Entitled to a Free Beer?

My first time at the night shift taproom I tried to get a One Hop Galaxy growler and it kicked in the middle of the fill. Bartender poured me and my fiancé each a 3/4 beer (what was in the growler) on the house. He didn't have to do that but night shift earned a loyal customer and Barrel Society member partly from it (and partly because I love their brews). Also I tipped about 40% on the other stuff we drank. It's probably wise in a business sense.

 

definitely a discount, but not entitled to a free beer.

 

Welp, I sat down a week ago at a local joint I frequent and both taps I ordered from kicked...that was a first. Needless to say, between the bartender searching for new kegs that would tickle my fancy and tapping them, I waited at least 20 minutes for my first beer. Either way, I didn't ask for nor expect a free pour but in the end she charged me for one less than I had in total. Thumbs up.

 

Ive had it happen once to me on a tap of yuengling. The guy next to me got dregs and floaters. I got 3/4 a beer and all crud same beer. He got another beer as did I. He said its on the house but there was so much funk in there i couldn't drink. If it was me, id give it for free just based on you getting the crud pour but i don't expect it for free.

 

Just last year I kicked the CBS keg and 2014 blacknote keg at 2 separate establishments. Both free, and the kicker is the were both almost full pours, let's say 9 oz out of 10. Fuck yes I'm entitled to free beer, as 100% of the time I've been given one.

 

Good timing.

 

This exact thing has happened twice and both times the glass was approx 60% full. Both times they just gave it to me for free. Ironically both times were "Stone enjoy by" but months apart and different restaurants. One of them was The Yardhouse.

Is the customer entitled, NO. But businesses feel like they need to do something for service recovery in order to make you feel good about your stay and get you back in. By the end of the keg they've made their profit already.

Some restaurants do service recovery different. Red Robin doesn't give a shit if you have to wait 50 min for your order to come out wrong whereas the Yardhouse will comp your whole meal and "anything else you may want" spilling water on your shirt.

 

Not entitled to anything in this life..but as a few others have said..would be bad
business to charge you full price

 

Such a strange thread, but that's probably because the question was posed too generally, and most people are responding to it that way. The fact that the op was about Vanilla Rye seems to have everything to do with the situation. The bottom line is that this is a tale of 1) the bartender who was a cheat and a scoundrel and 2) more interestingly, though, it's a commentary on the lengths people go to tick rare beers. This guy just sensed that his customer would rather pay full price for half a glass than see it go down the drain, so he took advantage of the situation. For a more ordinary beer this scene doesn't happen and the question doesn't even get asked.

 

Generally I've seen bartenders either pour the beer out or offer it comp and get you something else, your choice that you paid for. I don't know that I want a beer thats blown...

 

If I get half a pour then I'm paying half the price of a full pour...

 

If I received a flat or partial pour(especially of something nice), I would expect something, a discount, another pour or anything that makes us even............

 

Turn the half pour away or pay what they say in this case. Any place I frequent wouldnt ever charge full price for a keg kicked beer. I have always gotten this pour for free. I'm not entitled to it but I wouldnt take it without a discount appropriate to what I'm losing.

 

Nobody is entitled to anything. Except rich people, of course.

 

Around 5 or so years ago, if you kicked a keg at Midnight Sun, not only was the pour free, but they also gave you a tshirt that said "I blew a keg".

 

A discount at a minimum. Pay for what you got, half pour = half price. If I were a bar owner, I wouldn't charge the patron for a partial pour when a keg kicks.

 

This is a good one. A guy sits down at a brewery bar and asks for a sample. He likes it and orders a full glass. The keg kicks when the glass is almost full, so full that if a sample wasn't provided, it would have been a full glass. He was not charged for the 7/8 full glass. It's a relatively small cost for great public relations. Being charged for a full pour when the keg kicks halfway through is quasi-criminal. It's like getting a beer with a 3" head on it.

Another 'unwritten rule' that seems to have gone the way of the 8-track is the buyback. I'm guessing it's the cost of the product and it's popularity but it's kinda disappointing when it's something you grew up on.

 

Funny that Vanilla Rye is the beer in question. A friend of mine and I went to a bar that was tapping multiple kegs at 1 pm on the weekend that daylight savings time was "springing ahead." Said friend forgot to set his alarm correctly and rather than showing up early we arrived to a long line. Many good beers available that day, but we both wanted Vanilla Rye. Fortunately many were ordering flights and when we got our (10 ounce pours) and sat down we immediately heard the bartender announce that the Vanilla Rye was kicked. We had our beers so all was good. That being said I would have paid full price if necessary that day for a half pour. Still think the right thing would be to either pay half price or have it on the house.

 

It really doesn't matter what kind of beer it is. If all they can muster from the keg is half a glass the price should be no more than half what a full glass would be. This is beer after all, not some life saving drug that you need to make it through the night. Lets put it another way, if you would pay full price for half a pour, I'd be giving you half pours all night.