Yesterday was one of those days that rearranges your expectations of a trip.

It started with Walt, hungover, energy drink in one hand and cigarette in the other, working through his account of the previous evening while I finally admitted defeat and changed into shorts. There had been rather too many hot days in a row.

We drove out to Flossmoor to meet Matt and Andrew. It is a lovely spot in a genuinely good building, which matters more than people admit. A brewpub in a beautiful old building starts the evening two goals up. The beers backed it up: the IPA, the Panama Red, and the Wilden Zuid Train, which was outstanding. I had a brat with a sour that I drank very slowly, and Elizabeth looked after us throughout. My thanks to all three of them.

Walt headed back to Chicago and I carried on to Munster, Indiana, with a minor detour through Highland while I worked out where I was. Eventually I found the industrial park that everyone descends on for Dark Lord Day, which on an ordinary weekday afternoon is simply an industrial park.

Somebody had tipped me off about the gardens. Sure enough, when I arrived, there was Mr Floyd tending them. He is an Englishman, which I had not expected, and we spent a long and entirely happy stretch of time talking about gardening rather than beer. It is a good reminder that the person whose name is above a brewery door usually has an interior life that has nothing to do with hops, and that the fastest way into a conversation with anyone is to ask about the thing they were doing when you turned up.

Then into the brewery, where I was invited to stay for a brewer's dinner. I had turned up unannounced at an address in Indiana and was being asked to sit down and eat. Dreadnaught on draught, XI, and a very good glass of something dark to close the evening.

If you ever get the chance to go, whether for a dinner or for anything else, take it. The place is unusual in a way that is hard to explain and it is enormous fun. Thanks to Barnaby, Steve, Mike and Nick for a great evening.

Utah next, which will be a no beer day. Probably for the best.