a lot of skulls on the on the label? All right, so I'm gonna take into it's a 12 year old beer. Yeah um For what it is I'm going three eight I think I like that. Yeah for me. I didn't ask you I was gonna ask the elf first tall and drunk And I don't know numbers anymore, but I do want to take a warm bath in it. Oh, that's pretty, that's high praise. That is high praise. Tony, how many broken skulls do you give this? ah I poured a half a pint glass of this. And it's gone. And there's a lot. Are you drunk? Do you want to swim with me? I think so. I think we're going to swim. We're going to swim this together. I think taking into consideration for how old this is and how well it held up with the minimal oxidation
00:15:22
Speaker
I'm so glad that I can finally pinpoint when there's oxidation in the beer, because before I used to be like, I don't know what this taste is, and then someone was like, it's oxidation. And little by little, I'm like, ah, I do recognize that now. You know, that vanilla quality that kind of just like stands out to me, and it still has a really nice sweetness to it, I think when I go like three, nine on this, just because, like for it being an older beer, like 12 years old, and how well it's like stood up, like,
00:15:51
Speaker
I would not be mad having this beer sipping on this for a very long time with it being a bomber. I would definitely enjoy it. Matthew, how many broken skulls are you giving this beer? I'm giving it to four. Oh, hey. All right. Especially, there definitely was a little bit of the soy sauce, a little bit of oxidation. Being 12 years old is incredible how well this has held up.
00:16:19
Speaker
This probably would have been peak at like six, seven, eight years old. And you stored your beers phenomenally well. um When he says to you, he's talking to Brandon and everybody. I was talking to the elf. Oh, fuck. Wait, the elf brought this beer? I'm wearing everything. It's a Christian spirit. The high pitch of your voice he seems to keep dropping just a little bit more. No, you got me drunk. He's here.
00:16:48
Speaker
Very cheery, but tired.
00:16:52
Speaker
I go sleepy now. But yeah, for for a 12-year-old beer, this is holding up extremely well. And honestly, especially for three floyds making this style of beer, but they were one of the first ones, obviously including, you know, uh, Berman County Stout that were doing these bigger, richer, uh, barrel-aged stouts. And so like,
00:17:15
Speaker
it It does surprise me at 12 years ago. If you think of most of the barrel age stouts 12 years ago, this was not the norm. know It is the norm now and how people make things and the fact that they were doing this 12 years ago is incredible. Yeah,

Dark Lord Day Festival Memories

00:17:30
Speaker
I agree. I kind of wish, I do like the romanticized idea of Dark Lord Day, but I do wish that Dark Lord was distributed. I think that that would be a bit more fun and i think they can find a wider audience but i don't know if they'll ever do that but i think they sell out like oh i i believe it but also i mean i've been to one dark lord day many a loons ago we keep saying that we we should go and it was it was fantastic and it like it just luck would have it worked out like the way three floyds is situated there was like a neighborhood right in the back
00:18:10
Speaker
and there's like little like you know ravine or something like that literally like people didn't care just i parked there in the neighborhood i just walked through the you know little thing hopped over the little creek and like walked right up and i'm there i was um people brought backpacks of beer like that back then it was like i don't know what it is now but it was like people had backpacks of beers you went into the fest like people were just cracking beers and like doing stuff and i met like one of my favorite like celebrity love not my favorite celebrity but
00:18:42
Speaker
and um I'll nerd out a second. So there's a guy, I listened to the Howard Stern Show, cause I'm, you know, I'm a degenerate. And there's a guy in there who, uh, Richard Christie, who plays for a band now called Targe Walls of the Damned, very like death metal band, but he used to be, he's like, he used to be like a high ranking drummer and now he does like, you know, fart humor on the Stern Show. But anyways, he was there and I saw him and I'm like, I cracked a black Tuesday with him and we, we dragged and took a picture and like, we, that's awesome.
00:19:12
Speaker
walked around the fast and we were like hanging out and then that was fest two like they had a vip section with like a little gate and like everyone had like wristbands on and i just pulled my sleeves down and i walked into the vip section and i was like oh i'll take this i'll take that and i was just in a drink and like i was with my ex at the time and she's like what are you doing i'm like i'm drinking better beer around yeah nobody questioned it then i just walked right back out and i was like yeah uh so that was a super cool fest i don't know what it is now and like you know there's a lot of stuff up in the air with with three floyds um and i know like their pub was supposed to be open reopening this year i don't know what's going on with that but the group that's supposed to be reopening it still has it listed on their website is coming soon so
00:20:00
Speaker
hopefully that's Hopefully that's the case and if there's a Dark Lord Day next year, I think we should go. Yeah, maybe put that on the list of things to do. We still have to go to Oktoberfest. Yeah, we'll make that happen. I think that's probably gonna happen before a Dark Lord Day. Probably. Probably. Gotta get the passport. Brandon?
00:20:17
Speaker
I'm not going to say I love you yet because I need to say things to Matthew and the elf first. Matthew, thank you for joining us again. Thank you. Love you. Love you too, man. Aww. Aww. Thanks, man. Our happy little elf. Thanks for joining us again.
00:20:37
Speaker
The old friend out of words. My bad. Brandon, love you buddy. Love you too, man. And ah Merry Christmas and everything else you you may have celebrated this season. And we'll see you back for the Maltese.
00:20:55
Speaker
This has been The Malting Hour. Be sure to follow us on all social media by searching The Malting Hour and at themaltinghour.com. You can also follow us individually on social media. Brandon can be found on Instagram as bmdub81, on Twitter, bdub81, and on Untapped as bdubdrinksbeer. Tony can be found on Instagram and Untapped under Ace of Hope Chicago. On Twitter, The Ace of Hope Chicago. Clark can be found as Clarkowski on all three. Dan can be found on Instagram as hip underscore underscore hops and the hip hops on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe, like, and rate the show on your preferred podcast listening platform. Until next time, cheers from all of us at The Malting Hour.