It’s a rite of Black Friday that hundreds line up in front of Lakefront Brewery, 1872 N. Commerce St., to get a special release bottle of the Black Friday Imperial Stout. The big bold beer is offered only once a year, on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Rain, shine or snow, it draws a crowd.

That often means other brewers. Andy Gehl and Kevin Wright, owners of Third Space Brewing, 1505 W. St Paul Ave., stood in separate lines to grab bottles of the Black Friday beer. Lakefront Brewery president Russ Klisch also spotted brewers and others from The Fermentorium, a brewery at 7481 WI-60 Trunk in Cedarburg.

So maybe expect more beercentric Black Friday events in 2018.

Gehl was in and out of the brewery in time to get to Third Space for its Black Friday celebration including the release of Liquid Layers, the brewery’s spiced barleywine.

“I wanted to check out the scene and see how it’s done,” said Gehl, whose brewery opened in August. “Ideally, we would get to a place to do that.”