I recently attended a beer fest here in my humble little rust belt city and had a blast…but for some reason, at times I felt like a fish out of water.  The odd thing about this beer fest, was that nobody (besides the venders) interacted with me.  Everyone seemed so focused on getting their monies worth.  Clearly at this beer fest, the vast majority of folk, while there to drink beer and watch an 80′s cover band, really didn’t LOVE beer.

Here’s where Dark Lord Day differes from your classic beer fest.  There was not one person who I came across at Dark Lord Day who didn’t somehow, whether through their t-shirt, their ball cap, their tatoos, or their words, express that they loved/understood beer so much, they were willing to travel form different states (like me), or even countries, to catch a glimpse of a rarely consumed beer.   I was with my own kind.  I felt like a gold fish, reunited with his school after years of separtion from a strong current.  Unlike the recent beer fest I went too, folks did not come to taste some samples of beer.  They came for a unique beer experience that can only be shared with other like minded individuals.

The natural result of this lovely beer ghetto, is a strong sense of kinship and camaraderie that Mike spoke of in his last post.  Now, Mike is the type of guy whose gregarious nature coupled with his good natured personality could strike up a friendship in just about any situation.  I myself tend to be a little more introverted, as I’m sure some in line picked up.   But despite myself, I found myself engaging in titulating conversations with countelss beer geeks as they forced their beer upon me.  Yes, forced is the word.  I had to work hard at drinking my beer slowly, or esle the continual surge of friendly faced gentelmen with beer filled growlers would have rendered me incompacitated when the time came to enter the magnificent Three Floyd Brewery.

Unlike most situations in our ego-centric materialistic world, those in line would rather GIVE their beer away than GET their cup filled.  Of course, the result is that nobody was thirsty or feeling alone.  If they so happen to read this post, I’d like to thank Adam and Sam for their generosity!  The homebrewed Kölsch was refreshing and the Lost Abbey 10 Commandments Ale was a highlight for me.

Just as Mike said, put this event on your calendar.  Book a hotel.  Make the drive.  And if not this event, try to make it to at least a few events a year, if only to strengthen that beer brother (and sister) bond inherrent in you.

It’s a funny thing…even though Mike and I co-author this blog, we hadn’t seen each other in five or six years.  It took a fantastic beer event–Dark Lord Day– to bring us together.  Isn’t that the point of beer?