As much as I hate to admit it, I concede. The summer is over. The warmth has left this city until next year and December quickly approaches. All is not lost, though, for if you reside in the Cincinnati area, December brings with it something else… something exciting. For craft beer fans in the Queen City, December means the arrival of our own holiday. Dark Charge Day.

Dark Charge Day is an annual event hosted by Braxton Brewing Company that has become a staple of not just our local beer event calendar… but it’s become a piece of the actual beer culture here in Cincinnati (technically Covington, Kentucky) in a bigger sense than a lot of “just beer events” have managed to do.

I’m pretty certain that if you’re a fan of craft beer here in town, you’ve at least heard about this event if not attended it in past years – but for the sake of argument… I’ll still pretend like I need to explain it to you.

Dark Charge What?

The first Saturday in December isn’t always beautiful. Sure, while I’ll admit that you can get nice weather from time to time, usually December in Cincinnati means chilly days, rainy weekends – the typical cold misery that a sun loving Gnome like myself just loathes.

How in the world can you convince craft beer fans to line up on the sidewalk in front of a brewery (overnight, even, for some of them)? It’s torture! There’s only one thing that I can think of that would bring them to this:

Dark Charge.

It’s a beer, it’s an event… it’s actually something else entirely. On the surface, the event is a party to celebrate the release of an Imperial Stout and it’s tasty variants. The brewery plans an entire day of great Braxton beers, some amazing guest taps, and a whole line up of food and music to keep you entertained and fed during the whole spectacle… but that only scratches the surface. It’s a celebration of who this city has become in her beer culture. It’s a symbol of revival of an industry, of communities, of BEER. It’s hard to understand until you experience it for yourself.

About The Beer

Dark Charge is a BIG imperial stout. It’s a bold, dark, heavy beer that showcases not just the talent that Braxton has on the brewing side of things, but it’s a salute to who they are, and where they came from, I’ll explain that in a second, though.

The actual beer comes bottled in 22oz bombers, waxed dipped in colorful wax to show you which variant you hold in your hands. The ABV usually comes in at around 13% – it’s a big beer, like I said. Packed inside that bottle are notes of chocolate, oak, roasted notes and coffee. If you’re a fan of stouts, you’re gonna fall in love with this one.

The breweries description of the beer might give you some more insight:

Dark Charge is a massive Imperial Stout that showcases Kentucky’s heritage – Bourbon. Dark as the Covington night, this beer features notes of stone fruits, chocolate, coffee, oak, roasted malts, and umami. With an oil-like consistency, and tan head, it is bold enough to inspire you and strong enough to light up a city.

About The Event

Dark Charge Day is the first Saturday of every December, which falls on 12/7 this year. It officially kicks off at 11am when the doors open, but in truth, it kicks off much earlier than that. If you make your way down to Braxton at 7am, you’ll find the party very much in full swing, with folks lined up on the sidewalk with coolers (sharing their own collections that have been saved for a special event like this) – people will be grilling up breakfast – laughing, making new friends… it’s the party that makes the party.

The doors open at noon and you’ll find an entire day of reasons to spend your time in Covington. I mentioned earlier that Dark Charge day is a salute to all the things that make Braxton who they are, and you’ll see that showcased in the actual event itself. From the folks lining up on the sidewalk in the morning, to an incredible selection of guest taps, and a killer music lineup. It’s easy to see the pieces of Braxton’s personality when you look around the event during the day. Dark Charge is Braxton, just bottled up and spread out along seventh street.

The event this year is looking like it’s going to be pretty amazing – I’ll share with you some more of the details once they let us know some more about this years variants – so stay tuned! If you want to know some more before then, just head over to the Dark Charge Day website and read more!

Updates:

The first few variants have been revealed… you can head over here to check out what they’ve got planned for us this year!