On a perfect fall Saturday Surly Brewing Company celebrated the annual release of the ever-popular black liquid gold known as Darkness. Darkness Day is celebrated every year around Halloween and the bottles that are for sale are always dressed with a fresh new label. This year's version is decorated with a Zombie gripping a snifter glass of Darkness and was created by local artist Michael Berglund. The artwork is always cool but the 2011 label is especially cryptic and fits the theme of Darkness Day to a T.

People arrived for the event as early as Friday afternoon—a full 24-hours before the event. Omar (owner of Surly) could be seen on Friday greeting the guests who arrived early but this is no surprise as he is as hands-on a business owner as they come. Omar treats his customers as if they are family which is a testament to where he came from as a homebrewer; one with the dream of one day starting his own brewery. So, what do these people do for a full day before the event? Like any true Craft Beer lover they were sampling beers from around the country and camping out in preparation for Saturday's festivities.

On Saturday morning volunteers arrived early and worked hard to prepare for serving and cleaning up after the 4,000 people that would pass through the gate throughout the day. Food truck vendors lined the entrance and served delicious tacos, gourmet hot dogs, and even beef tongue. Heavy guitar riffs filled the air as you entered the brewery grounds full of people in line to try out the latest offerings from Surly such as Damien, a low gravity Dark Ale with plenty of hop aroma and packed with flavor. Darkness was also on tap, a change from years past, along with many rare cask varieties of Surly beer which were released at different times throughout the event. The lines were rather long to try these but that would be the only disappointment of the day. Todd (Head Brewer and resident rock star) could be seen enjoying a few beverages among members of Surly Nation, joyfully explaining the story behind Damien and sharing other tales full of laughter.

According to Todd, Darkness was born out of the lack of a big, Imperial Russian Stout being available here in the Twin Cities at the time. Omar and Todd decided that they were going to introduce the area to such a beer. "There are some Stouts out there but (we thought) let's make something that somebody sips, that somebody shares with friends—Maybe split a bottle four ways kind of a beer" said Todd. "Originally it was just like 'we need to make a beer like this for our home town that nobody else is making' and then it quickly spread." Spread, it has. As proven by the price gouging at Surdyk's Liquor Store where they were charging a whopping $38 dollars per 750 ml bottle this past week. That is double the price it was selling for at Darkness Day.

For those of you who weren't able to purchase it at the event, Surly Darkness is available in limited quantities at local liquor stores and should be available for under $20 dollars for a 750 ml bottle at most stores. You can also find it on tap at Café 28, a fine local restaurant in the Linden Hills neighborhood which serves up some of the best locally-sourced food on the west side of the Mississippi. Skol!

Photo courtesy of Austin Fassino