Ever had a brewery right a wrong?

Only once . I contacted Slumbrew to let them know that a local store had out of date flag raiser sitting on the shelf and I had bought one without checking the date . With in 2 hours they got back to me with an apology and said they would take care of it. Few days later a fresh off the bottling line bottle showed up at my door along with a nice pint glass .

 

Similar thing happened to me with a microbrewery I wanted so badly to love is STL. I bought bombers of a IIPA I had on tap there and when I got home they were mislabeled and contained a brown ale that I did not enjoy. Next time I was in I brought the issue to the attention of the owner and he pretty much told me that I had no idea what im talking about..... nedless to say I refuse to purchase or drink their beer anymore.

 

I actually contacted Central Waters yesterday about the 356 batch of BBA Stout. It had some off sour flavor that tasted infected to me and I let them know. They replied within 30 minutes stating that some of the 356 batch developed off flavors and offered to reimburse me what I paid (even though I didn't ask).

 

The Bruery has issued refunds a couple times for beer that has gone bad. My trustee has even picked up my allocations and shipped them to me only to find out they gave me wrong vintages of the bottles I ordered. They even made good on that error. Recently there has been issues with taproom staff not appropriately filling growlers all the way full and they have been supposedly correcting that with staff training and issuing refunds.

Ive had brewers/owners read my reviews and offer to send replacement cans/bottles for the bad experiences ive encountered with their product.

Pipeworks gave out free glassware to those whom bought their first Berliner that ended up being terrible.

I had a bottle of baby tree from Pretty things explode in my cellar. I contacted then via email and they said they would issue me a refund...that never happened.

 

This past summer I bought an Orval Trappist that was aggressively carb'd...(it blew up upon opening). I tweeted about my sadness and was contacted right away with offer to replace or refund. They asked for purchase location, bottle date info, and asked about any off flavors. They continued to email me for weeks explaining that they tested from the batch and didn't find any issues, but suggested it was stored in the market incorrectly. They ultimately sent me a great orval glass that I now use for all of my tastings.
Great folks, and the distributor was fantastic as well - Merchant du Vin.

 

ON the other hand, I bought some Thomas' Creek somethingorother a while back that had gone bad. Contacted the brewery and they offered some swag, hat & etc. In my opinion, me wearing free advertising for them doesn't compensate for losing $10 on a six pack.

 

Just playing devils advocate but depending on what they offered you could have been looking at 20 or 30 dollars worth of gear.

 

hmm - i see a few names popping up here multiple times - its great that things can be sorted out but if they are too many of these instances maybe that's saying something about their operation?

 

I´ve bought two beers from a nano brewery in my state, both of them were contaminated. I opened the first one and was disappointed, but gave them a chance, then I opened the second one (from another batch) and It was awful. I contacted the brewery and they gave me excuse after excuse and even blame me, never acknowledging their mistakes, I´ll never buy their beer again.

 

Great Divide was awesome when I had 2 bottles of infected BA Yeti a few years ago. I contacted them via e-mail and got a response within a day offering to reimburse me for what I paid or they would send me a bottle of BA Old Ruffian for each bottle of BA Yeti that was infected. I picked the bottles and they made things right!

 

Victory - a six pack of Dreamweaver tasted pretty darned sour to us. Contacted them via e-mail and they had the sales rep collect up the product in the store and replace our sixer free of charge.

Jack's Abby - didn't do anything specific but handled the information professionally and correctly in my opinion through appropriate dialogue. Had a bottle with a serious gouge on the outside (noticed after opening). The response, I felt, was completely appropriate. From my end, it was more of a hey head's up you might have an issue with glass or equipment. From there end, sum it up as "holy crap...thanks".

I'm on the receiving end of consumer complaint investigations often enough - they are less than zero fun, and I'm sure some of you might be surprised about how many are outright hoaxes or scams and the levels to which things can escalate regardless of legitimacy. The hoops o' fire we have to jump through as a CPG company are extensive and expensive. So I treat any complaints I make professionally and courteously, provide the data I know they need to investigate as the supplier. There's a right way and wrong way on both ends, in my opinion/experience.

Not beer, but Cape Cod potato chips gave us like a six month supply of products and coupons when I reported a "foreign material" in a bag o' chips. Dannon, on the other hand, gave us a thank you note for complaining about the lids on some yogurt not being properly sealed my company makes a similar package and I know lid stock failure when I see it) and a 50 cent coupon...responses vary.

 

Yep, 21st Amendment Brewery. Noted a concern (via email) about the quality of one of their beers (just one can from a six pack - can't remember which brew). Contacted the next day. I now have a nice t-shirt.

Always impressed with a higher standard of customer service. Doesn't have to be free stuff, but a personal response, some acknowledgment and concern of the issue and an apology goes a very long way. Mistakes happen but taking the customer for granted will lead me to another supplier.

 

Must have been one hell of an issue for Victory to fix Troegs' beer.

 

Great stories here -- one thing that struck me -- this notion that a single or a few beers from a batch can "be bad" but the rest of the batch is fine doesn't sound plausible to me. My sense is that usual cause for this is age/shelf skunk (not really a bad batch) or some other drinker error (i.e. beer fine -- tastebuds/perception/expectation wrong/not met etc).

 

I opened a bottle of Port Brewing Barrel Aged Santa's Little Helper to find a glob of coagulated protein (looks like snot, is actually 100% harmless) and contacted them about it because at the time it put me off, I had a hunch it was benign but I wanted to hear them tell me so.

They were quick to respond with the expected explanation that it was a known issue and harmless, but that they wanted my address anyway. I received a really nice care package with some glassware and a couple shirts. Great customer service, cemented me as a customer of theirs.

 

Had a great experience with perennial. Had two bottles of infected fantastic voyage, emailed them and they responded quickly apologizing and then sent we two new beers and a bottle opener. Pretty amazing that they did this. Love their beers and their attitude.

 

Ordered some Cascade sours online and one of the bottles was incorrect. They promptly responded to my email, sent me the correct bottle and told me to keep the other one. Also threw in a t-shirt. It's too bad they suspended online orders.

 

Shit....too late to edit it now...

 

I traded a bottle of resolute and it blew up on the guy within about 5 hours of the trade. I felt really bad, but knew i did nothing wrong. he ended up contacting 3 brothers and they were happy to replace the bottle no questions asked. i picked it up at the brewery for him and included it in a different trade

 

Edited to correct a senior moment...Dreamweaver is, of course, a Troeg's beer....