So I had this lovely chat with Ninja tonight, and I figured I'd repost it here as a tribute to the lovely ladies and studly men of this honored community.

Without further ado:

A few years ago, I kept visiting this stupid site called pirateninja.com because I hosted it. A bunch of strangers on this website kept talking about this Unibroue Maudite. They talked about it so lovingly and appreciatively, but I still just didn't "get it". I didn't like beer, I grew up with a dad who drank Busch Light or Old Milwaukee's Best and that was what beer was to me. I never touched the stuff.

One day I was at this party store in the ghetto of Detroit (We call them party stores in Michigan. You know; liquor store, corner market, whatever you call it regionally) and I see a bottle on the shelf:

Unibroue Maudite

I say to myself "omfg that's the beer the ninjas and pirates keep going on about"

So I take this thing home. My wife (at the time, i was still married)says "What the hell is that? Did you buy a beer?" I say, "Yeah these guys on the web keep going on about it"

So that night. That dark, stormy, and monumental evening, I get a beer glass that's been in my cupboard for years.

I open this "Maudite". I pour it. I take my first sip

It changed...my...life. CHANGED MY LIFE.

I had never ever in my life tried a beer with such flavor, such character! It was an explosion of sensations in my mouth! I had no idea such a thing even existed! From that moment on, I was hooked.

Years later, the beast you unchained, the wheel you set in motion has gone on to influence my life and work in many ways; for example, we have an annual Oktoberfest celebration at Icrontic HQ in Michigan. People fly in from as far away as California to attend. We have become regulars at a local world-class brewpub, to the point where we will be helping them make their annual pumpkin beer (we'll be chopping and baking pumpkins next week). I am considering doing an internship at a brewery just to learn the craft. We have made lovely commemorative beer glasses. I am a member of beer-related social networking groups on Twitter and Flickr. We have TWO entire beer fridges in our garage and we won't allow anything less than peer-reviewed and storied brews in them.

BEER HAS BECOME A SOURCE OF JOY IN MY LIFE.

THANK YOU, PIRATENINJA.COM

-Brian