Squatters Outer Darkness is devilishly delicious

Our skiing group is heading to the fancy shmancy St. Regis hotel at the base of Deer Valley ski mountain on our final night here. It's built at the top of the hill and you have to take a tram from the base of the mountain up to the resort. This company knows how to build brand luxury by creating an event out of a hotel stay. All that's missing is blowing of trumpets upon your arrival. Once you ride up the tram, which can hold around 20 people at capacity, you are looking down at everyone. You feel like the king of a castle. 

Speaking of kings, apparently the creator of Papa John's owns the entire top floor of the hotel. We're in the presence of delivery pizza royalty! Hot damn, I've really made it. Once we're on the outside patio, the view only supports my perception that this is less of a hotel and more of a castle.

The temperature is about to dip below the freezing mark and I'm dying to order a hot toddie, but Sam suggests that I order an ice cold beer that fits the occasion and surroundings. My fingers are numb but as the old saying goes, when in Rome...drink a beer (*citation needed). 

With the sun setting behind us, I order an Outer Darkness. It's from a local brewery, Squatters and it's one of their premium beers that arrives in a 750ml bottle. 

 The label is unquestionably cool. It has the eyes of Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Nerd alert

Look how beautiful it pours! There's a surprisingly light roast aroma with a bit of licorice that arrives out of a fantastic toffee colored head. The glass is cold but at 10.5%, this liquid is warming me up almost as well as a hot toddie. And it pours like pure unadulterated motor oil. I love it. The menu says it's "one of the most intensely flavored beers a brewer can create." Will the beer live up to these bold words?

Licorice and an intense roasted malt greets my tongue, as well as some oak and molasses. The brew lives up to the words on the label. This isn't a rich beer, but the unique flavors are incredibly intense. I'm not sure I've had a beer where the flavor characters of molasses and licorice assault my palate like this. A small sip will leave you tasting the licorice long afterwards. It stays with you, like the smell of a teenager who uses too much Axe body spray. It reminds me of drinking a liquor with a strong character, like Jaegermeister or Fernet. David would really like this beer and I hope he ends up in Utah sometime to sample this devil. I pour nearly two full glasses for other people in the group to taste and everyone loves it, but it certainly is not for the faint hearted. This actually quite accurately describes the people sitting around the table pretty well; our skiing group is nothing but adventurous. Sorry Obi Wan Kenobi, this SkyWalker is going over to the darkside. BAD BOYS rating.

At sunset, a hotel employee comes out with a sword and a bottle of champagne. Apparently at the end of each day they saber a bottle of champagne. Talk about classy! Here is a video of the event and it's about 2 minutes long because the gentleman tells a fascinating story about the origin of sabering a bottle. Could you guess that Napoleon had something to do with it? What a pint sized badass.