There are moments in life when you see the best in people.  Sometimes it’s something simple like when someone waves you into traffic.  Other times it’s stopping to help if you are stranded on the road.  But then there’s Dark Lord Day at Three Floyds brewery in Munster.  Nate and I went this weekend not really knowing what to expect.  How were the lines going to be?  How many bottles were we going to get?  How would the social interaction be?

The first two questions are very easy to answer.  Lines were long, but we were at the front, so no sweat there.  We found out that four bottles per ticket was the alloted amount.  But what we really found out for real was how great some of you fellow beer drinkers are.  We met some great people at Dark Lord Day who were all but begging us to drink beer that they had brought.  Much of the beer can’t be obtained easily or at all, so they were saving up for this day.  Nate and I experienced beer communism at Dark Lord Day.  I’m not talking about the superficial type that involves some beer drinkers being more equal than others.  I mean the “What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine” type of beer sharing.  The beer flowed freely, no matter what point in the line a given person was at.  Really what was happening was beer lovers were loving and sharing beer together…no stinginess could be found.  But if the beer flowed freely, conversation was effusive.

We talked to people from all sorts of states and in all walks of life.  But the common thread that bound us all together was a love and exuberance about beer.  Passion was the order of the day.  No one was snooty, jerky, or uptight about their beer/beer knowledge.  Everyone just wanted to share their love for this thing we weakly refer to as beer…I’m reminded of our mission statement for this site.  Beer is not just an inebriate (although there was plenty of that), it is a shared cultural experience.  With cultures (or should I say sub-cultures) like this, people are really waking up to the world of beer.  And I don’t just mean what’s on tap.  I’m talking about what’s inside the beer lover.

I know that some of you are looking for a Dark Lord review, and that will be coming soon enough.  But I simply want to review the experience of Dark Lord Day.  The brewers, organizers, and others on the front line were great.  I don’t know what more to say to the readers.  Go, go, go to this event.  What a wonderful experience.  Although I’ve written this post, I’m speechless.  A world where people behaved like they did on Dark Lord Day would be one worth looking into.  Although the name is already taken and called “Dark Lord Day,” I’m suggesting a nickname: Dark Lord Day, I dub thee “Beerstock.”  By the way, here is a link to the rest of the stuff that I’ve written about Dark Lord so far.  I’ll be back!

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