Free beer stories

Best way to get free beer at a bar is to where a Keep calm and Chive On shirt, or a Bill F****** Murray shirt. Chivers always buy each other beer

 

When I first started posting here a few months back and asked in the forums about a good Stout to try BA Member beerborn sent me a free bottle in the mail , real stand up guy , thinking of I need to repay him with some tasty stuff

 

On my honeymoon in CA, I brought a couple of cans of Jai Alai into the brewpub at Alpine and they gave us all of our draft beers for free. Free Alpine Duet? Yes, please.

During the same trip, gave a few CCB goodies to the guys working the bar at Russian River and they gave me a bottle of Supplication and another of Sanctification on the house.

Our last night in SF, went to Toronado with my remaining CCB stash. I saw a few dudes near the front having a little bottle-share, so I stopped one as he passed and asked if he liked IPAs and gave him a few Jai Alai and some Hunidor IPA. Turns out, this guy happened to be David Keane (owner of Toronado). He and his wife gave us a few rounds on the house, and he shared all the beers he was tasting.

 

That is what craft beer is all about.

 

I can think of two great times:

In college before I was 21, my friends and I went to a local liquor store owned by the uncle of one of my friends. The owner/uncle filled up the trunk of my Oldsmobile with beer that they couldn't sell to bars/restaurants because cases had been open or cases were incomplete. To be fair it was a bunch of Busch Light and beer of that quality, but when you are 19-20 you don't discriminate.

The best time I remember was when my friends and I went camping up in Big Sur, CA the weekend after Thanksgiving. We were a little drunk walking around the campsite when we came across this huge party that consisted of older stoners who every year since 1989 went camping at the campground we happened to be at. By now they all were older with families so they now brought their families. We started talking to them and they ended up offering us some homebrew. I don't know how they did it, but they had a batch of homebrew that they had infused with tequila. It tasted almost like a barleywine to me, but had a real tequila bite at the end. It was amazing!

 

In June, my local bottle store had a FB contest. All I had to do was like all of their posts about beer. Every Like entered you into a drawing for a prize. I ended up winning 30 days of free beer from the singles selection. Not bad.

 

Well, there's this one. cavedave also once sent me a Heady Topper and Dope (I think it was Dope anyway) once sent me a KBS, both no strings attached. Cheers to free beer!

 

Oddly enough, this past weekend my family and I were eating at 'Blaze' in Bar Harbor, ME, and I went in to use the bathroom part way through dinner. One of the other servers was coming out with the trash bag, and jokingly said "Go ahead and change the liner for me while you're in there!" while laughing. After I did the deed, I did change the liner. I used to work in a restaurant, and it took me all of 5 seconds. I went back to my seat, and a few moments later all of the servers came out on the patio laughing. He was the last one out, asked what I was drinking, and then bought me a fresh one. It was SN Hoptimum, and it was worth changing a trashcan liner, that's for damn sure! Fun place and fun experience.

 

I was at a free tasting recently at a local restaurant. Some of the things they brought out for the tasting: KBS, Sucaba, and Dark Lord.

 

When I worked at Total Wine they had a bunch of reps come in for some tastings during American Craft Beer Week. And, since I was the resident "craft beer guy," I got to facilitate the tastings and help pour. The Oskar Blues rep had some cans of Deviant Dale's which was set to hit Florida shelves in a week for the first time ever. I tried a sample and loved it. At the end, I asked if I could buy one off him and he just gave me one. So I was one of the first people in Florida to ever try Deviant Dale's. Also, on the same day, the Florida Beer Co. rep gave me a couple free Swamp Apes and a glass.

 

I work for a commercial/industrial MEP contractor; several years ago when I was still a field emplyee we were doing an expansion/remodel of a beverage distributor. Every Friday the owner would show up toward the end of the day in a cargo van filled with cases of beer, and would give 2 cases to each person who was working on the site. Not really much in terms of craft, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth

 

Maybe it's your name. Ever think of throwing a "please" in there?

 

The day that I bought this: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2210/38180/?ba=NiceTaps, the clerk at the growler station unintentionally overcharged me for it by a few bucks. The next week when I returned to the store for more goodies, the same clerk was waiting for my arrival, having realized his mistake. He apologized, and said that he was glad to see me. I showed little concern about it and didn't think much of the whole thing. He wouldn't have any of it. Then he gifted me a fresh 4-pack of Green Flash West Coast IPA.

 

Exhibit 1A of my snootiness

 

My wife and I were with another couple the day before New Years at the Schlafly Bottleworks. We all had our noses pressed against the glass watching the bottle line in action. We noticed one of the guys pull 4 bottles off the line. We figured it was some sort of quality control thing. A door next to us opens and he hands us the 4 bottles. Very cool of him to do that.

 

My buddy and I went to a bar to try Revolution Very Mad Cow on tap. When we ordered the beers, the guy next to us looked at us funny, and then told the bartender that the beers were on him. We didn't understand what was happening until he introduced himself as a sales rep for Revolution, and we then proceeded to drink a few beers with him. Very nice guy, but oddly enough, he was drinking ciders.

 

I posted a thread here asking if Hoppin' Frog would be a good celebration beer to buy to celebrate getting out of the Army here in a few days. Two fantastic BAs proceeded to contact me and (combined) sent me Heady, PtE, Zombie Dust, BORIS, two BA BORIS, and a DORIS. The generosity of many BAs never ceases to amaze me. I hope I can pay them back (at least somewhat) at some point!

 

That is my kind of rep. My local Stone rep is awesome. She bought me my first sour (a Rodenbach Red). I started out with ciders and turned to beer after I had some good ones and ran out of new ciders to try in MD. There are probably some great ciders in Illinois.

 

I was in a bar and I saw a can of HT. Not knowing how it got there I asked and I guess a guy there handed it to a different guy (still not sure why). I was very excited to even see HT. Then, about 10 minutes later the guy just hands me one! I couldn't believe it. Thanks beermefitz!

 

This, come over here. I give my friends free beer all the time. I share all my cellar. Then in turn they tend to bring stuff to share eventually as well.