• One of Kristin Miaso’s designs for Lions, Tigers and Beers. No origami artists were harmed in the making of this poster.

I wrote about Lions, Tigers and Beers last year, when the event raised $10,000 for the Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minnesota, and generally I try not to repeat myself in this column. But I’m a cat person—ask anybody. Plus Kate Gallagher and her husband, Tom Lee, who run Northdown together, let me stop by this past weekend to sample a couple of the rarest beers on the Lions, Tigers and Beers tap list—which runs more than 50 deep. I got early tastes of a one-off apricot sour called La Fosse from Cory King’s Side Project Brewing (made from the same base beer as Fuzzy, which won gold at FOBAB last November) and the barrel-aged Firestone Walker barleywine Helldorado, making what I’m pretty sure is its first appearance in Illinois (it’s ordinarily available only at the brewery’s Barrelworks tap room).

Surly will also have 2012 Darkness, 2013 Pentagram (a dark sour aged in red wine barrels), and white-wine-barreled Sÿx (its sixth-birthday strong ale, originally aged on six types of wood and released in 2012). The Mikkeller beers aren’t entirely settled yet, but you can count on last year’s Black Hole, oak-aged SpontanElderflower sour, Rauch Geek Breakfast Stout, Show Me Cuvee (which blends a sour and a quadrupel), and a collaborative IPA with Prairie Artisan Ales called American Style.

  • A closer look at the metallic ink on the Biedron poster

Helldorado is super sticky and rich, with lots of caramel and chocolate; it starts oaky and buttery, then shades into a mellow, leathery bitterness touched by a grassy prickle of rye. As it warms (and in the comically tiny snifter I was using, that didn’t take long) it gets even more decadent, picking up flavors of black cherry, baked raisin, and bread pudding.

The fund-raising raffle has two tiers again, one for the grand prizes and another for everything else. Grand-prize tickets go on sale Tuesday, and can be bought till the end of the event Friday; they’re $10 apiece, and you have to specify which prize you’re hoping to win. Regular raffle tickets are $5 each or five for $20.